As part of a series of amphibious assaults by US forces beginning at Torokina in Bougainville in early November 1943, Arawe in south-west New Britain in mid-December, and at Cape Gloucester at the western end of New Britain late that same month, on 2 January 1944 the US 126th Regiment landed at Saidor, some 160 kilometers in front of the Australian 9th Division which was advancing along the New Guinea coast having been tasked with capturing Finschafen and securing the area north to Sio.