Qualla: Operation Chronicle https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Operation Chronicle https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle Operation Chronicle: Introduction https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit SpoolWhippets, CC0. The first big amphibious landing the Allies undertook in the Southwest Pacific was, by design, uncontested. When 16,800 American and Australian personnel put ashore on Woodlark and Kiriwina on June 30, 1943, they found no Japanese waiting for them. There was no beach under fire, no firefight in the palm groves, no casualty count to radio back to headquarters. What there was - and this was the point - was a rehearsal. Generals Walter Krueger and Daniel Barbey wanted to test their tactics, their communications, their loading procedures, and their coordination of air, sea, and ground forces before the shooting war of Operation Cartwheel opened in earnest. Two small Papua New Guinean islands would serve as the chalkboard. The lessons learned on those beaches would shape every invasion that followed.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Operation Chronicle: Two Islands in the Solomon Sea https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Kiriwina is the main island of the Trobriand group, a flat coral atoll about 125 miles from Rabaul. Woodlark lies 200 miles from Bougainville, a larger island with some elevation and a natural harbor at Guasopa Bay. Neither held Japanese troops in the summer of 1943. Both held ai...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-two-islands-in-the-solomon-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Operation Chronicle: The Advance Party at Midnight https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. At sixteen hundred hours on June 22, 1943, an advance party of the 112th Cavalry Regiment left Milne Bay aboard the destroyer transports Brooks and Humphreys under Major D. M. McMains. They reached Guasopa on Woodlark at thirty-two minutes past midnight on June 23. Six landing cr...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-the-advance-party-at-midnight.mp3 0:06 3 full Operation Chronicle: The Main Landings https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Two thousand six hundred troops of Woodlark Force sailed from Townsville, Australia, on June 25 under Colonel Julian Cunningham - units of the 112th Cavalry Regiment, the 134th Field Artillery Battalion, the Marine 12th Defense Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel William H. Harris...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-the-main-landings.mp3 0:06 4 full Operation Chronicle: Building Runways From Scratch https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The real work began the day after the landings. On Woodlark, the 20th and 60th Naval Construction Battalions began clearing jungle on July 2. By July 14 they had laid a single 3,000-foot runway fit for C-47 Skytrains. A week later it was 5,200 feet with a coral surface, and the 6...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-building-runways-from-scratch.mp3 0:06 5 full Operation Chronicle: What Chronicle Taught https://qualla.com/operation-chronicle/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The strategic significance of Woodlark and Kiriwina turned out to be modest. The Allied advance moved rapidly westward, leaving these airstrips as rear-area facilities rather than the frontline bases planners had envisioned. The 112th Cavalry spent five months on Woodlark - durin...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/7/q/operation-chronicle-wp/rq7q-operation-chronicle-what-chronicle-taught.mp3 0:06 6 full