(Photo: USMC 63280. Colourised by Paul Reynolds. Historic Military Photo Colourisations)
Official caption: BOUGAINVILLE OPERATION, November 1943. Cpl William Coffron, USMC, fires at a sniper on Puruata Island, during landing operations in Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, November 1943. He was covering Marine gun positions firing from Puruata on Torokina Island nearby.
It should be noted that Marines only recently switched from Springfield 1903s augmented by Johnson M1942 rifles and Reising SMGs to the M1 shown above at the time of the operation.
In honor of the battle which took place 73 years ago this month, SECNAV has come through with a decent ship name.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced 9 November that the name of the next America-class amphibious assault ship will be USS Bougainville (LHA 8).
The naming ceremony took place at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last week.
LHA-8 will be the second ship to be named after Bougainville, an island in the northern Solomons, which was the location of a World War II campaign in 1943-1944 during which allies secured a strategic airfield from Japan. Success at Bougainville isolated all Japanese forces left in the Solomons.
The first Bougainville was an escort carrier that was launched in 1944, a year after the Bougainville campaign began. She was decommissioned for the first time in 1946. She was then brought back into service for five years before earning two battle stars for its service in World War II and being struck from the naval register in 1960.
