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The New Guinea Campaign
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When MacArthur arrived in Australia after evacuating Bataan, he was a General in search of an offensive army. The Americans did not yet have a fighting force in the Pacific, and the Australians were committed in North Africa, enroute to Pacific stations, or in training or garrison in Australia. At one point in early 1942, there were four operational P-40 fighter planes and one B-17 bomber. The only combat-worthy division was Australian, and it was needed to defend Australia, not for offensive operations.
MacArthur was not going to wait for the Japanese to attack Australia. He wanted to use Port Moresby as a base of operations to move up through New Guinea and advance to the Philippines. His problem, besides the Japanese, would be supply. He had to prove that the New Guinea campaign would be the definitive campaign to get back to the Philippines and win the war.
While MacArthur and his staff wanted to return to Manila, not all of the Allies were so inclined. Nimitz favored advancing through the central Pacific, and the British and her Dominions thought Java should be the primary focus. Thus began the Allied interservice rivalry between the Army and the Navy.
MacArthur, for his part, wanted to advance with American forces as soon as he could. In November 1942 he marched unprepared and undersupplied American troops on Buna. They were driven back to the beach, barely holding on to their landing zone. MacArthur’s staff sent glowing communiqués claiming advance, and declared Buna secure. While the American public was happy with victory, the Australians were landed to actually take the objective. Buna was declared secure, but fighting continued. The Australian government was privately unhappy with the casualties and with the credit going to the Americans, who would not have succeeded without the Australians. Plus, the Australian public felt the primary goal should be developing a deense in case the Japanese invade Australia.
The Australians marched over the Owen Stanley mountain range to take Kokoda. MacArthur began landing forces in a series of protracted engagements that were slow progress up the back of New Guinea. While he was making progress, he wasn’t advancing according to timetable and more and more of his supplies were going to Guadalcanal, where the War Department was realizing the major fight was.
New Guinea, for the Japanese, was their Vietnam. Entire units disappeared into he jungle, never to be heard from again. The Australians on the Owen Stanleys found cannibalism among the dead and dying Japanese they encountered. Imperial Army Air Forces were suffering huge casualties.
By 1944, MacArthur was landing with little opposition in the Morotai Islands. The American industrial might was beginning to tell, and he planned to use the Morotais to jump off into the Philippines.
New Guinea was some of the most difficult terrain in the South Pacific. Its size and lack cartography made it a difficult campaign for both sides.
New Guinea campaign - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Western New Guinea campaign - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of Buna-Gona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of the Bismarck Sea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese Army and Navy Strategies for South Seas areas (1942) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Official US Army history of the New Guinea Campaign
HyperWar: New Guinea Campaign: Contents
Remembering the war in New Guinea
U.S. Army Divisions of World War II - New Guinea Campaign
History of the 380th Bomb Group
Air Power in the New Guinea Campaign (PDF)
Kokoda Trail; our most famous battle of WW2
Historic Wings : Battle of the Bismarck Sea
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea was crucial turning point in Japan's plans to expand its holdings in the Pacific southward toward and into Australia. It was a battle of air power, fought by dozens of airplanes at a time, rather than the hundreds that flew on massed missions against the Germans over Europe. Coming soon after the Americans had defeated the Japanese at Guadacanal, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea sealed the fate of the Japanese plans against New Guinea. But it was not an easy win, by any means. It would take every aircraft the Allies had and a handful of new innovations to defeat what was considered a superior, well-supplied Japanese force at Rabaul.Battle for Australia Council
The Battle for Australia was a struggle never before envisaged in this country but yet much of it still remains unknown. It was a struggle that stretched our national resources to the limit; which saw the bombing of mainland Australia; the attack by midget submarines on Sydney Harbour; and raised the spectre of the threat of a possible invasion through Papua New GuineaThe Campaigns of General MacArthur
5th Army Air Force - Ken's Men
PAPUAN CAMPAIGN: The Buna-Sanananda Operation 16 November 1942 - 23 January 1943
Gona Buna Sanananda, hard slog but Japs beaten
Bibliography From Amazon.com
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