The Struggle for Port Moresby

(Preview Version) Introduction to the book The Second World War is probably one of the most famous conflicts in human history, and it is probably one of the most covered by historical books. It shall be noted however that most of the publications cover, mainly, the European Theatre of Operations (ETO), that included the campaigns in North Africa, in Italy and in Western Europe. There are plentiful of publications also on the Eastern Front, where the two titans (Nazi Germany and Soviet Union) fought some of the bloodiest battles in history. Regarding the Pacific Theatre of Operations there are less documentations, except for “famous battles” like Pearl Harbour, Midway or the Philippines. In honour of all those who, regardless of the side, lost something or someone in some remote places of the Planet Earth, we have decided to dedicate our efforts in studying on one of those “almost forgotten” (at least in non-Australian literature) campaigns: The Kokoda Track Campaign (1942- 1943). This book is the result of the various researches that our team, of The Modern Warfare Historian (TMWH) channel, have done since March 2020. All the information included into this publication are, however, to be taken with a grain of salt. This is because, since no one of our team was personally on the battlefield, we must have to rely on other sources and sometimes, sadly, we have had to try and understand what was the reality when there were conflicting information. This is especially true in the Kokoda Track Campaign, as it was composed of a series of battles deep in the Jungle in one of the most inhospitable terrain of our planet, therefore there are instances in which we were not sure where the specific dispositions of units were. There have also been cases of “problems” with units organizations and, sometimes, even ship organizations or technical data. We tried our best in indicating all the possible conflict of sources, either in the text or in the footnotes. We also tried our best in creating detailed Maps and Organization Charts in order to give the reader as much information as possible, for a better understanding of the topic. Our choice for the topic fell on the Kokoda Track campaign for various reasons: First, we do have personal connections with Australians, to whom we also dedicate our publication. Second, as already indicated before, it is one of the various “almost forgotten” campaigns of the Second World War, and we honestly wanted a challenge in trying to research something with very little information around. Third, the campaign was physically “linear” (on a single track, the Kokoda Track), thus is has been almost easy, for us, to research the various battles as they had a linear time connection with one another. This gave us the possibility to have a linear timetable, with just some notable exceptions for very important battles in the area. This is because, if we had just focused on the Kokoda Track, the title of the book would have probably been “The Struggle for the Kokoda Track”. However, in order to give the reader a better strategical situation, the focus of this publication have been “enlarged” to other zones of the South Pacific area. This book will, in fact, cover the following topics: - The initial situation in the Pacific in late 1941 and the reasons on why the war started in the first place. - The Japanese drive towards the South Pacific, with the invasion of New Britain and New Ireland (Operation R). - The Japanese sea offensives to cut off Australia from the supply lines with the United States (Operation MO and FS) and the fighting in and around Guadalcanal (Operation Ka and SE). - The Japanese offensive on the Kokoda Track. - The fighting in the Milne Bay area (Operation RE). - The Allied counter-offensive on the Kokoda Track. - The Japanese last ditch offensives (Battle of Wau, Battle of the Bismarck Sea and Operation I-Go). The campaigns that took place after Operation I-Go in the Papua New Guinea area, such as the Lae and Salamaua Campaign or the New Britain Campaign, will not be covered, as when they took place, the “Japanese threat” was not on Port Moresby anymore. The Japanese invasions of Rabaul, Kavieng, Lae and Salamaua are, however, covered in this publications, in order to give a better strategical view to the reader. Chapters list: The Japanese on the Offensive . 1 Sources . 34 Infographics and Maps . 35 The Japanese on the offensive: From regional power to a world power 7th of December 1941. Probably one of the most famous dates of the entire Second World War. The day in which the Empire of the Rising Sun shocked the world, when it attacked the United States’ naval base of Pearl Harbour, in the Hawaii Islands. In order to understand the reasons of why this attack was done, it is necessary to slightly go back in time. For almost all of its existence, Japan had been an isolated nation, a sleeping giant that woke up just towards the second half of the 1800s. The first major action in which the soon-to-be Japanese empire would found itself would be the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895). During this brief yet important conflict, both the Japanese Army and Japanese Navy came out victorious against the Chinese counterpart under the Qing dynasty. Thanks to a very rapid modernization of the Navy, based on the British Royal Navy, the Japanese sea forces were able to defeat the Beiyang Fleet (China) at the Battle of the Yalu River (17th September 1894) and at the Battle of Weihaiwei (Late January & Early February 1895). The speed of the Japanese victories not only won the war for Japan, it also surprised foreign observers, and the Japanese Navy had started to become a force to be reckoned with. After victory in the First Sino-Japanese war, Japan won Formosa (modern day Taiwan), the islands of Penghu (in the Taiwan Strait) and the Liaodong Peninsula. During the Boxer Rebellion (June 1900), Japan joined the European forces during the attack on the Taku Forts, and this prompted Great Britain in signing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902). This would later be 1 fundamental during the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) as it kept France (that signed a treaty with the Russian Empire to counter-balance the Anglo- Japanese Alliance) out of the conflict, giving the Japanese the possibility to concentrate their forces against the Russian ones. The Japanese wanted to control Korea and Manchuria and, when the Tzar’s forces occupied Manchuria (1904), Japan occupied Korea and the war started. This was the first conflict in Japanese history against a European Empire. Here, the Japanese Navy fought some minor battles against the Russian 1st Pacific Squadron, mainly through activities of mine warfare, while the Army sieged and conquered Port Arthur (2nd January 1905), and the Russians lost the entire fleet stationed there. The Russian Baltic Fleet was sent to the area in order to regain momentum, but were defeated in the Battle of Tsushima (27-28th May 1905), in which almost the entire Russian Fleet was destroyed, while the Japanese Navy suffered minor losses (only three torpedo boats were sunk). The Russians had lost, and this was the first time in which a non-European nation was able to defeat at sea an European Empire. On the 5th of September 1905, with the treaty of Portsmouth, the Japanese acquired control over Korea and part of Sakhalin Island. The Empire of the Rising Sun was now a force to be reckoned with. In 1914 the Japanese joined the Entente and occupied the German bases of Rabaul (New Britain), the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands. The Japanese navy was also used to keep under pressure the German East Asia Squadron and helping, indirectly, towards the victory at the Battle of the Falkland Islands (8th December 1914). In November 1914 Japan took control of the Tsingtao base (Bay of Kiautschou, China) and at the Versailles Treaty (1919) they were rewarded control over the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands, except the Island of Guam that was a United States territory since 1899. By the end of the war, the Japanese navy was probably the third in the world, after the British and the American ones. 2 In the aftermath of the First World War, the international players decided to limit the naval expansion, with the stipulation of the Washington Naval Treaty (1922). The Treaty imposed limits in the construction of ships, with the suspension of all Battleship and Battlecruiser construction projects, and the limit for Heavy cruisers tonnage to 10’000 ton, with a maximum armament of 8-inch guns (203mm). This Treaty indirectly pushed the signatory nations towards the conversion of capital ships into aircraft carriers, and Japan would become the main beneficiary of this. Also, the eastern Empire was helped by Article XIX of the Treaty, that indicated that no new fortifications should be built in the Singapore- Philippines-Hawaii area. This created an advantage as a fortified enemy (either British, American or both combined) would be harder to dislodge, and this Article was fundamental in convincing Japan to sign the Treaty. In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, and established Manchukuo as a puppet state. At first the members of the League of Nations protested, but as their attention was more focused on Germany and Italy, they did nothing. To add fuel to the fire of international tensions, in 1934 Japan denounced the Washington Naval Treaty and, in 1936, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany.

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