Landing at Aitape

Landing at Aitape
Part of the New Guinea Campaign
Troops unloading supplies at Aitape
Date 22 April – 4 May 1944 Location Aitape and Tadji Airstrips, Territory of New Guinea Result American victory
Belligerents
United States  Australia (naval)	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Douglas MacArthur Robert L. Eichelberger Walter Krueger Jens A. Doe	Hatazō Adachi Shigeru Katagiri
Units involved
41st Infantry Division 163rd Infantry Regiment 32d Infantry Division 127th Infantry Regiment	18th Army 20th Division
Strength
22,500	1,000
Casualties and losses
19 killed 40 wounded	525 killed 25 captured

The Landing at Aitape (code-named Operation Persecution) was a battle of the Western New Guinea campaign of World War II. American and Allied forces undertook an amphibious landing on 22 April 1944 at Aitape on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The amphibious landing was undertaken simultaneously with the landings at Humboldt and Tanahmerah Bays to secure Hollandia to isolate the Japanese 18th Army at Wewak. Operations in the area to consolidate the landing continued until 4 May, although US and Japanese forces fought further actions in western New Guinea following a Japanese counter-offensive that lasted until early August 1944. Aitape was subsequently developed into an Allied base of operations and was used by Australian forces throughout late 1944 and into 1945 during the Aitape–Wewak campaign.