Oro Bay is a bay in Oro Province

Oro Province

Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

, located southeast of Buna

Buna, Papua New Guinea

Buna is a village in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It was the site in part, of the Battle of Buna-Gona during World War II, when it constituted a variety of native huts and a handful of houses with a airstrip...

. The bay is located within the larger Dyke Ackland Bay

Dyke Ackland Bay

Dyke Ackland Bay is a large bay in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. The bay extends from Cape Nelson to Cape Ward Hunt. Porlock Bay and Oro Bay are some of the smaller bays located within the larger bay. The bay was named by Captain John Moresby after his friend Sir Thomas Dyke Acland....

. A port is operated by PNG Ports Corporation Limited with limited wharf facilities.

History

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Oro Bay was used as staging area for the battle of Buna-Gona

Battle of Buna-Gona

The Battle of Buna–Gona was a battle in the New Guinea campaign, a major part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. On 16 November 1942, Australian and United States forces attacked the main Japanese beachheads in New Guinea, at Buna, Sanananda and Gona. Both forces were riddled by disease and...

 and future operations. A United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 advanced base was constructed at Oro Bay, with a liberty ship wharf at the southern end of the bay, installations along the shore, and anti-aircraft gun batteries in the surrounding hills. On 28 March 1943, Imperial Japanese planes attacked shipping and harbour facilities at Oro Bay, resulting in the sinking of SS Masaya and SS Bantam

SS Bantam (1930)

The SS Bantam was built by Mach. Fabr. & Scheepswerf P. Smit Jr. of Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1930 of 3322 gross weight and operated by Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij which was scuttled off Sydney, Australia....

.