The battle for New Guinea

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by Harry Ree, Aug 12, 2007.

  1. ozjohn39

    ozjohn39 Senior Member

    Geoff,

    I will blame old timers disease, but I cannot find any reference to prior knowledge (via code interception) of the jap landings at Milne Bay in your 'Australians at War' reference.



    John.
     
  2. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    Geoff,

    I will blame old timers disease, but I cannot find any reference to prior knowledge (via code interception) of the jap landings at Milne Bay in your 'Australians at War' reference.



    John.

    Hi John,

    I should have said that I would make the assumption that if they were reading their code for Coral Sea and for Midway that the same coding would have been used for traffic concerning another point near Port Moresby.

    Maybe somebody might have some further "concrete" info. We had a lot of troops there (the Japanese did not know how many) and three airfields so there is a good chance that they did.

    Cheers

    Geoff
     
  3. ozjohn39

    ozjohn39 Senior Member

    Thanks Geoff,

    It would seem logical, but the timing of the dispatch of the 18th Brigade etc to that particular point at that particular time surely cannot be just good fortune or good planning.

    But for some reason I have never seen it mentioned as was Coral Sea or Midway.

    John.
     
  4. BarbaraWT

    BarbaraWT Member

    Quite right, the Aussies inflicted the first land defeat on the Japanese in WW2. I actually think the Australians (under Monash) won WWI as well.
    Barbara
     
  5. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  6. Sam16

    Sam16 Junior Member

    My Grandfather was at Milne Bay,I've just discovered.How proud am I to learn this.Having a son in the Armed forces,it was great to tell him of his family military history.No soldier is less important than another,but its nice to know my Grandfather had a hand in changing the battle in N.G
     
    BarbaraWT likes this.
  7. Tom S

    Tom S WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I have seen a memorial photo " Last Message " Honoring memory of Australian Catalina crew that found and stayed over Japanese Invasion Fleet ( on way to New Guinea ) in Bismark sea until shot down by Jap fighter. Could their radio transmissions be the advanced warning of landing at Milne Bay.?
    Tom Sheridan. ( Catalina club.)
     
  8. BarbaraWT

    BarbaraWT Member

    All losses are irreplaceable :(
     
  9. BarbaraWT

    BarbaraWT Member

    Hi, these are very flippant comments considering the number of lives lost defending PNG!
    I also wonder if you know there is a location where it's possible to walk to Australia from New Guinea when the tides are low enough ?
     
    spidge likes this.
  10. BarbaraWT

    BarbaraWT Member

    Hi Geoff and John
    It's interesting to compare manpower in this battle with total figures for all the battles for New Guinea. Wikipedia says the total manpower (all battles) for the Allies was 42,000 and Japan had 350,000 - https://tinyurl.com/y8qncgtl
     
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