The Battle of Bairoko was fought between American and Imperial Japanese Army and Navy forces on 20 July 1943 on the northern coast of New Georgia Island.

After a day long engagement, the Japanese repulsed the American assault and forced the attacking troops to withdraw with their wounded to Enogai.

Following the completion of the Guadalcanal campaign in early 1943, the Allied high command began planning the next step in their effort to neutralize the main Japanese base at Rabaul as part of Operation Cartwheel.

[10] Japanese forces had arrived around Enogai and Bairoko on the Dragons Peninsula in March 1942 as part of an effort to secure airbases on New Georgia to support their operations on Guadalcanal.

[12] The main Japanese unit holding Bairoko was Colonel Saburo Okumura's Kure 6th Special Naval Landing Force; these were reinforced by elements of the 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment.

On 2 July, elements from two US infantry regiments crossed the Blanche Channel to the western coast of New Georgia, landing around Zanana to begin the drive on Munda Point.

Consequently, the Northern Landing Group was tasked with blocking the Munda–Bairoko trail and securing Bairoko Harbor, which provided the sea link with the Japanese base at Vila on Kolombangara to the northwest.

[17][18] To achieve this, on 5 July a force of US Marine Raiders, supported by two US Army infantry battalions, landed at Rice Anchorage on the northern coast of New Georgia.

[21] After the capture of Enogai, US patrols had been ordered to range south to establish contact with the troops from the 43rd Infantry Division around Munda, but this was not achieved.

[22] On 18 July, Liversedge's force was reinforced by 700 marines from Lieutenant Colonel Michael S. Currin's 4th Raider Battalion, which had previously been involved in actions around Segi Point, Viru Harbor and Wickham Anchorage in the south.

Nevertheless, their arrival at Rice Anchorage, which was being held by a detachment of the 3rd Battalion, 145th Infantry Regiment, brought Liversedge's men fresh supplies—up to 15 days' worth of rations, as well as ammunition and other stores—and allowed the US forces to begin planning the next stage of their advance in the area.

The 3rd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Delbert E. Schultz) would push inland from Triri along the Triri–Bairoko Trail to attack Bairoko from the south, converging with the 1st.

Company D, 1st Raider Battalion was able to gain some ground, but eventually the advance came to a halt as they came under heavy machine gun fire across their entire front from Japanese defenders occupying several bunkers constructed out of logs and coral.

[9][28] Meanwhile, the southern advance by the 148th Infantry Regiment was held up by thick jungle and swamps and was halted about 1,000 yards (910 m) from Bairoko by Japanese holding the high ground.

By early afternoon, the 4th Raider Battalion had sustained over 90 critically injured personnel, and their commander resorted to calling down mortar fire to break the deadlock.

Communications with Schultz's battalion were restored late in the day as the telephone wire was repaired by a party of the 145th Infantry Regiment, and as US casualties began to mount Liversedge considered his options.

After the order to withdraw was given, US medical personnel began collecting the wounded and moving them to an aid station to prepare them to be carried back to Enogai.

[9][29] After calling off the assault, the Americans withdrew to nearby Enogai in stages, moving firstly to a defensive perimeter on the night of 20/21 July.

[8] Nevertheless, the American forces remained in the Enogai area until the end of the New Georgia campaign to gather information and interdict Japanese supply lines.