Qualla: Battle of Vella Lavella (land)

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Marine Corps, Public domain. Admiral William Halsey looked at his maps and decided not to fight. Kolombangara held 10,000 to 12,000 Japanese troops, well dug in under Major General Noboru Sasaki. An assault would have cost thousands of American lives. So Halsey did something his predecessors in the Solomons rarely had the latitude to do: he left the enemy alone. Instead, he aimed his landing force at a smaller island to the northwest, an island with better terrain for an airstrip and a Japanese garrison that could almost be counted on one hand. On the morning of 15 August 1943, about 4,600 US troops came ashore at Barakoma on the southeastern tip of Vella Lavella, and the New Georgia campaign began its final chapter.

Image: United States Marine Corps | Public domain

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): The Week the Scouts Roamed Free

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Before any troops landed, a handful of men walked the island for seven days. The reconnaissance party was an unlikely mix - American scouts, an Australian coastwatcher who had been quietly reporting Japanese movements, a New Zealand missionary who knew the coast, and local Solomo...

Image: Public domain

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): Landing Under a Sky Full of Zeros

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Marines Corps Archives, CC BY-SA 3.0. The main landing on 15 August looked like what the Pacific War had become by late 1943: a methodical, overwhelming force. Brigadier General Robert B. McClure commanded the assault troops, drawn from the 35th Regimental Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division under J. Lawton Col...

Image: US Marines Corps Archives | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): The New Zealanders Take Over

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In mid-September, the 3rd New Zealand Division relieved the Americans - about 3,700 men of the 14th Brigade under Brigadier Leslie Potter, from Major General Harold Barrowclough's command. Their task was to squeeze the remaining Japanese garrison, now concentrated along the north...

Image: Public domain

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): The Airfield That Changed the Pacific

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. What the campaign built was more important than what it captured. The Seabees worked while being bombed. The 58th Naval Construction Battalion landed on 15 August and started pushing roads inland before the ground had cooled. Nine miles of road in August alone. An underground rad...

Image: Public domain

Battle of Vella Lavella (land): What the Jungle Kept

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The U.S. Army, Public domain. The airstrip at Barakoma was abandoned on 15 June 1944, its job done. The last construction battalion sailed for Emirau Island on 12 July. The avgas tanks came down. The sawmills were dismantled. The hospital wards emptied. Today the island is jungle again, its volcanic cones sof...

Image: The U.S. Army | Public domain