AGS Publishes Terrain Handbook for Cape Gloucester (24 SEP 1943)

Photo By Erin Thompson | Front cover of Lt. Col. Earl E. Holmes' copy of "Terrain Handbook 7: Cape Gloucester."  

UNITED STATES

09.22.2023

Story by Erin Thompson 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian

24 SEPTEMBER 1943
On 24 September 1943, the Allied Geographical Section (AGS) published a terrain handbook for Cape Gloucester on the northwestern tip of the island of New Britain. Number 539 of this handbook was issued to Lt. Col. Earl E. Holmes, the transport quartermaster for the 1st Marine Division.

Formed in 1942, the AGS provided geographic information for commanders and their staffs in General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) [See" This Week in MI History" #159]. The section was an inter-service and inter-allied organization. Lt. Col. William V. Jardine-Blake, a 49-year-old Australian with experience in both the military and colonial administration, led the section. He had his analysts painstakingly combine and crosscheck all available information to produce reliable and accurate terrain intelligence in compact printed studies. The most numerous of these publications were the Terrain Handbooks. Bound in pocket-sized format, these handbooks were “intended to provide basic topographical information of military interest for the use of officers in forward areas.”

By mid-1943, the Allies under General MacArthur launched Operation CARTWHEEL to isolate the large Japanese garrison at Rabaul on the eastern tip of New Britain. To support CARTWHEEL, Colonel Jardine-Blake’s section produced a series of terrain products on the tropical island. "Terrain Handbook 7: Cape Gloucester" was one of four volumes covering New Britain. It was a compact, somewhat abbreviated version of an AGS terrain study published a month before.

The handbook covered the area of interest for the 1st Marine Division’s Operation BACKHANDER, which called for the seizure of Japanese airfields on Cape Gloucester. Measuring seven-and-a-half by five inches, the handbook had thirty-three pages with nine maps and twenty-six aerial photographs. The maps included two small-scale orientations of the geography and vegetation of the area. Most of the maps, however, depicted the coastal areas where the marines would land. Likewise, 70 percent of the aerial photographs gave oblique views of various beach landing areas.

Colonel Holmes was most interested in this coastal information. As the operation’s transport quartermaster, the 41-year-old Marine reservist was directed to “prepare all loads for execution, arrange for spotting of the same at the designated loading points and comply with loading instructions [and] effect loading of assigned vessels.” Operating from the PENUMBRA Advanced Base in Oro Bay, New Guinea, Holmes also had to be concerned with the division’s ability to unload, accumulate, and move the supplies he was pushing forward.

Although the handbook reported the only anchorages for large ships were roadsteads located off the major landing areas, it noted the construction of jetties seemed “feasible.” Just north of Silimati Point (Yellow Beaches for Operation BACKHANDER), Holmes read the beach was “about 1,000 yards of firm, black sand, 30-60 ft wide; backed by 3-4 ft bank,” while learning the shore north of Tauali (Green Beaches) was “black sand beach, 1,200 ft x 8-10 ft backed by 3 ft bank.” Between these firm beaches was a narrow coastal flat before rising at the foot of Mount Talawe. The Yellow Beach area was wider with a depth of up to a mile, providing potential locations for supply dumps. The marines could move their supplies forward along coastal tracks, which the handbook stated, “could, informants believed, be easily made to take jeeps.” It also made the useful observation that “It is advisable when laborers, carriers or food is required, to approach…these headmen and make request of them.” Finally, Holmes read “Crocodiles are bad” in the tidal creeks.

Although "Terrain Handbook 7: Cape Gloucester" might have been over-optimistic about the Americans' ability to use the coastal tracks to move supplies and the firmness of some of the terrain, it did provide an effective and useful way for Colonel Holmes and staff officers like him—190 miles from the front—to visualize the battlefield environment they were supporting.

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• Date Taken: 09.22.2023
• Date Posted: 09.22.2023 16:51
• Story ID: 454132
• Location: US