Invasion Beach "Green Beach"

The First Marine Division (reinforced) landed at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, on December 26, 1943, and the campaign to seize the airfield there lasted until April 1944, although most of the heavy fighting on the western side of the long island was over in January.

Colonel William A. Whaling's Combat Team B (1st Marine Division) landed here on 26 December 1943 as part of Operation Dexterity.

The 1st battalion, First Marine Regiment, took the airfield just after D-Day. Several intact airplanes were captured as well. The assault was led by C Company, 1st battalion, commanded by Capt. Nikolai Stevenson, who later said: "We spent the first night on the island standing in a swamp just inland from the landing beaches. The maps had indicated a 'damp flat'. And then we formed up and swept out of jungle, taking the airfield from the Japanese. We thought that might be all for us on New Britain, but we ended up staying there another four months, endlessly patrolling the fetid jungle, fighting sporadic engagements in the horrible weather."

New Britain Campaign
On New Britain, the Marines had to contend with relentless rain and jungle conditions, as they pushed the Japanese back toward Rabaul, on the eastern extreme of New Britain.

Military historians have long believed that the campaign on New Britain was one of the most efficient in the Pacific War, in that the Marines achieved all their objectives and suffered relatively few casualties in their operations.

For background reading on the campaign, here is an extract from Lt. Colonel Frank Hough’s USMC monograph on the battle. Richard Wheeler’s A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War has an excellent chapter on Cape Gloucester and the campaign on New Britain.

Practical information to reach Cape Gloucester can be found here