When it comes to the most hellish campaigns of the Second World War,
the New Guinea campaign is up there as a top contender. If the enemy didn't kill you,
insects and disease would, and it's likely a lot of soldiers would have welcomed a bullet
at certain points during those three and a half years of anguish. With that said,
the New Guinea campaign tends to go a little under the radar. In this video, we hope to rectify that.
The New Guinea campaign took place throughout the Australian-administered Territory of New Guinea,
the Australian-administered Territory of Papua (which, together, now make up Papua New Guinea),
and Netherlands New Guinea from January 1942 to August 1945. It was primarily fought
between the Aussies and Japanese, with Australia supported by the US, the UK, and the Netherlands.
The Japanese capture of the city of Rabaul on New Britain Island, part New Guinea, in January and
February kicked the whole thing off. Here, some 5,000 Japanese troops overwhelmed the Aussies,
killing or capturing around 1,130 of the 1,500-odd troops they had positioned on New Britain and,
next to it, New Ireland as prisoners of war. With a foothold in Rabaul,
the Japanese 8th Area Army set its sights on its principal goal in the New Guinea campaign:
the city of Port Moresby on Papua's southern shore. To achieve this, their next step was
to invade the mainland at Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea, which they did, almost unopposed,
on the 8th of March 1942. Rather than trying to stave off the Japanese massing there,
the American General Douglas MacArthur concentrated the participating Allied
forces in Port Moresby under the military command designated New Guinea Force.
Under the command of General Hatazō Adachi, who was responsible for Imperial Japan's forces on
mainland New Guinea, the Japanese intended to make a bit of a Port-Moresby sandwich.
From the village of Buna, situated to the south-east of Salamau in Papua,
they planned to advance on Port Moresby over the Owen Stanley Mountains using the infamous
Kokoda Track, while the other half of the sandwich would come in the form of a naval infantry troop
invasion via Milne Bay on Papua's eastern tip. But as we're sure some of you know, hiking the Kokoda
Track is easier said than done, and the Japanese totally underestimated the Aussies at Milne Bay.
The Kokoda Track campaign was hell, and it typified the horrors of its parent campaign.
For much of the Kokoda campaign, the Japanese had the Aussies on their back feet,
pushing them almost to Port Moresby until, in September 1942, having outrun their supply lines,
they were forced to withdraw. For all that time, the Aussie's lines had been stretched
out, and they had been fighting a brutal jungle war they weren't trained for. Now,
close to Port Moresby, their supply lines were shorter and their artillery was in range. They
toiled back through the jungle-thick mountains and brought the fight to Buna and nearby Gona,
which they seized from the Japanese by the 16th of November. For the entire campaign, both the Allies
and Japanese troops suffered immeasurably. As written in American war historian Samuel Milner's
Victory in Papua, "... The men stumbled over vines and roots with every step as they made their way
through the muck and slime. The ever-present mud was sometimes so deep that men sank into it up to
their knees ... Immense ridges, or "razorbacks," followed each other in succession like the teeth
of a saw. ... The only way the groups could get up them ... was on hands and knees,
or by cutting steps into them with ax and machete. The troops ... were constantly at
the mercy of ... mites, mosquitos, and leeches ... Acute diarrhea and dysentery gripped most
of the battalion ... Many men owed their lives to the ... doctors who picked them up and cared
for them when they were so sick and weak that 'they were ready to call it 'quits' and 'die''"
If that didn't paint the picture well enough, one Sergeant Paul R. Lutjens wrote this in his diary:
"Boys are falling out and dropping back with fever. Continual downpour.
We seem to climb straight up for hours, then down again. God, will it ever end?"
While this was going on, the Japanese waged a war from the sky on Port Moresby.
The first air raid took place on the 3rd of February 1942.
At the start, Port Moresby's only air defences were anti-aircraft batteries and machine guns.
The situation was especially desperate, but the Kittyhawks of the Royal Australian Air Force's
Number 75 Squadron were on their way—apparently. As per the diary of one George Henry Johnston,
"First daylight raid on Moresby–9 Jap naval bombers very high 18,000 to 22,000 feet ... With
no fighters here it seems likely that we shall see plenty of daylight raids from now on.
When are the promised Kittyhawks coming? Everyone refers to them now as 'Tomorrowhawks'."
75 Squadron arrived on the 21st of March, and the American 8th Bombardment Squadron rocked
up shortly after [Text: The Aussies worked with the Americans to bomb Buna and the Kokoda Track
throughout this time.]. On the 30th of April, the US 35th and 36th Pursuit Squadrons came to
lend a helping hand; by then, 75 Squadron had been reduced to just three serviceable planes.
What remained of the squadron left New Guinea shortly after, and returned in late July to
fight alongside Number 76 Squadron out of Milne Bay. As for Port Moresby, the Americans stayed
to defend it, and on the 23rd of January 1943, the Japanese carried out their 100th raid on the port;
they would continue raiding it until August 1943. Their last major daylight raid on
Port Moresby took place on the 12th of April 1943, as part of the Japanese Operation I-Go
As for Milne Bay, the Japanese underestimated the Aussies in that battle and paid the price for it.
75 Squadron was all patched up after Port Moresby and ready to fight alongside 76, and the Aussies
had between 7,500 and 8,800 soldiers on the ground, in contrast to the 1,940 troops and
two (yes, just two) tanks of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force. The Japanese hit the beach
on the 25th of August 1942 and drove the Aussies back through the jungle for about a week. But 75
and 76 Squadrons were tearing them up the whole time, and by the morning of the 1st of September,
the Japanese were giving it legs back to the beach, their tanks abandoned to the mud.
By the 7th, the Aussies had inflicted over 900 casualties (with kills accounting for about
two-thirds of that figure) and had achieved one of the most decisive victories against Imperial Japan
in the entire war. It was also one of the war's most brutal battles,
with war crimes committed by both sides. According to Australian Sergeant Arthur Traill, "We would
shoot at the slightest sign of life and stab with bayonet even the ones who appeared to be rotten.
It was all out from then on, neither side showing any quarter and no prisoners were taken."
After getting smashed on the Kokoda Track, the subsequent Battle of Buna-Gona, and in the Battle
of Milne Bay, you might think the Japanese would just give up on Port Moresby. But that was the
exact opposite of what they did. In late January, they decided to give an overland advance another
crack, this time via the Aussie-held village of Wau, which is closer to Lae and Salamaua than
Kokoda. It did not go well. The Aussies bombed the Japanese as they shipped reinforcements to Lae,
taking 1,100 troops out of the equation when they sank the transport ship Nichiryu Maru
alone. Still, the Japanese were able to land some 4,000 troops. Conversely, the Aussies reinforced
Wau from the sky. Between the 29th of January and 1st of February, hundreds of Allied aircraft made
hundreds of trips to the village, raising their defending force to a strength of some
3,000 men. Just like in Milne Bay, the Japanese seriously underestimated the Aussies,
who managed to kill a further 750 Japanese and drive the remaining 2,700 back to the coast,
where they got back on their ships and fled to Rabaul—utterly ashamed of themselves.
At this point, the Aussies had defeated the Japanese in numerous battles and gained a tonne
of experience. It was time to bring the fight to the Japanese and cast them out of New Guinea,
Papua, and Netherlands New Guinea. But that's a whole other can of worms,
so we'll be covering the later stages of the New Guinea campaign—namely Operation Cartwheel and the
Western New Guinea campaign—in a follow-up video, which we'll be releasing very soon.
Until then, were you aware of the New Guinea campaign before today?
When do you think the Japanese should have got the hint that you shouldn't mess with the Aussies?
Lastly, can you think of any epic or horrifying anecdotes from the New Guinea campaign?
Please feel free to share those and more in the comments section below.