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Major World War 2 bases in Papua New Guinea
US Naval Base New Guinea
New Guinea located in relation to Melanesia and the South Pacific
With the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) the Allies tried to limit the advance of Japan. ABDACOM did not have enough troops or supplies to carry out the mission. The northern parts of New Guinea was captured by Japan.
The US Naval built bases for troops, ships, submarines, PT boats, seaplanes, supply depots, training camps, fleet recreation facilities, and ship repair depots. To keep supplies following the bases were supplied by the vast II United States Merchant Navy. Some of the bases were shared with the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. By spring 1943, the build up of the US Navy to support the Pacific War had caused overcrowding at the ports on the east coast of Australia. To help the US Navy Seabees departed Naval Base Brisbane on 19 June 1943 to set up a new base in Milne Bay. The Naval Base Milne Bay was a new major United States Navy sea and airbase base built on Milne Bay in Milne Bay Province in south-eastern Papua New Guinea. New Guinea is a tropical rainforest island near the equator. Troops had to battle heavy rains and tropical diseases. After the war in 1945, the New Guinea bases closed.
Japan built a large base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain with 110,000 Japanese troops. Rabaul was invasion bypassed in the island hoping Pacific war efforts. Rabaul was attacked by air and had its supply lines cut off by sea, called Operation Cartwheel, making the neutralisation of Rabaul.
As in other theaters of war Japan's treatment of POWs and civilians was very poor. Many were exhausted from hunger and disease. Many deaths were caused by the diversion of food, such as rice, to Japanese troops from the New Guinea population. Some were turned into Japan's forced labourers, called romusha. International Red Cross packages were not distributed to POWs. In the New Guinea there were both massacres and executions of POWs:
At the Tol Plantation massacre 160 Australian were executed and at nearby Waitavalo Plantation, another group of eleven Australian prisoners were shot.
On the Japanese destroyer Akikaze on 18 March 1943 German residents from Wewak, New Guinea were executed. About thirty German residents, including German clergymen, nuns with two children were taken after Japan suspected a radio transmitter at Wewak was reporting ship movements to the Americans.
Australian POW, Sgt. Leonard Siffleet, captured in New Guinea, was beheaded in 1943.
The Japanese Lieutenant Hisata Tomiyasu found guilty of killing 14 Indian soldiers and of cannibalism at Wewak in 1944. A common activity in New Guinea.
Gallery
Pacific War Theater Areas map 1942
Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s
Map New Britain Island, to the northeast of New Guinea Island
1943 Backhander Staging Area in New Britain and New Guinea
Mizuma, Masanori (2013). ひと目でわかる「アジア解放」時代の日本精神 [Japanese spirit in the "Liberation of Asia" era that can be seen at a glance] (in Japanese). PHP Institute. ISBN978-4-569-81389-9.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1998). The Mute's Soliloquy. Translated by Willem Samuels. Penguin. ISBN0-14-028904-6.
Queensland Ex-POW Reparation Committee (1990). Nippon Very Sorry, Many Men Must Die: Submission to the United Nations Commission of Human Rights (ECOSOC Resolution 1503). Brisbane, Queensland: Boolarong. ISBN978-0-86439-112-4.
Vickers, Adrian (2013). A History Modern of Indonesia (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-1-107-62445-0.
New Guinea located in relation to Melanesia and the South Pacific
New Guinea Island
_with_PT_boat_at_Milen_Bay_1943.jpg)
Pacific War Theater Areas map 1942
Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s
Map New Britain Island, to the northeast of New Guinea Island
1943 Backhander Staging Area in New Britain and New Guinea
Location of Naval Base Milne Bay
Milne Bay with key locations
MV Anshun lying on her side at Gili Gili Dock, in Milne Bay, New Guinea, 1942
Camp Seabee Naval Base Brisbane, base building trips
Gurney Airfield in 1944
US Army, LLU's 47 General Hospital, Milne Bay
Surgical ward treatment at the 268th Station Hospital, Base A, Milne Bay, Left to right, Sgt. Lawrence McKr
Auxiliary floating drydock, ARD, built by the Pacific Bridge Company
USS PT-105
Milne Bay's Turnbull grave in 1943
An Australian P-40 at Milne Bay
An Australian Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun of the 2/9th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery at Milne Bay No. 1 Airstrip
Australian - USA camp at Milne Bay
MV Anshun lying on her side at Gili Gili Dock, in Milne Bay, New Guinea, 1942
USS Fulton was stationed at the Milne Bay to service submarines
South Pacific islands in 1945
_at_Pearl_Harbor,_Oahu,_Hawaii_(USA),_on_8_June_1942_(80-G-10120).jpg)
