During World War II Japan used Bairoko Harbor to resupply its forces at Munda Point, an airstrip situated along the south coast of New Georgia.
Allied forces deemed Munda critical for control of this section of the Solomon Islands and necessary for the continued progress northward toward Japan.
Greatly outmanned,[citation needed] the lightly armed Marines failed to overcome the deeply entrenched, heavily armed Japanese defenders in the resulting Battle of Bairoko and were turned back after losses in dense jungle fighting.
The battle caused the Joint Chiefs to rethink the strategy of pitting lightly armed forces against well-fortified enemy forces, and the operation planners drew the criticism of the Joint Chiefs for having marginalized the entire operation "as if it had been a sideshow".
Unable to prevent the loss of Munda to the Allies due to assaults on the airstrip by other forces, the Japanese evacuated the entire island of New Georgia via Bairoko Harbor within a month of the initial attack.