11. War comes to Papua New Guinea.

Before the war there was no real Australian interest in PNG. There was a lack of economic endeavour and consequent poor financial gain caused by a paucity of funding and protective legislation.Then there was the ruggedness of the land itself. There was a deep cultural ignorance and unawareness of PNG’s strategic significance.Australian policy and Australians were looking elsewhere!

Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battle Ship Row at the beginning of the attack.

Then the Japanese attacked the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour on 7-8 December 1941, followed by the loss of HMS Prince of Wales  and HMS Repulse two days later. Hong Kong fell and then the Japanese attacked Rabaul on 23 January 1942.

Map of Japanese landings at Corregidor

Ambon was attacked a week later and on 31 December the Commonwealth Forces withdrew from the Malayan peninsula into the bastion of Fortress Singapore. The nightmare continued with the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. With Singapore gone little stood between the Japanese and the shores of Australia.

War correspondent Robert Sherrod, of Time Magazine,

in front of the remains of the Darwin Post Office, June 1942.

The first air raid on Port Moresby on3 February was like a bucket of cold water being tossed over the Australian public but on 19 February when the Japanese struck at mainland Australia through the air raids on Darwin, Australia’s northern-most city and the Japanese landing on Timor sent shockwaves through the nation.

The 2nd AIF's main strength consisted of five divisions: the 6th, 7^th, 8^th and 9th, and the 1^st Armoured Division. Divisions numbered 1st to 5th were Militia divisions, as were the 10th through 12th and the 2nd and 3rd Armoured Divisions. Units of the Second AIF prefixed their numbers with a '2/' (pronounced 'second') to distinguish themselves from Militia units. Where such a unit did not exist in the First AIF or the Militia, the '2/' was not initially used, but later it was generally adopted as identifying a unit of the Second AIF.

The 6^th, 7^th and 8^th Divisions were in the Middle East. The 7th Division, under Major General Arthur Allen and other Australian units formed the body of the Allied invasion of Lebanon and Syria in 1941. The division's 18th Infantry Brigade fought at Tobruk. Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific, elements of the 7th Division were sent to the Dutch East Indies, reinforcing a few 8th division units. The bulk of the 7th Division was deployed in support of Militia battalions engaged in a rearguard action on the Kokoda Track Campaign in New Guinea.

In the second half of 1941 the Australian government and the Australian Army had began to consider how best to strengthen the nation’s home defences and to provide the home army with more experienced commanders. To this end it began to withdraw some of its more experienced officers from the Divisions fighting the Germans in the Middle East. Three of those were commanders promoted on high merit: Brigadiers Rowell, Vasey and Clowes. On January 3 1942 the British wanted two of the AIF Divisions in the Middle East shifted to the Far East. The 6^th and 7^th Divisions were chosen. The Japanese rapid subjugation of their destination points soon changed that. What followed was a confrontation between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Australian Prime Minister John Curtin. Curtin won the confrontation and the convoy carrying the 7^th Division, one to shoulder the burden of the PNG Campaign, arrived back in Australia during march 1942.

Most of the 8th Division' was sent to Malaya to strengthen the garrison prior to war with Japan, while the remaining battalions were deployed in the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea. Consequently, most of the division was lost at the Fall of Singapore in February 1942, where the division lost 1,789 killed and 1,306 wounded; another 15,395 were captured. The divisional commander, Major General Henry Gordon Bennett created an enduring controversy by escaping.

On 18 March 1942 General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia from his post in the Philippines (rapidly falling to the Japanese invaders) on the orders of president Roosevelt. On that date it was announced that he had been appointed  Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific Area. MacArthur had only 2 Divisions of raw, poorly led young conscript American troops in Australia whose build-up would not be completed until May. Australia had the recently returned and battle-hardened 7^th Division and a Brigade of the Sixth Division in addition to five poorly trained Divisions of militia. It was the Australians who were to provide the ‘blood’ for MacArthur’s South West Pacific defence.

General Blamey arrived back in Australia on 23 March to learn that he had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of all Australian Military Forces. Not without some degree of friction as Major General Herring, Brigadier Steel and Major-General Vasey called on the Defence Minister, Frank Forde, with the aim of ‘dethroning’ Blamey through his enforced retirement. Rowell refused to join this group. Blamey survived but lost out to MacArthur who Prime Minister Curtin appointed as his chief military adviser. Blamey had to learn from the Australian government what Curtin and MacArthur had decided as the best course of action in processing the war. Blamey did have one victory. He accepted General Sturde’s restructuring recommendations for the Australian army. The state-based command system was disbanded.. The army was divided into the First Army, responsible for the defence of New South Wales and Queensland: the Second Army, responsible for the defence of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania: the 3^rd Corps to defend Western Australia: North Territory Force: the forces in PNG and the Land Headquarters Units. There was a concomitant shake-up of the general officer staffing.

Senior Allied commanders in New Guinea in October 1942.

 Left to right: Mr Frank Forde (Australian Minister for the Army);

MacArthur; General Sir Thomas Blamey, Allied Land Forces;

Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, Allied Air Forces;

 Lieutenant General Edmund Herring, New Guinea Force;

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker, V Bomber Command

In April 1942 the Japanese Imperial Headquarters now ordered the capture of Port Moresby, Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia as a jumping off point to the invasion and capture of Australia and that to become a base to strike at the United States. Port Moresby was identified as the first objective but on May 1 the American Navy played its tactical trump card. By deploying their carriers USS Lexington and Yorktown into the Coral Sea the Americans were able to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet bound for Port Moresby. While the Americans lost more shipping and ordinance than the Japanese the telling difference was that the invasion fleet was turned back and Port Moresby gained a critical reprieve.

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