New Guinea - Huon Peninsula / Markham and Ramu Valley /Finisterre Ranges Campaigns (World War 2, 4 September 1943 to 19 January 1944)

About This Campaign

New Guinea - Huon Peninsula / Markham and Ramu Valley /Finisterre Ranges Campaigns

After the defeat of the Japanese forces along  the northern beaches of New Guinea at Buna, Gona, Salamaua and later Wau, the stage was set for the next phase of clearing Japanese forces from the north coast.  Attention centred on Lae and the Huon Peninsula.

The plan for capture of Lae was to entail a pincer movement.  The 9th Division was to make an amphibious landing east of the town and then advance upon it along the coast.  Meanwhile the 7th Division would be flown into Nadzab in the Markham Valley and advance on Lae from the west. The 5th (Militia) Division would continue its operations west of Salamaua to divert Japanese attention from Lae.

Extract from AWM 'Wartime' (see link in sidebar)

The New Guinea offensives of 1943–44 were the single largest series of connected operations Australia has ever mounted. While the supreme command was, of course, American and while the campaign depended upon American air and naval support, the New Guinea battles were Australia’s own. They involved tens of thousands of troops, both in combatant units and in the massive logistic infrastructure that jungle warfare demanded.

They involved units of all three Australian services. Though the common image of Australians in the New Guinea campaigns is of a soldier in jungle green, the RAN and RAAF provided vital support. The navy protected the convoys carrying men and supplies to New Guinea and often charted the coastline on which they landed. They involved vessels of all sizes, from the Fairmile launches raiding the Japanese-held coast to the big landing ships carrying the 9th Division into the amphibious landings near Lae. The RAAF, operating as part of the US Fifth Air Force, provided both direct air support against Japanese positions and carried men and supplies in and wounded out of the battle. Virtually every type operated by the RAAF took part in the campaigns, from Boomerang artillery spotters to the Beaufighters and Beauforts providing close support, and the Kittyhawks which protected them, and the Dakotas on which transport in the islands depended.

 

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Names

Showing 8 people of interest from campaign

EAST, William George

Service number QX10337
Corporal
Born 23 Jan 1915

LOXTON, Frederick Ewen Cameron

Service number QX6030
Major
2nd/9th Infantry Battalion
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 28 Apr 1912

BRIDLE, Wallace Vivian

Service number NX111809
Private
2nd/12th Infantry Battalion
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 26 Apr 1917

GOLDSWORTHY, Ernest Clifford

Service number SX18714
Private
2nd/10th Infantry Battalion
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 20 Mar 1921

BUTLER, Vivian James

Service number QX26122
Private
2nd/9th Infantry Battalion
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 4 Aug 1920

HARRISON, Robert

Service number 410054
Flight Sergeant
Born 30 Sep 1918

DANIELL, Ronald Ernest

Service number QX579
Sapper
2nd/13th Field Company / Squadron RAE
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 21 Sep 1916

DERRICK, Thomas Currie

Service number SX7964
Lieutenant
2nd/48th Infantry Battalion
Australian Military Forces (WW2)
Born 20 Mar 1914