Editing Arnold Potts (section)

===Bougainville Campaign===
{{Main|Bougainville Campaign}}
[[File:Location of Bougainville redrawn.jpg|220px|thumb|right|Bougainville's location relative to New Guinea]]
[[File:Bougainville campaign 1945.jpg|220px|thumb|right|Some key locations in the campaign.]]

Finally II Corps was transferred to the [[Solomon Islands campaign|Solomon Islands]]. The 23rd Brigade set up HQ in the Green Islands, north of Bougainville on 27 September 1944.<ref name=Long93>Long (1963), p. 93</ref>

====Green Islands====
The battalions were spread out guarding airfields and naval installations on various neighbouring islands. Potts agitated for a more focused and aggressive role. He was aware that among his troops were men who had volunteered for overseas service four years previously.<ref name=Long93/> He also feared that a passive garrison role in the tropics would sap the fitness and discipline he had painstakingly instilled.<ref name=Edgar264>Edgar (1999), p. 264</ref> Potts did his homework, and proposed to Savige a four-point plan of action for the Brigade:
* General reconnaissance against nearby enemy territory, followed by attacks to root out enemy remnants:
* on [[Choiseul Island|Choiseul]] (believed to harbour 300 Japanese)
* at the northern end of Bougainville (1,300)
* and on [[Buka Island]] (1,000)<ref name=Long93/>

Savige rejected the plans. His justification in the official war history provides a fair and reasonable portrait of Potts, as seen from above in the chain of command: "Potts was a very gallant man and looked for fights, but looking without planning the ways and means to land and support troops on hostile shores was another thing. Further, Potts always found it difficult to envisage or accommodate himself to the overall plan of his commander ... Potts was a character apart from the rest. His personal courage was unsurpassed and his genial nature drew one to him. However, his zeal to be on patrol or with the leading section denied him control of operations which led him to countenance fear of some disaster overtaking his troops".<ref name=Edgar265>Edgar (1999), p. 265</ref>

Savige eventually realised the northern islands were so quiet, that the 23rd would be better deployed at [[Torokina]] in central Bougainville. This required MacArthur's approval, which took three months. The brigade passed the time enjoying the facilities that the American garrison troops had left behind, when they were transferred to more glamorous work re-conquering the [[Philippines]]. Potts went home on leave to [[Western Australia]] for nearly two months, rejoining the brigade at the end of January 1945. Shortly after he received a curt signal from II Corps HQ, asking why he had not nominated anyone for medals recently.<ref name=Edgar266>Edgar (1999), p. 266</ref>

====Central Bougainville====
On 10 April Savige gave Potts control of the central Bougainville sector. He immediately sent out patrols to sniff out Japanese. This put him at odds with Major [[George Winning]], a former commando who had surveyed the whole island when Australian troops first arrived. Winning called Bougainville "a self-supporting POW camp". "To fight a war here and provoke hostilities will be nothing more than sinful destruction and wastage of bloody fine men who deserve to be laid off and sent home to their people".<ref name=Charlton33>Charlton (1983), p. 33</ref> In Potts' view, taking a brigade trained to the peak of fitness and primed to attack and then giving them a garrison job, was actually more hazardous than sending them into battle. He had already lost one battalion commander in Bougainville, not in combat but in a plane crash while on a reconnaissance flight.<ref name=Edgar264/>

Potts established that there was a force of 40–50 enemy in the Berry's Hill area, and had reason to believe they were being reinforced. With artillery support and air support from the [[Royal New Zealand Air Force]], the Australians killed and captured a number of the Japanese and pushed their front line forward. Soon resistance stiffened, and it was clear that the hill was held by a significant force. As II Corps had introduced a "no casualties" policy, the Australians withdrew, with one slightly wounded.<ref name=Long202>Long (1963), p. 202</ref> Patrolling and harassing without any serious engagements continued until June, when 23rd Brigade was sent north.

====Northern Bougainville====
Potts' new assignment was to contain Japanese troops in the narrow [[Bonis Peninsula]] and push them north towards the Buka Passage at the end. There was now believed to be 1,200 Japanese on the peninsula and 1,400 on Buka Island across the passage.<ref name=Edgar267>Edgar (1999), p. 267</ref> By 28 June Potts had his 27th and 8th Battalions positioned at the base of the peninsula, on the east and west sides respectively. The Australian lines of communication were quite stretched, and the Japanese infiltrated constantly. In July an Australian wood-chopping party was attacked and two field ambulance men were killed. The next day a jeep was wrecked by a mine. 8th Battalion lost Captain Ogden to another mine and Lieutenant Webb, killed while leading an ambush patrol.<ref name=Edgar268>Edgar (1999), p. 268</ref>

Following the failure of the landing at [[Battle of Porton Plantation|Porton Plantation]] the planned Australian advance into the Bonis Peninsula was called off. II Corps' focus now moved to the south, leaving Potts and 23rd Brigade to perform a holding role along the [[Battle of Ratsua|Ratsua front.]]<ref name=Long234>Long (1963), p. 234</ref> While carrying this out, with Savige forbidding any forward motion, the brigade lost 7 killed and 17 wounded in patrols and ambushes, three killed and two wounded by friendly mortar fire, 12 wounded by their own booby traps and five in other accidents.<ref name=Edgar273>Edgar (1999), p. 273</ref> During this phase Private [[Frank John Partridge|Frank Partridge]] won his [[Victoria Cross]] for clearing a number of enemy bunkers despite being seriously wounded.

The Japanese were running low on ammunition and food. They rarely fired unless they had a good target.<ref name=Edgar269>Edgar (1999), p. 269</ref> Potts recorded in his report that enemy morale was good, however "Food captured in the field kitchens consisted mainly of bamboo shoots, roots and vegetable matter generally. Evidence of cannibalism occurred on two occasions, flesh being cut from the calf and thigh of dead Japanese".<ref name=Edgar269/> As Bougainville was now a very low priority theatre, the Australians also suffered from supply problems. Inadequate shipping, artillery, ammunition and medical supplies hampered Potts' efforts. The 27 Battalion diary recorded on 1 July; "We've been promised tanks but they have yet to be sighted ... the water situation is also difficult. The L of C [line of command] ... is over 3000 yards long, 2500 yards of which cannot be covered, and consequently enables the Jap to ambush it just when he likes".<ref name=Edgar271>Edgar (1999), p. 271</ref> However at least they were neither starving nor abandoned totally by their hierarchy, like the Japanese.

Despite these difficulties, Potts continued to conjure up attacking schemes. On 10 July he badgered Savige about an offensive in the Porton area of the Bonis Peninsula.<ref name=Edgar272>Edgar (1999), p. 272</ref> Savige rejected this as completely contrary to their standing orders, and concluded from questioning him that Potts had actually not read them. In his opinion;
"I think this is sufficient to understand Potts and the spirit within his Brigade. Had he lived to fight at Waterloo in a square, when the sole requirement was dogged bravery, he would have been a most successful commander. In modern warfare he was a lone wolf whose chief interest was to lead a patrol or wander along a track in his jeep or on foot." He linked this tendency to the Kokoda campaign. "Potts feels he must redeem his name after the events of the Kokoda Trail..."<ref name=Edgar272/> For his part, Potts had had enough of the static yet vulnerable role on the Ratsua front, and asked Savige to withdraw his brigade to a smaller front around [[Buoi]].<ref name=Edgar273/> Following this a number of small scale actions continued along the front until offensive action was discontinued on 11 August, after the [[atomic bomb]]s were dropped on Japan on 6 August and 9 August.<ref name=Long237>Long (1963), p. 237</ref>

====End game in Bougainville====
[[Emperor Hirohito]] formally announced the end of hostilities in [[Tokyo]] on 15 August, but his loyal troops in the Solomons did not hear the news for some time. II Corps HQ at Torokina advised Australian commanders that it may take 8 days for the information to reach Japanese troops in Bougainville. Potts flew to Torokina for a briefing on the surrender. He was dismayed to realise that front-line troops would play no part in the surrender—"a poor reward to the troops for months of fighting".<ref name=Edgar274>Edgar (1999), p. 274</ref> The Japanese commander, General [[Masatane Kanda]], was kept waiting by his superiors in [[Rabaul]] for permission to surrender. Finally on 7 September, he and Vice-Admiral [[Tomoshige Samejima]] arrived at Torokina and formally surrendered to Savige.

Potts returned to 23rd Brigade at [[Soraken]], where he learned he would be taking charge of all of Bougainville and neighbouring islands. Now it truly was a prisoner of war camp as suggested by Major Winning. There were 18,000 Japanese in the [[Fauro Island]] area, and camps at Torokina eventually held 8,000. Massive quantities of Japanese arms and ammunition were destroyed or dumped in the sea.<ref name=Edgar277>Edgar (1999), p. 277</ref> Lieutenant Colonel [[Charles Court]], on Savige's staff, arranged a parade of senior Japanese officers for Potts. He warned them, "This is one man on our side we haven't been able to convince the war is over". Potts, in full regalia, inspected the seventeen generals and fifteen admirals, all standing rigidly at attention despite tattered uniforms. Court had told him that the Japanese would be expecting fireworks. But at the end of his inspection, having returned to the front and faced his defeated enemy, Potts exclaimed "Good show!" and went along the line shaking hands. Later he said "Many dreadful things had been done during the course of the war – by both sides. There should not be recriminations after the event. Once it was over it was over".<ref name=Edgar278>Edgar (1999), p. 278</ref>

Potts handed over command of the 23rd Brigade to Brigadier Noel Simpson on 4 December 1945. His farewell order to troops said; "The standard of efficiency as a Brigade and the fighting spirit of the troops will remain always as a vivid memory". The next day he flew home to Australia.<ref name=Edgar279/> For his service on Bougainville Potts was Mentioned in Despatches twice.<ref name=Edgar279/>