Combat· World War II
Volupai-Talasea (Operation APPEASE)
After Cape Gloucester, the Japanese began pulling back east along New Britain's coast toward Rabaul.
To cut them off and push the advance forward, the Allies struck at the Talasea area on the Willaumez Peninsula, partway up the northern coast. A force built around the 5th Marines landed at Volupai, on the western side of the narrow peninsula, then drove across it toward Talasea and its small airfield. The Marines fought through plantation country and up a hill mass where the enemy held strong ground, supported by their own artillery and mortars. Amphibian tractors hauled supplies and carried out the wounded across terrain that defeated everything else. The Japanese fought just hard enough to cover their retreat, then slipped away south down the coast. The Marines secured Talasea and patrolled the peninsula to clear it.
Podcast episodes on World War II
Record no. 571