AUSTRALIA
AN AUSTRALIAN AIRFIELD, 18 September 1942. An Australian sentry is on guard near a Flying Fortress in right foreground as soldiers await planes to go to New Guinea (top); troops boarding a C-47 transport plane for New Guinea (bottom). During the last days of September 1942 the Allies launched a counterattack in Papua, New Guinea, thus starting the Papua Campaign. American troops for this action were sent to Port Moresby from Australia, partly by plane and partly by boat.
NEW GUINEA
MEN WADING ACROSS THE SAMBOGA, near Dobodura, New Guinea. The enemy fell back under the weight of the 28 September 1942 attack. Australians laboriously made their way over steep mountain trails of the Owen Stanley Range while most of the American troops, a total of about 4,900, were flown overland to Jaure in C-47’s. This was the first large-scale airborne troop movement of the war. Troops from Milne Bay garrison occupied Goodenough Island early in November.
NEW GUINEA
