January 7, 1943. Australian forces attack Japanese positions near Buna. Members of the 2/12th Infantry Battalion advance as Stuart tanks from the 2/6th Armoured Regiment attack Japanese pillboxes. An upward-firing machine gun on the tank spray treetops to clear them of snipers. (Photographer: George Silk).
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April 22, 1944. US LVTs (Landing Vehicles Tracked) in the foreground head for the invasion beaches at Humboldt Bay, Netherlands New Guinea, during the Hollandia landing as the cruisers USS Boise (firing tracer shells, right center) and USS Phoenix bombard the shore. (Photographer: Tech 4 Henry C. Manger.)
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Two dead Japanese soldiers in a water filled shell hole somewhere in New Guinea
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The New Guinea campaign (1942–45) was one of the major military campaigns of World War II. The island of New Guinea was split between the Australian League of Nations mandate Territory of New Guinea (the north-eastern part of the island of New Guinea and surrounding islands), the Territory of Papua (the south-eastern part of the island of New Guinea, an Australian colony), and Dutch New Guinea. It was strategically important because it was a major landmass to the immediate north of Australia. Its large land area provided locations for large land, air and naval bases.
Fighting between Allied and Japanese forces commenced with the Japanese assault on Rabaul on January 23, 1942. Rabaul became the forward base for the Japanese campaigns in mainland New Guinea, including the pivotal Kokoda Track campaign of July 1942–January 1943, and the Battle of Buna-Gona. Fighting in some parts of New Guinea continued until the war ended in August 1945.
General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander, South West Pacific Area, led the Allied forces. MacArthur was based in Melbourne, Brisbane and Manila. The Imperial Japanese Army's 8th Area Army, under General Hitoshi Imamura, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. Imamura was based at Rabaul. The Japanese 18th Army, under Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi, was responsible for Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea.
Major battles and sub-campaigns
References
Books
- Dexter, David (1961). Volume VI – The New Guinea Offensives, Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
- Drea, Edward J. (1998). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1708-0.
- Gailey, Harry A. (2004). MacArthur's Victory: The War In New Guinea 1943-1944. New York: Random House. ISBN.
- McCarthy, Dudley (1959). Volume V – South–West Pacific Area – First Year: Kokoda to Wau, Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
- Taafe, Stephen R. (2006). MacArthur's Jungle War: The 1944 New Guinea Campaign. Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.: University Press Of Kansas. ISBN 0700608702.
- Zaloga, Steven J. Japanese Tanks 1939-45. Osprey, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84603-091-8.
Web
Notes
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