New Guinea

One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.

Follow the antics of Clyde & Neville as they annoy friends and battle enemies, on water, in the air and deep in the jungles of the South Pacific during W.W. II, where they never lose their sense of humor- fighting the enemy or searching for the perfect beer. They are simple plantation owners on a South Seas Island before being chased off by the Japanese. They volunteer as Coast Watchers, working behind enemy lines. Problems occur, many of their own making and dog them as they confound both the Japanese and the Allies. Never having learned to put up with bureaucrats they go about their work,...

Powerfully written by Australia's leading military historian, Saving Port Moresby commemorates the 80th Anniversary of the Battles in New Guinea. Japanese Major General Horii Tomitarō, commanding the South Seas Force, was tasked, after taking Kokoda Plateau in late July, with entering the Owen Stanley Range to capture Port Morseby. After the battles for Deniki and Isurava, his troops were pushing south through the mountains. The Australians under Brigadier Arnold Potts, however, were not in route, but were involved in a determined fighting withdraw.

Within 24 hours of the Japanese invasion of Northern New Guinea at Gona in July 1942, the Australian militiamen of ‘B’ Company, 39th Battalion, spent four weeks fighting a delaying action against a crack Japanese force outnumbered by three to one. By mid-August, the rest of the battalion had arrived, and these men took up a position at Isurava, in the heart of the cloud-covered mountains and jungles of the Owen Stanley Range. The battle for Isurava would be the defining battle of the Kokoda Campaign and has rightfully been described as Australia’s Thermopylae.

While the Marine Corps island-hopped across the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Saipan to Iwo Jima, the U.S. Army was locked in a grueling, multiyear fight for the jungle island of New Guinea, which in Japanese hands threatened both Australia and the vital supply lines stretching to the United States. Forces under Douglas MacArthur intended to deny the Japanese this opportunity and use New Guinea as a stepping stone on the road back to the Philippines and, beyond it, Japan.

During WWII, the spring/summer of 1942 bore little good news for the Allies. The Japanese Army steamrolled south, poising at the doorstep of Australia. In a surprising turn that lifts the Allied spirits and captures the American press, U.S. Marines land and hold Guadalcanal despite a brutal onslaught of fresh Japanese forces. For the first time, the press reported, the enemy stopped. But at the same time an elite 6,000 man Japanese assault force lands a few hundred miles away on New Guinea, racing up an incredibly rugged and steep trail high into the mountains known as the Kakoda Track. ...

This is a fictionalized version of my late father's World War Two memoirs. It begins in the twenty-fifth century when a mischievous young woman inadvertently travels back in time with her 'toys' of the future. This tale is included in the anthology "Willful Women II". My most memorable experience about this story occurred when an elderly gentleman at a book fair saw the photo my father had taken from a mountaintop of numerous wartime ships gathering in a South Pacific staging area for battle. He excitedly exclaimed, "That's my ship, the U.S.S. West Virginia is one of the ships in this photo...

World War II was the greatest conflict of the 20th century. Fought on every continent except Antarctica and across every ocean, it was truly a “world war.” Like many other wars, over time it evolved. Modern technology and strategic advancements changed the rules of combat forever, allowing for widespread attacks from the air, the ground, and the sea. The war encompassed the feats of extraordinary heroes and the worst villains imaginable, with thrilling triumphs and heartrending tragedies. VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC takes readers through the final battles that led to Japan’s defeat and the...

The accounts in the contents of my father’s diaries expose the raw truth about the sacrifices, trauma, and the intense drive that drove our soldiers to fight and to win World War II. My father realized our God-given freedoms were being threatened and in harm’s way. I’ve heard him say: “There was a mission at hand and any sacrifices I made were all worth the fight to save this country from all the evil that was trying to overtake us.” He was also very explicit about how he felt toward those enemies. Some excerpts and entries in his diaries and letters are not politically correct. I...

This audiobook is about living as a young white woman with a tribe in pre-independence Papua New Guinea where the tribe had limited European contact but welcomed me to share their village life, customs, travels by outrigger canoe, and ceremonies. Their coastal language was only spoken within a small radius, with each tribe having its own totems and traditions. The story tells of a Romeo and Juliet-style suicide tragedy, but also highlights the joys....