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gade rapidly captured labuan s airfield and town it encountered sustained resistance from the japanese garrison which was located in a well defended stronghold 50 after heavy casualties were sustained during the 2 28th battalion s initial attack against this position on 16 june it was decided to subject the area to a sustained bombardment 57 the battalion attacked again on 21 june with the support of tanks and rapidly defeated the japanese forces 58 the fighting on labuan cost the 24th brigade 34 killed and 93 wounded the australian soldiers counted 389 japanese dead and took 11 prisoners 59 a week after the initial landing on labuan the australians followed up with attacks on japanese positions around weston on the north eastern part of brunei bay 60 61 the australians then pushed inland along the single track railway that ran from weston towards the junction at beaufort 23 kilometres 14 mi north east of brunei bay 62 63 and then on to jesselton 64 the heaviest fighting of the operations on the mainland took place on 27 28 june during the battle of beaufort during which more than 100 japanese defenders were killed 62 after this engagement the 24th brigade undertook limited further advances in order to push the japanese forces into the hills 65 the brigade s limit of exploitation was the beaufort tenom railway and during this period the australian commanders adopted a cautious approach to limit casualties nevertheless clashes continued into august on 3 august the japanese attempted to counterattack a position held by the 2 28th battalion at least 11 japanese were killed in the fighting for the loss of one australian 66 the operations in north borneo also involved a substantial civil affairs effort to assist the liberated civilian population this was the largest such task undertaken by australian forces during world war ii the 9th division was heavily involved in providing aid to civilians and rebuilding houses and infrastructure which had been destroyed by the pre invasion bombardments and subsequent fighting 67 guerrilla warfare edit dayak men armed with japanese rifles in brunei during june 1945 before returning to their villages in the interior the conventional operations on british north borneo were accompanied by a guerrilla warfare campaign organised by special operations australia soa this involved two operations operation agas in british north borneo and operation semut in sarawak 68 these operations succeeded the unsuccessful operation python which had been undertaken between october 1943 and january 1944 25 five soa parties were inserted in north borneo between march and july 1945 the agas 1 and 2 parties established networks of agents and guerrillas in north western borneo the agas 4 and 5 parties were landed on the east coast of borneo and achieved little the agas 3 party investigated the ranau area on the request of i corps the results of operation agas were mixed its parties established control over their areas of operation provided intelligence of variable quality and killed less than 100 japanese 69 as part of operation semut over 100 allied personnel organised into four parties were inserted by air into sarawak from march 1945 most of these personnel were australian the semut parties were tasked with collecting intelligence and establishing guerrilla forces the inhabitants of sarawak s interior who were known as dayaks enthusiastically joined the guerrilla groups and soa personnel led small private armies 70 no 200 flight raaf and the royal australian navy s snake class junks played important roles in this campaign by inserting soa personnel and supplies 71 the guerilla forces launched attacks to gain control of the interior of sarawak while the 9th division focused on the coastal area the oilfields plantations and the ports in north borneo 72 the guerillas operated from patrol bases around balai ridan and marudi as well as in the mountains along several key waterways including the pandaruan and limbang rivers and along the railway that ran between beaufort and tenom they sought to disrupt the japanese troops freedom of movement and interdicted forces as they withdrew from the main combat zone 73 the raaf flew air strikes to support the lightly armed guerillas who at times had to evade better armed japanese units 72 the campaign was highly successful and it is estimated that over 1 800 japanese were killed in north borneo through guerilla actions 73 74 balikpapan edit main article battle of balikpapan 1945 the attention of the allies then switched back to the central east coast with oboe 2 the last major amphibious assault of world war ii was at balikpapan on 1 july 1945 75 the landing was preceded by a heavy aerial bombardment over the course of 20 days while minesweepers worked to clear the area for 15 days 76 establishing safe lanes for the invasion fleet to pass and clearing proposed anchorages these operations were undertaken inside the range of japanese coastal guns to protect the minesweepers naval gunfire and aerial bombardment was used to suppress and neutralise the japanese guns due to the unavailability of the tarakan airfield air support for the operation was provided by raaf and us units based in the southern philippines 77 three minesweepers were lost during the clearance operations 78 members of the 7th division at balikpapan the invasion fleet sailed from morotai island on 26 june arriving off balikpapan on 29 june the landing area was then subjected to over 45 000 rounds of preparatory fire from the australian us and dutch warships supporting the landing 76 a deception plan was enacted to draw japanese attention towards manggar with the australians undertaking pre landing operations and spreading disinformation 79 us underwater demolition teams cleared obstacles along the landing beach as well as off manggar as part of the deception plan 78 for the landing operation a total of 33 000 personnel were assigned 21 000 of which were from the australian 7th division under the command of major general edward milford 80 this formation consisted of three brigades the 18th 21st and 25th fighting together as a formation for the first time during the war three beaches were chosen for the landing on the southern coast between klandasan in the east and stalkoedo in the west 81 the initial assault was undertaken by three infantry battalions the 2 10th on the extreme left the 2 12th in the centre and the 2 27th battalion on the right 82 the troops were landed at the wrong location as smoke from the pre landing bombardment made navigation difficult 83 78 but the landing was unopposed and a beachhead was quickly established as follow on forces arrived 82 operating on the left the 18th brigade fought to capture several high features around klandasan and to gain control of the town and secure the harbour and port facilities in balikpapan north west of the landing beaches while the 21st brigade landed on the right tasked with advancing east towards several japanese airfields at sepinggang and manggar along the main coastal road the 25th brigade was held in reserve but after landing on 2 july pushed inland towards batuchampar 10 miles 16 km from the initial landing site 80 balikpapan town and the port were captured on 3 july but mopping up continued into 4 july 82 along the coast the 21st brigade crossed the batakan ketjil river where it was held up on 3 july by strong japanese resistance which was overcome with naval gunfire support the following day after crossing the manggar besar the brigade came up against even stronger japanese opposition supported by coastal artillery and mortars defending the airfield despite landing tanks around the river the australians were held up for several more days until some of the guns were captured and heavy air strikes overwhelmed the defenders 80 84 on 5 july one of the 18th brigade s infantry battalions the 2 9th along with the 2 1st pioneer battalion 85 was landed at panadjam to clear the western shore of japanese artillery prior to the allies opening the port against only limited opposition the area around panadjam was cleared within two days meanwhile the airfields were secured by 9 july but japanese resistance was strong utilising delaying tactics including booby traps mines sniping and small scale raids strong resistance was met around batuchampar where a japanese battalion had established a stronghold while others fought resolutely in tunnels around mangar 86 87 australian engineers were heavily tasked working to clear over 8 000 mines and booby traps as well as destroying over 100 tunnels 78 once mangar airfield was secured the 21st brigade continued their advance towards sambodja 85 moving inland along a north east road dubbed the milford highway by the australians the 25th brigade advanced to contact with the japanese rearguard which was reduced with artillery support and then outflanked triggering a withdrawal to a secondary position 3 miles 4 8 km back on 9 july air strikes and artillery helped reduce this position while infantry worked to surround the position this was not fully achieved and by the evening of 21 22 july the remaining defenders withdrew further inland 84 opposition in these areas was largely overcome by the end of july but mopping up operations around balikpapan continued until the end of the war in august as japanese troops withdrew to the rough high ground further inland 86 87 operations to secure balikpapan cost the australians 229 killed and 634 wounded while japanese losses were placed at 2 032 killed a further 63 were captured 88 aftermath edit part of the labuan war cemetery in 2011 in the aftermath of the campaign australian personnel remained in borneo until late 1945 to restore civilian administration oversee reconstruction efforts supervising the surrender of japanese troops and liberating former allied prisoners of war held in camps around borneo 89 it has been claimed that australian forces near beaufort encouraged local fighters to massacre surrendered japanese troops after the war in revenge for the sandakan death marches with almost 6 000 japanese being killed the historian ooi keat gin states though that no documentary evidence supports these claims 90 the amphibious operations undertaken by australian forces throughout the borneo campaign were according to the historian eustace keogh the outstanding feature of the campaign and represented the largest such operations that the australians undertook during the war they required vast amounts of naval and air support as well as complex planning and co operation between air land and naval forces from several nations a significant amount of time and resources were invested prior to the operation to train the forces assigned 91 the historian peter dennis assesses that the operations were of doubtful value strategically but they were skillfully conducted 16 casualties during the campaign on the allied side amounted to about 2 100 3 while the japanese suffered about 4 700 casualties 4 a considerable number of civilians were killed or wounded for instance the pre invasion bombardment of tarakan resulted in least 100 civilian casualties 92 despite the success of the allied landings because of the strategic situation the borneo campaign was criticised in australia at the time and in subsequent years as pointless or a waste of the lives of soldiers 93 especially following the first operation in tarakan 94 in assessing the necessity of the campaign historians such as max hastings have said that attacking these forces already cut off from japan was a waste of resources according to hastings any rational strategic judgment would have left them to their own devices screened by token allied forces until their nation s defeat enforced their surrender 95 it has been argued that the campaign did however achieve a number of objectives such as increasing the isolation of significant japanese forces occupying the main part of the nei capturing major oil supplies and freeing allied prisoners of war who were being held in increasingly worse conditions in the sandakan camp and batu lintang camp 96 97 notes edit a japanese army of world war ii was equivalent to an allied corps and usually commanded between two and four divisions 36 footnotes edit 1 2 ooi 2010 p 204 dean 2018 1 2 australian war memorial london 1 2 bōei kenshūjo 1966 1 2 3 kirby 2004 p 221 shindo 2016 p 67 costello 2009 pp 166 189 costello 2009 p 216 advocate 7 december 1946 p 1 shindo 2016 pp 67 68 long 1963 p 454 ooi 2011 p 86 hastings stanley 2016 pp 218 279 hastings stanley 2016 p 279 sandler 2001 p 180 1 2 3 dennis 1995 p 111 keogh 1965 p 444 keogh 1965 pp 429 430 dennis 1995 pp 109 111 horner 2016 pp 16 18 21 keogh 1965 pp 432 433 1 2 converse 2011 p 17 long 1963 p 49 horner 2016 pp 21 23 1 2 ooi 2002 shindo 2016 pp 68 70 1 2 shindo 2016 p 71 1 2 shindo 2016 p 72 keogh 1965 p 433 hoyt 1989 pp 191 198 dennis 1995 p 113 1 2 keogh 1965 p 438 costello 2009 p 573 coulthard clark 1998 pp 251 254 crawley 2014 p 33 rottman 2005 p 23 bullard 2016 p 43 1 2 3 keogh 1965 p 434 shindo 2016 p 70 ness 2014 pp 187 190 209 shindo 2016 pp 71 73 coulthard clark 2001 p 251 1 2 hoehn 2011 p 71 long 1973 pp 447 448 stanley 1997 p 42 keogh 1965 pp 438 439 macarthur 1994 pp 373 374 coulthard clark 1998 pp 251 252 dennis 1995 pp 111 112 1 2 3 4 coulthard clark 2001 p 252 long 1973 p 453 long 1963 p 458 long 1973 p 454 coulthard clark 1998 p 252 coulthard clark 2001 p 253 long 1973 pp 459 461 long 1963 p 473 long 1973 pp 458 459 long 1963 p 475 coulthard clark 1998 pp 252 253 ministry of defence 1995 p 175 1 2 coulthard clark 1998 p 253 macarthur 1994 p 379 macarthur 1994 pp 378 379 long 1973 p 459 long 1963 p 483 long 1973 p 461 pratten 2016a pp 307 308 pratten 2016a p 307 pratten 2016a p 308 truscott 2000 p 20 1 2 pratten 2016a p 309 1 2 dennis 1995 p 114 pratten 2016a p 310 pfennigwerth 2009 p 166 1 2 macarthur 1994 pp 379 380 keogh 1965 pp 458 459 1 2 3 4 dennis 1995 p 115 keogh 1965 p 459 1 2 3 coulthard clark 1998 p 254 keogh 1965 pp 456 457 1 2 3 keogh 1965 p 462 pratten 2016b p 328 1 2 keogh 1965 p 463 1 2 mckenzie smith 2018 p 2089 1 2 dennis 1995 pp 114 116 1 2 coulthard clark 1998 pp 254 255 long 1963 p 545 long 1963 pp 496 561 563 ooi 2011 pp 137 138 keogh 1965 pp 463 464 hastings stanley 2016 p 281 grey 2008 p 190 hastings hastings 2007 p 368 tanaka 2017 p 27 mikaberidze 2018 p 27 references edit australian war memorial london borneo the end in the pacific 1945 the battle in brief australian war memorial london retrieved 4 october 2019 bōei kenshūjo 1966 戦史叢書 senshi sōsho war history series in japanese vol 60 asagumo shimbunsha oclc 297764445 bullard steven 2016 chapter 2 the emperor s army military operations and ideology in the war against australia in fitzpatrick georgina mccormack timothy l h morris narrelle eds australia s war crimes trials 1945 51 leiden the netherlands brill nijhoff pp 27 60 isbn 978 90 04 29205 5 costello john 2...