Bougainville counterattack

The Bougainville counterattack, also known as the Second Battle of Torokina, was an unsuccessful Japanese offensive against the Allied base at Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island during the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Japanese attack began on 8 March 1944 after months of preparation and was repulsed by United States Army forces in fighting which lasted until 25 March. The attack was hampered by inaccurate intelligence and poor planning and was pushed back by the well-prepared Allied defenders, who greatly outnumbered the Japanese force. The Japanese suffered severe casualties, while Allied losses were light. The goal of the offensive was to destroy the Allied beachhead, which accommodated three strategically important airfields. The Japanese mistakenly believed that their forces were about as large as the units deployed to defend the Allied positions. The Allies detected Japanese preparations for the attack shortly after they began in early 1944 and strengthened the base's defenses. None of the three Japanese forces which conducted the attack was able to penetrate far into the Allied perimeter, although there was intense fighting for several positions. The Bougainville counterattack was the last major Japanese offensive in the Solomon Islands campaign. Following the engagement the Japanese force withdrew from the Empress Augusta Bay area, and only limited fighting took place until late 1944, when Australian troops took over from the Americans and began a series of advances across the island until the end of the war in August 1945. Bougainville campaign Bougainville Island lies at the northwestern end of the Solomon Islands archipelago. The island is long and wide at its broadest point. The island is roughly shaped like a fiddle. The interior of Bougainville is dominated by two ranges of mountains that are covered with montane rainforests. The coastal plains are swampy and largely covered with mangroves and lowland rainforests. Bougainville has a tropical climate with heavy rain being common at all times of the year, producing the Solomon Islands rain forests ecoregion.