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BUNA,
Papua, New Guinea
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Buna was a
pestilential area of anonymous tropical rainforest, only made
significant when the Japanese landed there in July 1942,
intending to take Port Moresby via the Kokoda Track across the Owen
Stanley Mountains..
While the
battle raged inland, Japanese engineers built fortifications around
Buna (their western flank)
Gona
and Sanananda. Defeated on the
Kokoda Track in mid-November 1942, the Japanese retreated into the
fortified beachheads, and dug in.
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The battles
that raged around Buna,
Gona
and Sanananda between Nov 19, 1942 and
Jan 22, 1943 were among the most difficult and costly of the war in
Papua New Guinea. About 1,300 Australians, 1,000 Americans and an
unknown number of Papua New Guineans were killed in action or died
of wounds, or illness, with more wounded or suffering tropical
diseases. More than 6,000 Japanese were killed. |
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�
2005 Corregidor Historic Society - all rights reserved |
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