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Sanananda: a Bastard of a Place
The Battle for the Beachhead New Guinea 1942-43
Brief Description
With the Australian troops crossing the Kumusi River in mid-November 1942, after pushing the Japanese back along the Kokoda Track to the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the time had come to face the entrenched Japanese at their beachhead at Gona, Buna, and Sanananda. The...
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Sanananda: a Bastard of a Place
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Description
With the Australian troops crossing the Kumusi River in mid-November 1942, after pushing the Japanese back along the Kokoda Track to the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the time had come to face the entrenched Japanese at their beachhead at Gona, Buna, and Sanananda.
The end of the Kokoda Campaign in mid-November 1942 marked a turning point for the Australians, but the fighting was far from over. Within days, the battles for the Japanese beachheads would commence. The fighting for the Japanese beachheads was among the fiercest of the whole Pacific War and the first combined large-scale operation between Australian and American troops against the Japanese.
By the 3rd of January 1943, the Japanese beachheads at Gona and Buna were finally in Australian and American hands after almost two months of desperate fighting. One beachhead, however, remained to be taken, the best defended, not only in terms of its deep defence and network of supporting bunkers and slit trenches, but also by its large deep swamps and jungle. Hundreds of men had already been killedβAustralian and Americanβin trying to take Sanananda. It was recognised that this beachhead was the worst of the three battlefields. Isolated pockets of Australians and Americans confronted well-dug-in and camouflaged positions, often on small 'islands' in the fetid and crocodile-infested swamps. It would be another three weeks before Sanananda fell to the Australian and American forces.
It was appropriately described by Sergeant Bill Spencer, 2/9th Battalion as: A bastard of a place.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781923144750
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 30 October 2024
Country: Australia
Imprint: Big Sky Publishing
Illustration: B & W Photos and Maps
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 3886.0mm
Height: 5842.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 480
About the Author
David W. Cameron is a Canberra-based author who has written several books on Australian military and convict history, as well as human and primate evolution, including over 60 internationally peer-reviewed papers for various journals and book chapters. He received 1st Class Honours in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Sydney and later went on to complete his PhD in palaeoanthropology at the Australian National University. He is a former Australian Research Council (ARC) Post Doctorial Fellow at the Australian National University (School of Archaeology) and an ARC QEII Fellow at the University of Sydney (Department of Anatomy and Histology). He has participated and led several international fieldwork teams in Australia, the Middle East (Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates), Europe (Hungary) and Asia (Japan, Vietnam and India) and has participated in many conferences and museum studies throughout the world.
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