CONTENTS

List of Maps

Abbreviations

Introduction

INVASION

1 ‘See you in hell, fellers’

New Britain and New Ireland: January to April 1942

2 ‘Whacco’

Port Moresby and Salamaua: March to August 1942

KOKODA TO MILNE BAY

3 ‘An army in retreat, my boy. Not very pretty, is it?’

Kokoda Trail: July to September 1942

4 ‘Like rats in a bag’

Milne Bay: August to September 1942

5 ‘The eyes of the Western world are upon you’

Kokoda Trail: September to November 1942

THE PAPUAN BEAC HHEADS

6 ‘A murderous curtain of lead’

Gona: November to December 1942

7 ‘Where are my boys?’

Buna: November to December 1942

8 Ducit Amor Patriae

Buna: December 1942 to January 1943

9 ‘We sleep and eat amongst the dead here’

Sanananda: November 1942 to February 1943

WAU—SALAMAUA

10 ‘They came like the rain’

Wau: January to February 1943

11 ‘A horrible dream’

Bismarck Sea: March 1943

12 ‘Hell, what chaps these are’

Bobdubi Ridge: February to July 1943

13 Given up for dead

Bobdubi Ridge: June to September 1943

14 ‘Come on, boys’

Mount Tambu: June to August 1943

THE NEW GUINEA OFFENSIVES

15 ‘A sense of hell’

Lae: September 1943

16 ‘We were just bloody good’

Kaiapit: September 1943

17 ‘I know it’s hard, son, but it has to be done’

Markham and Ramu Valleys: June to October 1943

18 ‘They didn’t know the country was impassable’

Finschhafen to Saidor: September 1943 to February 1944

19 ‘Some bastard is going to pay for this’

Shaggy Ridge: December 1943 to February 1944

ENDGAME

20 A great leap

American operations: August 1943 to September 1944

21 The waiting game

Bougainville: November 1944 to August 1945

22 ‘This hellish business doesn’t make headline news’

Aitape to Wewak: October 1944 to August 1945

23 Endings

Appendix 1: Casualties

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements