Securing Lone Tree Hill gave Allied forces control of Maffin Bay, enabling it to serve as a staging base for six subsequent Pacific campaigns.
Key Facts
- Battle duration
- 17 May – 2 September 1944
- Hill height
- 175 feet (53 m)
- Japanese dead
- More than 1,000
- U.S. battle casualties
- ~700 battle, ~500 non-battle
- Remaining Japanese troops
- ~2,000 by 1 September 1944
- Subsequent operations staged from Maffin Bay
- 6 (Biak, Noemfoor, Sansapor, Leyte, Luzon)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the Allied capture of Hollandia in April 1944, Japanese forces of the 223rd and 224th Infantry Regiments, under Lieutenant General Hachiro Tagami, concentrated at Lone Tree Hill overlooking Maffin Bay. Occupying fortified cave positions, they blocked the advance of the U.S. 158th Regimental Combat Team toward Sarmi, while a Japanese flanking force threatened American units from the rear.
From 17 May to 2 September 1944, U.S. forces—initially the 158th RCT, then relieved by the 6th Infantry Division on 14 June—conducted sustained assaults on Lone Tree Hill, a coral ridge rising 175 feet above the coastal plain west of Maffin Bay. After ten days of intense fighting following the relief, American troops seized the hill, dislodging Japanese defenders from deeply prepared cave fortifications.
The battle cost Japan over 1,000 dead and left roughly 2,000 troops in the area no longer capable of threatening Allied operations. With Lone Tree Hill secured, Maffin Bay was transformed into a major Allied staging base that directly supported six subsequent operations in the Western New Guinea and Philippines campaigns, including the landings at Leyte and Luzon.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Walter Krueger.
Side B
1 belligerent
Hachiro Tagami.