World War II History List Of Events

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From August 1941 to April 1943 Events shown in italics relate to PNG:

1941

• 5 Aug – Lieut-General Sir Iven Mackay appointed G.O.C. Home Forces
• 25 Aug – British and Russian troops enter Iran
• 7 Oct – Mr Curtin becomes Prime Minister of Australia
• 19 Oct – State of siege proclaimed in Moscow
• 7-8 Dec – Japanese attack Malaya and Pearl Harbour

1942

• 23 Jan – Japanese capture Rabaul
• 3 Feb – First Japanese air raid on Port Moresby
• 14 Feb – Cessation of Civil Government in Papua
• 19-20 Feb – Japanese forces land on Timor
• 28 Feb- 1 Mar – Japanese invade Java
• 8 Mar – Japanese troops enter Rangoon
• 8 Mar – Japanese forces occupy Lae and Salamaua
• 9 Mar – Leading Brigade of 7th Division A.I.F. arrives Adelaide
• 17 Mar – General MacArthur arrives in Australia
• 26 Mar – General Blamey becomes Commander-in-Chief, Australian Military Forces
• 5 Apr – Japanese carrier-borne aircraft attack Colombo
• 6 Apr – 41st U.S. Division arrives in Australia
• 18 Apr – G.H.Q., S.W.P.A. established at Melbourne
• 5-8 May – Battle of the Coral Sea
• 6 May – Corregidor surrenders
• 26 May – German offensive in Western Desert begins
• 31 May – Japanese midget submarines attack Sydney Harbour
• 1 June – 4-6 June – Battle of Midway Island
• 7 June – Japanese landing Aleutian Islands
• 21 July – Japanese land Gona area, Papua
• 7 Aug – Americans land in Solomons
• 19 Aug –Dieppe raid
• 25-26 Aug – Japanese land at Milne Bay
• 17 Sept – Japanese drive over Owen Stanleys halted at Imita Ridge
• 23-24 Oct – Battle of El Alamein begins
• 2 Nov – Kokoda recaptured
• 7-8 Nov – Allied landings in French North Africa
• 12 Nov – British Eighth Army captures Tobruk
• 12-15 Nov – Naval battle of Guadalcanal
• 22 Nov – Russians announce launching of counter-offensive at Stalingrad
• 9 Dec – Australians capture Gona
• 21 Dec – British and Indian troops cross Burma frontier and advance in direction of Akyab

1943

• 2 Jan – Buna Government Station captured
• 23 Jan – Organised Japanese resistance in Papua ends
• 29 Jan – British Eighth Army enters Tripoli
• 29 Jan – Japanese attack Wau airfield
• 18 Feb – 9th Australian Division arrives Fremantle
• 2 – 4 Mar – Battle of Bismarck Sea
• 20-21 Mar – Eighth Army moves against Mareth Line
• 23 Apr – Headquarters 3rd Australian Division established at Bulolo

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[Waza]

Hi Gail

Great job with the History.

A little note on Moresby, think it was either 10th, 14th or 17th February 1942, nearly all Women and Children were evacuated from Papua and TPNG from Moresby on three ships, including the SS Katoomba and escorted by two Australian Destroyers down the Australian Coast to Brisbane and Sydney.

Regards

Warren

Editors Note: Warren I looked this up and here is what I found:

As early as 1940 it was suggested that the Australian women and children – approximately 3000 of them – living in Papua and New Guinea should be encouraged to leave for Australia. However, despite the looming threat of war with Japan, the Administrator in Port Moresby, the Honourable Leonard Murray, was loathe to force families to leave their homes unnecessarily and to incur the costs of evacuation and resettlement in Australia. By September 1941, Burns Philp, the Territory shipping agent, was advising that women and children should not travel to the territories and in November passengers were obliged to sign an indemnity notice warning them of the dangers as well as the difficulties of evacuation in the event of hostilities. Soon, only 'essential travel' permits were issued. But, despite these restrictions, it was still only a policy of voluntary, rather than compulsory, departure until four days after Japan entered the war.

Finally, on 12 December 1941 a meeting of the War Cabinet in Melbourne approved the recommendation 'that women and children, other than missionaries who may wish to remain and nurses, should be compulsorily evacuated from the Mandated Territory of New Guinea and Papua'. The code-name 'Z day' was given to the classified date for the evacuation, 18 December 1941, and the Australian Government would pay costs incurred.

European women and children were brought from all over the territories to Port Moresby and Rabaul. Many had to be shipped or airlifted in to the main centres from the outlying areas. Others, delayed by weather and transport, missed the ships and had to be flown to Australia days later. They were leaving their men and their homes and for many of them, the only life they had known. By 15 January almost all of the Australian women and children had been evacuated. There was no attempt to evacuate non-European women and children, such as the Chinese, despite knowledge that they too would be in danger from the Japanese.

Neither were there any attempts to remove the European civilian males. Those on New Britain, together with the 1400 Australian troops posted there, were left to deal with the Japanese onslaught when Rabaul fell on 23 January 1942.

On 6 February 1942, after the fall of Rabaul, the Minister for the Army, Frank Forde, wrote to the Prime Minister, John Curtin:

The attitude of those with near relatives in our Garrison at Rabaul is becoming bitter and hostile at the lack of any news of their sons, brothers and husbands, and of the feeling that is being created that although something could be done to assist them, nothing is being attempted.

But little could be done to assist them. Despite the concerns of their relatives, the fate of many of the men who remained in New Britain and nearby New Ireland has never been completely established. It wasn't until after the war ended that the grim details began to emerge. Hundreds of civilian internees and POWs drowned in early July 1942 when the American submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoed and sank their transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, as it sailed to Japan. Harold Page, Deputy Administrator in Rabaul, was one of those lost. Others simply disappeared.

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Fall of Rabaul: Rabaul, the peacetime capital of the Australian Mandated Territory of New Guinea, fell to the Japanese on 23 January 1942. The small Australian garrison, Lark Force, was overwhelmed and most of its troops, including six army nurses, captured. Approximately 400 of the troops escaped to the mainland and another 160 were massacred at Tol Plantation. In July 1942, about 1000 of the captured Australian men, including civilian internees, were drowned when the Japanese transport ship Montevideo Maru was sunk by an American submarine off the Philippines coast en route to Japan. Only the officers and nurses, sent to Japan on a different ship, survived.

The 2/22nd Battalion (about 900 men and 38 officers) formed the bulk of Lark Force. It had arrived in Rabaul on Anzac Day 1941. By December, Lark Force had increased to about 1400 troops. They included a headquarters group; part of the 2/10th Field Ambulance with 6 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS); anti-tank and coastal artillery batteries; and a number of militia in the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, some of whom were only eighteen years old. Ten Wirraways and four Hudsons from 24 Squadron joined them just as Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Malaya. In addition, approximately 150 men and officers of the 1st Independent Company were based on nearby New Ireland.

The troops had not been trained for service in the tropics. Although they had trained for longer in Australia than most battalions, they had trained for mobile warfare in open country. Five days after the Japanese entered the war in the Pacific, the Australian Chiefs of Staff had to advise the War Cabinet whether to reinforce, withdraw or leave the troops in Rabaul. Despite the Australian government's awareness that they would not be able to hold out against a strong Japanese force, they decided to leave the troops in place, removing only European women and children from the Territories.

The Japanese dropped their first bombs on Rabaul on 4 January 1942 and continued with almost daily air raids until the 5000-strong Japanese invasion force attacked Rabaul soon after midnight on 23 January 1942. Japanese ships entered the harbour and Japanese troops were landed at Blanche Bay. Lark Force had only a few anti-tank guns, mortars and Vickers machine-guns. The fighting was over in just a few hours and the Lark Force commander, Colonel Scanlan, ordered the men to disperse in an 'every man for himself' withdrawal. Men from 24 Squadron, whose Wirraways had been decimated in an earlier aerial battle, had a prearranged escape and airlift organised. The Army had no such escape plans for its troops. Only the fittest, most determined and luckiest survived the long withdrawal across New Britain.

The Japanese captured Rabaul with the loss of only 16 men. By May 1942, they had established themselves in the arc of islands north and east of Papua New Guinea and had seized the main coastal centres of Lae, Salamaua and Madang on the north coast of the mainland.

Photograph: The Japanese invaded Rabaul on New Britain and Kavieng on New Ireland on 23 January 1942.
rabaul_War_Map.gif

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The Defence of Moresby: The Japanese made their first air raid on Port Moresby in the Australian territory of Papua on 3 February 1942. Twelve days later, on 15 February, the same day as the surrender of Singapore, Australian civilian government in New Guinea ceased. The Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) was set up to run the territory for the duration of the war and Major-General Basil Morris took over control. Gradually, Port Moresby was transformed into a large Allied base with five operational aerodromes, fuel and logistical supply dumps, base hospitals and administrative buildings.

For the first months of 1942, Port Moresby relied for defence against Japanese air attack on Army anti-aircraft batteries and machine guns. On 21 March, 75 Squadron RAAF with Kittyhawk fighters arrived. Less than two hours after their arrival the unit made their first combat sortie. By 30 March they had lost 11 aircraft and only the arrival of replacements enabled the unit to maintain ten serviceable machines.

On 31 March, the Australians were joined by the American 8th Bombardment Squadron with A-24 bombers and for two weeks in May by six P-39 Airacobras of the American 36th Pursuit Squadron. Despite the American assistance, the daily air battles over and around Port Moresby by 1 May had reduced 75 Squadron to just three airworthy machines. The American 35th, and the full 36th, Pursuit Squadrons arrived to relieve the Australian squadron. During their time in Port Moresby 75 Squadron had lost 21 aircraft and 12 pilots.

The Battle of the Coral Sea, which was fought mostly in the waters south-east of Papua in early May, diverted a Japanese naval attack against Port Moresby and removed the immediate threat. However, by May 1942 the Japanese had established themselves in the arc of islands north and east of the island of New Guinea as well as in the region around Lae and Madang on the north coast of the mainland.

Port Moresby:
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The Kokoda Track: More than 600 Australians were killed and some 1680 wounded during perhaps the most significant battle fought by Australians in World War II.

Forced to repel a Japanese invasion force, which landed at Gona on the north coast of Papua on 21 July 1942, the Australians fought in appalling conditions over the next four months. The Japanese objective was to capture Port Moresby, the main Australian base in New Guinea, by an overland strike across the Owen Stanley Range. The most direct way across these rugged mountains was by a jungle pathway known as the Kokoda Track. During the next four months, until 16 November 1942, Australian soldiers fought the Japanese, first to keep them from reaching Port Moresby and then to push them back over the Owen Stanleys to their north coast strongholds at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.

In late July 1942, as the Japanese advanced towards Kokoda village, they were engaged by forward elements of the Papuan Infantry Battalion and the Australian 39th Infantry Battalion. Despite the Australians? stubborn resistance, Kokoda fell to the larger Japanese force and by 27 August the Australians and the few Papuan troops who had stayed with them had been forced back to Isurava. Reinforcements were sent from Port Moresby: first the 53rd Battalion, which protected a side-track behind Isurava, and then the veteran 2/14th and 2/16th Battalions, which had previously served in the Middle East.

At Isurava, in the last days of August, the 39th and the 2/14th Battalions, with support further back from the 2/16th and 53rd Battalions, were able to temporarily hold the Japanese during an intense five-day action. Three days into the battle, on 29 August, in the face of yet another enemy assault, Private Bruce Kingsbury, 2/14th Battalion, was killed as he rushed forward with his Bren gun, driving back the enemy in a determined counter-attack. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the first VC awarded during the New Guinea campaigns.

Throughout September, the Australian units withdrew down the Kokoda Track, being joined by the 2/27th Battalion. They made further stands against the Japanese at Eora Creek, Templeton?s Crossing, Efogi, Mission Ridge and Ioribaiwa. Allied airmen dropped supplies and made repeated attacks on the enemy?s supply lines. During those gruelling days, the Papuan men employed as carriers played a vital role in the battle. They carried supplies forward for the troops and then, as the number of troops who were wounded or fell sick increased, carried back to safety those who were unable to walk.

Kokoda Track:
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By 16 September, after more troops had come forward from Port Moresby and dug into a defensive position at Imita Ridge, the Japanese were exhausted. They had been forced to fight hard to cross the mountains and had run out of many supplies. Following setbacks on other battlefields against Australian and American forces, which robbed them of further reinforcements, the Japanese on the Kokoda Track were ordered to withdraw. As Australian patrols pushed forward of Imita Ridge on 28 September, they found that the enemy had slipped away.

During the next six weeks, the Japanese fell back over the mountains. They were pursued by troops of the 25th Brigade ? comprising the 2/25th, 2/31st and 2/33rd Battalions ? and the 16th Brigade ? comprising the 2/1st, 2/2nd and 2/3rd Battalions ? along with the 3rd Battalion and men from medical and supply units. Significant actions were fought at Templeton?s Crossing, where it took more than a week of hard and costly fighting for the 25th Brigade to push back the enemy, and at Eora Creek where the 16th Brigade also doggedly attacked enemy strongpoints to slowly make ground. The Australians were plagued by supply shortages that increased the difficulties of jungle warfare. Finally, on 2 November, Kokoda was retaken. The Australians had one more tough battle to fight at Oivi-Gorari, where the Japanese were determined to make another stand, before they were able to finish the advance over the mountains. By 18 November the Australians had reached the Kumusi River. The battle for the Kokoda Track was over.

Between 26 August?25 September 1942 the Australians made a strategic withdrawal from Kokoda back to Imita Ridge. On 25 September the Japanese abandoned their attempt to reach Port Moresby.
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'Fuzzy wuzzy angels': The people who lived in the villages along the Kokoda Track knew little about the war until it came to them. They had lived a traditional life, with only occasional contact with Australian patrol officers. Then Australian troops began moving over the tracks, some occupying huts and trampling over gardens. As the fighting came closer, most villagers ?went bush? to camps away from the main tracks. While they were away, Australian and Japanese troops wrecked many huts and, when villages were occupied by the Japanese, Allied aircraft bombed and strafed them. Hungry soldiers raided the village crops and shot their pigs. With villages wrecked by the two armies, and dead often lying in the vicinity, the villages were no longer habitable and were not reoccupied after the battle. New villages had to be constructed nearby.

Many of the villagers also worked in support of the battle, carrying supplies forward for the troops. Teams carried seriously wounded and sick Australian soldiers all the way back to Owers' Corner. Their compassion and care of the casualties earned them admiration and respect from the Australians, who dubbed these men their ?fuzzy wuzzy angels?.

After the battle for Kokoda ended, many villagers continued working for the Allies, carrying supplies and building tracks, bridges and huts. Others joined the Papuan Infantry Battalion or the New Guinea Infantry Battalion. Gradually life returned to normal after the war but the friendship between the people of Australia and Papua New Guinea has continued to this day.

In his well-known poem,?The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels?, Sapper Bert Beros praised the work of the carriers:

Many a mother in Australia when the busy day is done
Sends a prayer to the Almighty for the keeping of her son
Asking that an angel guide him and bring him safely back
Now we see those prayers are answered on the Owen Stanley Track

For they haven't any halos only holes slashed in their ears
And their faces worked by tattoos with scratch pins in their hair
Bringing back the badly wounded just as steady as a horse
Using leaves to keep the rain off and as gentle as a nurse

Slow and careful in the bad places on the awful mountain track
The look upon their faces would make you think Christ was black
Not a move to hurt the wounded as they treat him like a saint
It's a picture worth recording that an artist's yet to paint

Many a lad will see his mother and husbands see their wives
Just because the fuzzy wuzzy carried them to save their lives
From mortar bombs and machine gun fire or chance surprise attacks
To the safety and the care of doctors at the bottom of the track

May the mothers of Australia when they offer up a prayer
Mention those impromptu angels with their fuzzy wuzzy hair.

Bert Beros

Captain GH 'Doc' Vernon, the medical officer responsible for the carriers on the Kokoda Track, wrote that 'the immediate prospect before them was grim, a meal that consisted only of rice and none too much of that, and a night of shivering discomfort for most as there was only enough blankets to issue one to every man. ['Doc' Vernon, quoted by Victor Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond: the story of the 39th Battalion, 1941-1943, Melbourne, 1988, p.125]
War_Fuzzy_Wuzzy_Angels_evac.jpg

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Milne Bay: Milne Bay is located on the south-eastern tip of Papua. Before World War II, most of the area?s inhabitants were local Papuans, the only Europeans being a few missionaries and plantation managers. The area came to the attention of senior Allied officers in May 1942, when General Douglas MacArthur decided that an airbase should be established so that aircraft could patrol over the eastern seaward approaches to Port Moresby and raid Rabaul.

Development of the first airstrips at Milne Bay began in July 1942. Australian infantry and American engineers were sent to begin clearing land for the airstrips and the base that would support them. Over the following weeks, more ships arrived, bringing more men, supplies and equipment for base development, and by the end of August nearly 9000 Allied personnel, mostly Australian, were based at Milne Bay.

The environment at Milne Bay was unpleasant and depressing. It rained every day during the construction period and the few roads became impassable to vehicles. Living in rain-soaked tents on muddy ground, the men felt that ?even Hell would be preferable?, at least they would be dry. The area was also one of the worst places in the world for malaria, and many men became infected during the first weeks there, though it would take a couple of months before an epidemic broke out.

The Allies expected an attack. The inexperienced militia infantry brigade that had previously served only in Australia was now reinforced by a veteran Australian Imperial Force (AIF) brigade that had served in the Middle East. Unfortunately, their training in jungle warfare was hindered by the requirement to lend many men to the construction effort.

The Allies expected an attack. The inexperienced militia infantry brigade that had previously served only in Australia was now reinforced by a veteran Australian Imperial Force (AIF) brigade that had served in the Middle East. Unfortunately, their training in jungle warfare was hindered by the requirement to lend many men to the construction effort.

On 25 August, Kittyhawk fighters of 75 and 76 Squadrons RAAF, based at Milne Bay, attacked Japanese barges that had been intended for use in an attack on Milne Bay. In spite of the loss of these barges, on the next night the Japanese landed a force of some 2000 marines at Milne Bay in an attempt to seize the airstrips and secure a base from which to provide naval and air support for the battle on the Kokoda Track. Believing that only a few infantry companies protected the area, the Japanese landed just before midnight on 26 August. They landed east of the Allied airfields and had to advance 11 kilometres to capture them. The Japanese troops overwhelmed and pushed back the first Australian battalions encountered, the 61st and 2/10th Battalions, but began suffering heavy casualties when the Kittyhawk fighters of 75 and 76 Squadrons RAAF began bombing and strafing them. Nevertheless, they continued advancing for a few days and reached the edge of one of the airfields, No 3 Airstrip, where the attack was turned back by Australian and American troops who were dug in and armed with artillery, mortars and heavy machine-guns.

Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea:
Milne_Bay.gif

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The Australians then counter-attacked, pushing the Japanese back towards their original landing area. Finally, 12 days after that landing, after bitter fighting along the coastline, the Japanese evacuated the survivors of the attack on the night of 6-7 September. The Australians had suffered 373 battle casualties, of whom 161 were dead or missing. Several captured men had been bayoneted. The Japanese death toll was at least 700.

Although the battle was relatively minor in scale, it was a significant morale booster as the first real land defeat suffered by the Japanese. The Allied victory at Milne Bay showed that the Japanese soldier was not invincible.

After the battle, the Allies continued to develop the base at Milne Bay to support the counter-offensive along the northern coast of Papua and New Guinea.

Members of the 61st Battalion, an Australian infantry patrol, at Milne Bay in October 1942. Although taken after the battle, this photograph gives some indication of the conditions that the infantry endured. [AWM 013335]
Soldiers_Milne_Bay.jpg

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The Japanese retreat March 1943-January 1944: By early 1943, Japanese forces still held most of New Guinea including the main coastal settlements of Lae and Salamaua. Australians defeated a Japanese force at Wau in late January and early February 1943. By May 1943, the Allies had captured Japanese positions near Salamauau: first Mubo, then areas of Lababia Ridge where the Australians repulsed two Japanese battalions. Salamaua finally fell to on 11 September 1943.

Also in September, a joint Australian and American air, land and sea operation recaptured Lae. Further actions at Kaiapit , Finschhafen, Sattelberg and the Markham-Ramu Valley pushed the Japanese further back into the Finisterre mountains but despite Australian efforts, the fighting for Shaggy Ridge continued on into 1944.

In February 1944 Australian troops worked with American units at Saidor and in April occupied Madang and Alexishafen.

Map of the Black Cat Trail – Wau – Salamaua area:
BlackcattrailMap.jpg

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Statistics as shown here:
Forces.jpg

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Bomana War Cemetery situated on the outskirts of Port Moresby:
Bomana_500Cemetery.jpg

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Lae War Cemetery:
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Lest We Forget:
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