Qualla: Raid on Choiseul https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul 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/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Raid on Choiseul https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul Raid on Choiseul: Introduction https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. Major General Roy Geiger described it best after the fact: a series of short right jabs designed to throw the enemy off balance and conceal the real power of the left hook to his midriff at Empress Augusta Bay. The right jabs were the Treasury Islands landing and the Raid on Choiseul. The left hook was the 1 November 1943 landing of three Marine regiments at Cape Torokina on Bougainville - the move that would strangle Rabaul. But a jab only works if it looks like a real punch. To make Choiseul look real, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Krulak took 700 men of the 2nd Parachute Battalion onto a jungle island held by several thousand Japanese, and for seven days pretended to be an entire division.

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Raid on Choiseul: The Deception https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. By the autumn of 1943, the Allies had taken Guadalcanal and worked their way up the New Georgia chain. The next target was Bougainville - and the Japanese knew it. The question for the defenders was where the landings would fall. Southern Bougainville made more sense in every way...

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-the-deception.mp3 0:06 2 full Raid on Choiseul: Krulak Lands https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. On the night of 27 October 1943, 656 to 725 men of the 2nd Parachute Battalion boarded eight LCM landing craft at Vella Lavella and were transferred to four high-speed transports - McKean, Crosby, Kilty and Ward, converted four-stack destroyers from an earlier war. Escorted by th...

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-krulak-lands.mp3 0:06 3 full Raid on Choiseul: Sangigai https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. The local coastwatchers on Choiseul - Charles Waddell and Sub-Lieutenant Carden Seton, both operating with the support of the island's 5,000 Melanesian inhabitants - told Krulak that the nearest significant Japanese force, several hundred men, was at Sangigai to the south. Krulak...

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-sangigai.mp3 0:06 4 full Raid on Choiseul: Bigger's Patrol to Guppy Island https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. On 1 November - the same day the main Bougainville landing was going in at Cape Torokina - Krulak's executive officer Major Warner Bigger took eighty-seven men from Company G north toward Nukiki. The plan was to hit the Japanese concentration at Choiseul Bay with 60mm mortars. Bi...

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-biggers-patrol-to-guppy-island.mp3 0:06 5 full Raid on Choiseul: What the Raid Actually Did https://qualla.com/raid-on-choiseul/ Photo credit Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Public domain. On the morning of 4 November, three days after the main Bougainville landing, Krulak withdrew his battalion aboard three LCI landing craft. The whole operation had lasted seven days. Historians disagree about whether the deception worked. John Miller, the official U.S. Army histo...

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Image: Historical Branch, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/z/2/raid-on-choiseul-wp/rqz2-raid-on-choiseul-what-the-raid-actually-did.mp3 0:06 6 full