The Battle of Slater's Knoll (28 March – 6 April 1945) was a battle during the Second World War fought between Australian and Japanese forces on Bougainville Island. Part of the Bougainville campaign, the battle occurred as a force of about 3,300 Japanese from the Japanese 6th Division supported by a sizeable concentration of artillery launched a counterattack against the main Australian offensive, concentrating their attacks on Slater's Knoll near the Puriata River. The Australian troops belonged to the 7th Brigade, with the 25th Battalion being the most heavily engaged, although the 9th Battalion and the 61st Battalion also took part in the fighting.
Against Japanese tactics that included massed attacks, the Australians utilised armour and artillery, and in the end these proved telling. The final attack on the knoll came on the night of 4/5 April when 129 men from 'B' Company, 25th Battalion beat off an attack by a force of about 1,100 Japanese, killing 292. This proved to be the 7th Brigade's final involvement in the campaign as they were relieved by 15th Brigade shortly afterwards.
Overall, 620 Japanese were killed in the battle with another 1,000 estimated to have been wounded, while the Australians suffered 189 casualties.
Read more about Battle Of Slater's Knoll: Background, Prelude, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words battle and/or knoll:
“I have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatiegued [sic] horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietem that fatigue anything?”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“... a family I know ... bought an acre in the country on which to build a house. For many years, while they lacked the money to build, they visited the site regularly and picnicked on a knoll, the site’s most attractive feature. They liked so much to visualize themselves as always there, that when they finally built they put the house on the knoll. But then the knoll was gone. Somehow they had not realized they would destroy it and lose it by supplanting it with themselves.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)