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Kolombangara (sometimes spelled ''Kulambangara'') is an island in the
New Georgia Islands The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province of Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands are New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kol ...
group of the nation state of Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The name is from a local language, a rough translation of its meaning is "Water Lord" with approximately 80 rivers and streams running down its flanks.


Geography

Almost perfectly round in shape and about across, the island is a
stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and pe ...
that reaches an altitude of at Mount Veve. The island forms part of the southern boundary of the
New Georgia Sound New Georgia Sound is the sound in the New Georgia Islands region that runs approximately southeast–northwest through the middle of the Solomon Islands archipelago in the Southern Pacific Ocean and Melanesia.Vella Gulf Vella Gulf is a waterway in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies between the islands of Vella Lavella to the northwest, Kolombangara to the southeast, and Ghizo to the south. It connects New Georgia Sound ("The Slot") to the n ...
separates it from
Vella Lavella Vella Lavella is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies to the west of New Georgia, but is considered one of the New Georgia Group. To its west are the Treasury Islands. Environment The island of Vella Lavella is l ...
and Gizo, while to the southeast
New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the 200th-largest island in the world. Geography New Georgia island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most o ...
lies across the
Kula Gulf Kula Gulf is a waterway in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies between the islands of Kolombangara to the west, Arundel Island (Kohinggo) to the southwest, and New Georgia to the south and east. To the north, it opens into New G ...
. West-southwest of Kolombangara is Ghizo Island, upon which the Western provincial capital Gizo is located. The island is heavily forested, with few inhabitants. There are two notable settlements, Ringgi and Mongga, the former being the larger. The most significant industry on the island is logging, principally based at Poitete.


Environment

Two sites associated with the island have been identified by
BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) because they support populations of threatened or restricted range bird species. The Kolombangara Upland Forest IBA comprises 30,963 ha of forested land covering the central caldera and the high ridges of Mounts Veve and Rano, with four corridors down through lowland forest to the coast. The birds include yellow-legged pigeons,
crested cuckoo-dove The crested cuckoo-dove (''Reinwardtoena crassirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the Solomon Islands archipelago. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or t ...
s,
Mayr's swiftlet Mayr's swiftlet (''Aerodramus orientalis'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in New Ireland and Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Isl ...
s,
Roviana rail The Roviana rail (''Hypotaenidia rovianae'') is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is endemic to the Western Province (Solomon Islands) Western Province is the largest of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. The area is renowned ...
s, Heinroth's shearwaters, Sanford's sea eagles, Meek's lorikeets, black-faced pittas, North Melanesian cuckooshrikes, white-winged fantails, Kolombangara monarchs, Kolombangara leaf warblers and Kolombangara white-eyes. The Kolombangara Marine IBA covers some 80,000 ha of marine waters around the island, the site boundaries based on a seaward extension of 7 km from the coast, to encompass foraging and transit areas for the Heinroth's shearwaters that are believed to breed in the uplands of the island.


History

The first recorded sighting of Kolombangara by western explorers was in 1568 by the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. On March 15, 1893 Kolombangara was declared part of the
British Solomon Islands The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...
protectorate. The island was occupied by the Empire of Japan in the early stages of the Pacific War.


World War II

During World War II the island and the waters around it were the scene of much fighting. The Imperial Japanese Army used an airstrip on some flat ground at Vila on the south shore of the island, and in May 1943 based several military units with over ten thousand troops garrisoned on the southeast side of the island under the command of Major General
Minoru Sasaki sometimes referred to as Noburo Sasaki, was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Biography Sasaki was born in Hiroshima Prefecture and studied at Shudo Junior and Senior High School. He graduated from the 26th ...
, in an attempt to establish a defence line through the Central Solomons. Naval battles nearby included the
Battle of Kula Gulf The naval Battle of Kula Gulf (Japanese: クラ湾夜戦) took place in the early hours of 6 July 1943 during World War II. The battle involved United States and Japanese ships off the eastern coast of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands. It took ...
and
Battle of Kolombangara The Battle of Kolombangara (Japanese: コロンバンガラ島沖海戦) (also known as the Second Battle of Kula Gulf) was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the night of 12/13 July 1943, off the northeastern coast ...
. The most famous and bloody battle was the mission to intercept the " Tokyo Express" supply convoy which resulted in the ramming and explosion of U.S. torpedo boat
PT-109 PT1 may refer to: * 486958 Arrokoth (New Horizons PT1), a Kuiper belt object and selected target for a flyby of the New Horizons probe * Pratt & Whitney PT1, a free-piston gas-turbine engine * Consolidated PT-1 Trusty, a 1930s USAAS primary traine ...
, manned by
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
and his crew. Australian
coastwatcher The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II ...
,
Sub Lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces. In most armies, sub-lieutenant is the lowest officer rank. However, in Brazil, it is the highest non-commissioned rank, and in Spain, it is the second high ...
Arthur Reginald Evans Arthur Reginald Evans, DSC (14 May 1905 – 31 January 1989) was an Australian coastwatcher in the Pacific Ocean theatre in World War II. He is chiefly remembered for having played a significant part in the rescue of future US President John F ...
, who manned a secret observation post at the top of the island's Mount Veve volcano, spotted the explosion. After decoding news that the explosion he had witnessed was probably from the lost ''PT-109'' he dispatched Solomon Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana in a
dugout canoe A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. ''Monoxylon'' (''μονόξυλον'') (pl: ''monoxyla'') is Greek – ''mono-'' (single) + '' ξύλον xylon'' (t ...
to look for possible survivors. Their efforts led to the subsequent discovery and rescue of John F. Kennedy and the surviving crew. After destroyers succeeded in sinking the supply ships three nights later and isolating the garrison of 12,400 there, US forces were able to "leapfrog" Kolombangara to land on
Vella Lavella Vella Lavella is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies to the west of New Georgia, but is considered one of the New Georgia Group. To its west are the Treasury Islands. Environment The island of Vella Lavella is l ...
to the west. The Japanese evacuated Kolombangara between September 23 and October 4, 1943. In January 1944 a detachment of 1 officer and 6 enlisted men from the 350th Engineer General Service Regiment stationed at Munda, established a vegetable farm on the abandoned Japanese airstrip at Vila. The British government furnished 16 male natives to help with the project. With seeds acquired through the
International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
, many vegetables were sent back to the base hospital to supplement the dehydrated meals served the recuperating veterans. The main item was watermelons.


Post-World War II

Since 1978, the island has been part of the independent state of the Solomon Islands. Beginning in 2019, the Chinese state-owned China Forestry Group Corporation expressed interest in purchasing the hardwood forestry plantation that makes up much of the island, including a port and former airstrip that could be used as a base for Chinese military assets.


References


External links


Pacificwrecks.com: "Kolombangara, a military history"
* {{Authority control Islands of the Solomon Islands Important Bird Areas of the Solomon Islands Stratovolcanoes of the Solomon Islands Subduction volcanoes Western Province (Solomon Islands) World War II sites in the Solomon Islands Pleistocene stratovolcanoes