World War 2 In Review

Japanese tanks bogged down at Milne Bay, New Guinea. Published 1948 From southern China and the Malay Peninsula stretches the vast co­lo­nial empire known as the Dutch East Indies, most of which fell to the Jap­a­nese in the first six months of the war. New Guinea, one of the largest islands in the world, sprawls over a vast area, the western half be­long­ing to the Dutch East Indies, and the east­ern part, known as Pa­pua, belonging to Australia. Pa­pua has a population estimated to be 1,900,000. The most important harbor on New Guinea is Port Moresby, which faces south and west and which the Japanese planned to take before they made an attempt to invade Aus­tralia. Many attempts were made to capture and occupy Port Moresby, but the enemy failed each time. On the left flank of the Allied forces as they moved northward up the Solomons-New Guinea ladder, Amer­i­can, Australian and New Zea­land troops under the over­all com­mand of General Mac­Arthur, went from one strategic po...

 Japanese landing at Lingayen Gulf, 22 December 1941. (Naval History and Heritage Command NH73488) Published in 1949 About the same time that the Japanese were attacking Hawaii, Midway, Wake, and Guam, they were also beginning their assault on the Philippines. That was Monday, 8 December 1941 (7 December, Pearl Harbor time). Two squadrons of bombers struck at Clark Field almost simultaneously with the bombing of Baguio, the Philippine capital in the mountains of northern Luzon. About the same time enemy planes were bombing the island of Mindanao, some 600 miles south of Manila. Before proceeding to a recital of the Japanese conquest of the Philippines, it is fitting to mention at some length two, of the many, great Americans on whose shoulders fell the full weight of responsibility for the defense of those islands. General Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur, son of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, graduated from West Point at the head of his class in 1903. In the Fir...