WW 2 PAPUA NEW GUINEA

General MacArthur's men capture Buna village
December 14, 1942


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 JAPANESE RESISTANCE ENDS AT BUN


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On January 2, Allied troops occupied the Government Station at Buna in New Guinea after shattering the Japanese defenses there. By this victory the battle for Buna was virtually brought to an end after six weeks of the most bitter fighting amid swamps and jungles in one of the worst climates in the world.

 The last remaining point of enemy resistance in the Buna area was a small pocket to the west of the Giropa creek. There the Japanese continued to fight on desperately for several days until they were finally cut off by an American force which joined the Australians after the latter had taken the Government Station. Such was the ferocity of the fighting at Buna itself that on the last day 650 Japanese soldiers were killed. Enemy troops which tried to escape from the coast by swimming were attacked from the air by Kittyhawk fighters. By January 3, all organized resistance in the Buna area had ended, but Allied troops continued to mop up groups of isolated snipers. A few miles west of Buna, small Japanese forces still showed resistance at Sanananda Point, but owing to heavy rains and swollen swamps ground operations here were seriously hindered for many days. On January 17, however, Allied troops cut the main road in two places behind the enemy's rear, less than 2,000 yards from the coast and thereby split the remaining Japanese forces into three isolated groups. By the next day two headlands on either side of Sanananda Point had been captured and the enemy were now hemmed into a 500-yard strip of coast and a few isolated and surrounded pockets inland. Despite tropical rains and floods Allied progress continued and on January 22, the last remaining Japanese positions at Sanananda fell and the reconquest of the Papuan part of New Guinea was completed. About 750 Japanese were killed in the final attack and a great quantity of military equipment and stores was captured




JAPANESE DEFEATED IN PAPUA

 After a month of the most desperate fighting in the South-West Pacific, American troops captured Buna village on December 14. During the night of the 13th a Japanese convoy attempted to land a relieving force from barges. But practically all the enemy were drowned or killed on the beaches by the heavy strafing inflicted by waves of Allied bombers. Fighting continued, however, in the small but strongly held Japanese salient round the Buna Mission, from which the enemy were not finally cleared until January 2. The photographs show: first, American reinforcements landing on Papua; second, Australian infantry in action; third, the shore at Buna Mission strewn with dead Japanese.