Operations Reckless and Persecution

22 April 1944. LVTs (Landing Vehicles Tracked) in the foreground head for the invasion beaches at Humboldt Bay, Netherlands New Guinea, as the light cruisers USS Boise (firing tracer shells, right center) and USS Phoenix bombard the shore. (Photographer: Tech 4 Henry C. Manger.)

Operation Reckless, known as the Landing at Hollandia and Operation Persecution known as the Aitape landing, were Allied amphibious landings which commenced the Western New Guinea campaign. Both operations commenced on 22 April 1944.

In Operation Reckless the U.S. 24th and the 41st Infantry Divisions—under Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger—landed at Tanahmerah and Humboldt bays near Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea (later known as Jayapura, Indonesia).

In Operation Persecution, the 163rd Regimental Combat Team—detached from the U.S. 41st Infantry Division—and the No. 62 Works Wing of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) simultaneously landed at Aitape, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea (later Papua New Guinea) about 140 mi (230 km) east of Hollandia.

References

• Smith, Robert Ross (1953). "The Approach to the Philippines". United States Army in World War II. United States Army Center of Military History. http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Approach/index.html. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 
• Lt. Gen. Kane Yoshihara, IJA (translation by Doris Heath). "The defence of Hollandia and the withdrawal from Hollandia". Southern Cross. Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 2007-08-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20070831093744/http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/ajrp2.nsf/pages/NT00003032?openDocument. Retrieved 2008-02-17.