In a pair of recent videos, we provided an overview of World War II's New Guinea campaign,
from the Japanese invasion, to the savage struggle for control of the mainland,
to the Allied counteroffensive and victory. As we stated in those videos,
the entire campaign tends to go a little under the radar. But this is especially true for one battle,
one of the most crucial victories of the Pacific War and a miniature Japanese D-Day.
In this video, we're going to delve deeper into the Battle of Milne Bay.
By mid-1942, Imperial Japan's general plan with New Guinea and Papua was to seize Port Moresby
on the island's southern coast. To do this, they would advance over the Owen Stanley
Mountains via the Kokoda Track and make an amphibious invasion on Papua's eastern tip
via Milne Bay. Fighting their way south and west, respectively, they would then shut their pincer
on Port Moresby and deliver the Australians and Americans a crippling blow. But this was
not to be. The Allies terminated the Japanese advance over the mountains, and the Battle of
Milne Bay proved disastrous for the invaders, who came up against a stalwart Australian defence.
Like a lot of the island, the Milne Bay area didn't make for the cleanest of battlefields.
While there were flat coastal areas, the land was also strewn with rivers and swamps, and
floods could turn the entire place into a muddy hellscape. Of course, the mosquitos loved this,
and many of those horrible little turds were carrying malaria. Not all of Milne Bay was mud,
though. Some areas were flat and accessible by dirt roads and jetties.
To protect Port Moresby, American General Douglas MacArthur ordered the construction of three
airstrips in Milne Bay, in these flatter areas. They started building No. 1 Airstrip—which is now
PNG's Gurney Airport—on the 8th of June 1942, and by late July, they were working on No. 2 Airstrip.
This second one, however, couldn't be completed without the construction of a couple of bridges,
so they put it on the backburner and got started on No. 3 Airstrip. While the Battle of Milne Bay
hadn't started properly yet, the Japanese caught wind of these construction projects and started
strafing and bombing them. The Royal Australian Air Force staved them off, and knowing the
Japanese were planning an invasion, Australian and American military personnel massed in the area.
By the 22nd of August, there were almost 7,500 Australian Army and RAAF personnel and 1,365
Americans in Milne Bay. While No. 30 Squadron and No. 100 Squadron RAAF flew in later, 75 and
76 Squadrons RAAF were largely responsible for the skies and proved vital to the Allied defence.
We know there were over 8,800 Allied personnel in Milne Bay by August 1942, but the Japanese
didn't. They thought there were maybe 300 to 600 Aussies operating in Milne Bay, and they
planned accordingly. To throw another spanner in the works, the Japanese Navy and Japanese
Army were at each other's throats again. The army refused to work with the navy to make the landing,
so the navy took matters into its own hands. Transported to Milne Bay by the 8th Fleet, some
1,940 Japanese naval infantry from several Kaigun Rikusentai or "Special Naval Landing Forces" would
bring the fight to the Allies over the land. They also brought along a pair of Type-95 Ha-Gō tanks,
which, in a different environment, might not have been a laughing matter.
So how did it all go down?
On the 23rd and 24th of August, the Japanese opened with aerial bombardments,
paving the way for their fleets. On the 24th, one Japanese convoy, composed of seven
landing barges carrying 350 Japanese naval infantrymen, pulled up on Goodenough Island
to the north of Milne Bay for a rest. This was a big mistake. At around lunchtime,
12 Kittyhawks of 75 and 76 squadrons flew to Goodenough and strafed the barges until
all seven of them were ripped to shreds. For now, those 350 naval infantrymen were stranded.
At night on the 25th, the main Japanese invasion took place, with some 1,250 men
landing on the north shore of the bay, near a place called Waga Waga, a good distance
east of where they had intended to land [Text: The distance varies among the sources, ranging
from three kilometres to seven kilometres.]. Virtually unopposed, they established a beachhead.
With sunrise, the Japanese set out through the jungle behind their Type-95s,
going head to head with the Aussies. While the Japanese were busy with their advance,
the RAAF hit their beachhead, obliterating a significant portion of their supplies
and more of their landing barges. But the Japanese couldn't do jack about it. Poor weather
and Allied air superiority kept their fighters on the ground. Back in the jungle, the Aussies
were having a tough time with the tanks; they couldn't get their anti-tank guns into position
along the muddy coastal track, and a Japanese cruiser was also bombarding them from the bay.
With air and artillery support, though, the Aussies were able to push the invaders back a bit
and then withdraw west to the Gama River to catch their collective breath.
As the sun rose on the 27th, eight Japanese dive bombers and 12 Zeroes attacked No. 1 Airstrip
but caused minimal damage. They lost one plane to defensive fire. Meanwhile, the Aussies bolstered
their position along the Gama River, where intense fighting took place that day and that night.
Riding their tanks, the Japanese were able to inflict significant casualties on the Aussies and
drive them back to the unfinished No. 3 Airstrip, near a place called Kilarbo. The airstrip turned
out to be a solid defensive position, with plenty of open space for gunning people down. The Aussies
brought reinforcements to the airstrip and laid mines in anticipation of the troublesome Type-95s.
Only, the tanks didn't come. Both vehicles had fallen prey to the mud on the way in, and the
Japanese abandoned them. Having lost one of their only advantages, the Japanese were knocked back
at No. 3 Airstrip. Guided by flares and smoke shells fired by the Australian infantrymen,
the RAAF Kittyhawks soared in and had a field day, strafing the withdrawing Japanese again and again.
Over the next few days, the Japanese landed more troops and supplies at Waga
Waga and prepared for a major assault on No. 3 Airstrip. At three AM on the 31st of August,
they rushed it with a series of suicidal banzai attacks. The Aussies were prepared,
though. The Japanese ran head-first into a killing field peppered with lit flares. Machine gun,
mortar, and artillery fire tore them limb from limb, and the surviving naval infantrymen picked
up their guts and fled back into the jungle. This was a pivotal moment in the Battle of Milne Bay.
As the sun rose, and with the Japanese on their back foot, the Aussies launched a counterattack.
Over the next two days, it became obvious to the Japanese that they were fighting a losing battle.
Naturally, they now intended to give the Aussies as hard of a time as possible by playing as dirty
as possible. On the 2nd of September, Japanese Commander Minoru Yano radioed the following
message to his superiors: "We have reached the worst possible situation. We will together
calmly defend our position to the death." One of their go-to tactics was to play dead or wounded
until the Aussies were right up next to them, then come to life and attack. According to
Australian Sergeant Arthur Traill, "As our officer crossed in the vanguard a Jap, apparently wounded,
cried out for help. The officer walked over to aid him, and as he did the Jap sprang to life and
hurled a grenade which wounded him in the face. From then on the only good Jap was a dead one."
The Aussies shot or bayoneted any "dead" bodies they came across just to be sure and
stopped taking prisoners. As for the Japanese, they had already been mutilating and executing
the Australian troops they'd captured, not to mention all the locals they raped and killed.
Throughout this time, the flyboys continued to tear through the withdrawing Japanese, paving
the way for the advancing Australian infantrymen. By the 5th, the Japanese high command (despite
Yano's eagerness to stay behind and die) ordered a withdrawal from Milne Bay. Over the next two days,
they evacuated their remaining troops from the bay, leaving behind more than 600 corpses. Some
Japanese naval infantrymen tried to flee overland, but the Aussies mopped them up. The Japanese
weren't able to rescue their troops stranded on Goodenough Island until the 24th of October.
In contrast, 167 Aussies were killed or declared MIA, while 206 were wounded.
Winning the Battle of Milne Bay, the Allies continued turning the Milne Bay area into an
airbase and built a wharf there too. They also got absolutely drilled by a malaria epidemic, which
probably caused more damage than the Japanese. With Milne Bay out of their reach, the Japanese
strategy for Port Moresby crumbled. The Allied victory at Milne Bay did wonders for morale,
often referred to as the first major defeat of Japanese forces on land. In the words of
British Field Marshal Bill Slim, "Australian troops had, at Milne Bay in New Guinea,
inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Of all the Allies it was the
Australian soldiers who first broke the spell of the invincibility of the Japanese Army."
We'd love to know what you think, though. Had you heard of the Battle of Milne Bay before today?
Do you know anything about the battle that we didn't cover? And lastly,
how crucial do you think the Australian victory was to the
Allied war effort? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.