



New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJapanese Landings at Lae and Salamaua

8 Mar 1942

ww2dbaseMerely three months after the start of the Pacific War, Japanese troops were already being disembarked at Lae and Salamaua on the northeastern coast of New Guinea island in the Australian Territory of New Guinea.

ww2dbaseFrom a western perspective, both Lae and Salamaua were towns built up as the result of the gold rush at Wau, further inland. Lae was the much larger of the two towns, with it featuring neighborhoods for westerners, a new hotel, and an airfield with a 3,000-foot runway that could accommodate larger passenger and cargo aircraft. In 1937, Lae was the location which Amelia Earhart had departed from before becoming missing in the Pacific Ocean.

ww2dbaseThe Japanese landings at Lae were conducted without any opposition, while the Salamaua landings were opposed by a small group of Australians from the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and the Royal Australian Air Force. In the early morning of 10 Mar, US carrier aircraft of USS Lexington and USS Yorktown attacked the landing beaches by surprise, followed by horizontal bombing by larger aircraft; three Japanese transports were sunk, and a number of other ships were damaged.

ww2dbaseJapanese Landings at Buna, Gona, and Sananda

21-29 Jul 1942

ww2dbaseJapan's first attempt to take Port Moresby was an amphibious invasion, however, it was averted by the unfavorable outcome of the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. The Japanese now had no choice but to mount an overland invasion against Port Moresby over New Guinea island's treacherous Owen Stanley Range. ww2dbasePort Moresby was the capital of the British Territory of Papua in southeastern New Guinea island. Aside from the bay being a good natural port, to the Japanese, Port Moresby could also serve as a defensive strongpoint on the eastern flank of the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere, and also potentially a gateway to Australia. US General Douglas MacArthur truly believed that if the Allies were to lose this city, Australia would soon see Japanese landings; thus, he gambled to hold Port Moresby.

ww2dbaseThe second Japanese attempt at Port Moresby began on 21 Jul 1942 when Japanese troops landed on the northern coast of the Papuan Peninsula in the Australian Territory of New Guinea and established beach heads at Buna, Gona, and Sananda. The 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hatsuo Tsukamoto, conducted a combat-ready reconnaissance patrol toward the village of Kokoda. After exchanging hands a couple of times, the small Australian militia unit "Maroubra Force" under the command of Australian Basil Morris at the entrance of the Kokoda Trail was overwhelmed by the Japanese troops, and the entrance was captured on 29 Jul. Morris assumed that the Japanese troops were merely performing a reconnaissance mission in force. Much to his, and all Allied commanders', surprise, the Japanese began to march into the trail over the Owen Stanley mountain range.

ww2dbaseKokoda Track

30 Jul 1942-22 Jan 1943

ww2dbaseFrom the village of Kokoda, Major General Tomitaro Horii led an invasion force of 8,500 men of the battle-hardened 144th Regiment of the South Seas Detachment. In four weeks, the Japanese achieved what was deemed impossible, marching across the deadly jungles, disease-ridden swamps, and the deep gorges. "How many men succumbed in this heroic endeavor will never be known," wondered author William Manchester. In the treacherous environment where even blades of grass could slice skin right open, Manchester noted what he imagined the Japanese had likely gone through on this journey:

In places the winding trail, a foot wide at most, simply disappeared. It took an hour to cut through few yards of vegetation. The first man in a file would hack away with a machete until he collapsed of exhaustion; then the second man would pick up the machete and continue, and so on. In that climate the life expectancy of the men who lost consciousness and were left behind was often measured in minutes.

ww2dbaseThe captured diary of a Japanese soldier reflected what Manchester imagined:

The sun is fierce here.... Thirst for water, stomach empty. The pack on the back is heavy. My arm is numb like a stick. 'Water, water.' We reach for the canteens at our hips from a force of habit, but they do no contain a drop of water.

ww2dbaseThey made it across the Kokoda Trail, but it was then the jungle trekkers who were surprised: Allied troops under MacArthur were dug in there well beyond what they expected. Captain Toshikazu Ohmae of the Japanese Navy recalled after the war that "[t]he Japanese did not think General MacArthur would establish himself in New Guinea and defend Australia from that position.... [H]e did not have sufficient forces to maintain himself there", but he, like the Japanese officers, had forgotten MacArthur's unorthodox determination ("a lesser general might have considered the abandonment of Port Moresby", said Manchester) and the conviction of his troops to hold New Guinea island for Australia. MacArthur's troops, too, were suffering from the jungle as much as the Japanese. MacArthur himself recalled the humidity, the heat, and the terrible diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and dysentery that made the experience a hellish one for his soldiers. Insects and parasites, too, plagued them: hookworms, ringworms, mosquitoes, leeches, chiggers, ants, fleas, and others that the soldiers did not even know the names of. An Australian officer later noted:

Physically, the pathetically young warriors... were in poor shape. Worn out by strenuous fighting and exhausting movement, and weakened by lack of food and sleep and shelter, many of them had literally come to a standstill.

ww2dbaseThe Japanese offensive over the Kokoda Trail saw Australian resistance at Isurava, outside of Port Moresby. With a tight timetable, Horii launched a series of brutal frontal attacks against the 400-strong Australian defenders. The defenders held on valiantly for four days, then they retreated towards Port Moresby. At a battle at the location that was later named Brigade Hill, the Japanese offensive's flanking maneuver separated the Australian forces into two groups, forcing troops to retreat through the thick jungle. Australian General Thomas Blamey, frustrated at the defeat and holding inaccurate intelligence noting a smaller Japanese force than what his men faced, replaced the commander Arnold Potts with Selwyn Porter. When he lectured the troops for the "failure" of letting the Japanese advance so close to Port Moresby, the troops jeered at the general right on the parade ground. In time, the Australian green troops' effort that stopped the Japanese offensive would be considered one of the greatest feats in Australian military history.

ww2dbaseAlthough the lights of Port Moresby were now in sight after the victory at Brigade Hill, Horii had no choice but to dig in for that his supplies line across the Kokoda Trail was breaking down. His troops, exhausted from fighting Allied forces and nature alike, were showing signs of advanced starvation. Some reports noted the Japanese had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. Horii was relieved to receive orders from his superiors that he was to fall back to Buna due to the shift of the overall war situation. He knew it was no easy task to cross the Owen Stanley once again, but the food situation rendered him without choice even if he did not receive the fall-back order. He began to pull back his troops on 24 Sep. On 26 Sep, MacArthur called for a counterattack up the Kokoda Trail, not knowing that the Japanese had already started their retreat. Despite the lack of food, the Japanese army fought ferociously, even after Horii drowned late in Oct 1942 in the Kumusi River. As the Australian troops embarked onto the Kokoda Trail, Japanese corpses were found, death by diseases of the equatorial jungle.

ww2dbaseBattle of Milne Bay

25 Aug 1942-5 Sep 1942

ww2dbaseHorii's attack on Port Moresby over the Kokoda Trail was timed with a landing at Milne Bay at the eastern tip of New Guinea island. On 25 Aug, 2,400 men of the 5th Kure Special Naval Landing Force and the 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force (non-combat) landed at Milne Bay under the command of Commander Shojiro Hayashi. The Japanese enjoyed initial success against Australian troops, having the advantage of light tanks. On 29 Aug, Commander Yano landed with an 800-men reinforcement group and took over tactical command. Seeing no progress, the Japanese retreated on 5 Sep.

ww2dbaseUnlike Blamey, British Field Marshal Sir William Slim was much more complimentary toward the Australian soldiers, commenting on the following inspiring words despite his misidentification of enemy units:

Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Some of us may forget that, of all the allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army.

ww2dbaseBeyond the strategic gains for this victory, Allied forces gained a great boost in morale.

ww2dbaseBattle of Buna-Gona

16 Nov 1942-22 Jan 1943

ww2dbaseIn Jan 1943, after MacArthur's American contingents arrived, a joint American-Australian operation was launched to retake Buna and Gona. The first surprise went in favor of the Japanese; Allied intelligence underestimated the strength of the Japanese force in the area, estimating 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers when there were over 6,500, all well dug in. The battle quickly turned into a series of bitter struggles over each defensive position. Because the Owen Stanley Mountain did not allow vehicular traffic, all Allied supplies had to arrive by air, notably with converted Liberator bombers as transports. The supply situation was not any better for the Japanese, however. Despite control of the sea, Allied air power still took a heavy toll on transport vessels coming into the area. To instill new blood in the command structure, MacArthur brought in Robert Eichelberger, who arrived at the front on 2 Dec 1942. After a two-day break for reorganization, Eichelberger pushed on again on 5 Dec. On the following day, the Japanese finally broke at Gona. Buna fell to the Allies on 14 Dec. The last Japanese hold in the area was Sananda, which fell on 22 Jan 1943 after running out of food. Again, evidences of cannibalism were found among Japanese soldiers. With the region secured, the conclusion of the battle also ended Japanese resistance on and near the Kokoda Trail.

ww2dbaseSimilar to previous actions on New Guinea island, disease caused far more casualties to both sides than actual combat in the Battle of Buna-Gona.

ww2dbaseBattle of the Bismarck Sea

2-4 Mar 1943

ww2dbaseOn 23 Dec 1942, Japanese IGHQ (Imperial General Headquarters) gave the order to transfer 100,000 troops from Japan and China to New Guinea island as reinforcements. It was a large exercise in Japanese logistics, but a successful landing of these troops at Lae could possibly turn back the Australian and American offensive, and perhaps even take Port Moresby. On 28 Feb, a convoy of eight destroyers and eight troop transports set sail with 6,900 troops from Rabaul under the cover of about 100 aircraft. The convoy sailed undetected until 1500 hours on 1 Mar when a Liberator bomber spotted it north of Cape Hollman. The group of bombers sent to intercept the convoy did not find their target, but on the next day several flights of Flying Fortress bombers found and sank up to three transports. After a few unsuccessful attempts at attacking the convoy by Catalina and Beaufort aircraft, an attack by 13 Flying Fortress bombers at 1000 hours on 3 Mar scattered the convoy, making the ships vulnerable to follow-up attacks by Beaufighters and Mitchell bombers. The action was a near total loss for the Japanese. Only 800 out of the 6.900 soldiers made their way to Lae, at the cost of all eight transports, four of the eight destroyers, twenty aircraft, and over 2,000 lives.

ww2dbaseSources:

Elliot Carlson, Joe Rochefort's War

Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences

William Manchester, American Caesar

William Manchester, Goodbye, Darkness

Gordon Rottman, World War II US Cavalry Units

Dan van der Vat, The Pacific Campaign

Wikipedia



Last Major Update: Mar 2012

New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 Interactive Map

New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 Timeline

Photographs

Did you enjoy this article? Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Share this article with your friends: Facebook

Reddit

Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB: RSS Feeds

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments

All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.