Buna, Papua New Guinea
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Buna | |
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![]() The memorial plaque at the entrance to Buna Village, dedicated to Herman Bottcher and the 32nd Red Arrow Division Infantry Division. | |
Coordinates: 8°40′S 148°24′E / 8.667°S 148.400°E | |
Country | Papua New Guinea |
Province | Oro (Northern) |
Time zone | UTC+10 (AEST) |
Buna is a village in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It was the site in part, of the Battle of Buna–Gona during World War II, when it constituted a variety of native huts and a handful of houses with an airstrip. Buna was the trailhead to the Kokoda Track leading to Kokoda.
History
[edit]Buna was the site of a handful of houses, a dozen or so native huts, and an airfield acting as a trailhead up the Kokoda Track to the foothills village of Kokoda (see Kokoda Track campaign).
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Wounded_Australian_soldier_led_by_a_Papuan_orderly_at_Buna.jpg/200px-Wounded_Australian_soldier_led_by_a_Papuan_orderly_at_Buna.jpg)
During World War II, Imperial Japanese troops invaded on 21–22 July 1942 and established it as a base (see Buna Airfield). Six months later,[1] Buna was recaptured by the Australian and American armies during the Battle of Buna-Gona on 2 January 1943[2] during the New Guinea campaign in the South West Pacific Area. The Fifth Air Force established air bases there as the Allied counter-offensive against Japan picked up the pace and continued operations to isolate the major Japanese base at Rabaul and attack Lae and points west.
For weeks at a time General Douglas MacArthur, commander in the South Pacific, used Buna as an informal forward base. MacArthur's biographer William Manchester relates a story how Allied commanding air officer Lt. General George Kenney loved repeating of how he'd gone back to Australia for a week, and MacArthur had stolen his house, claiming it was cooler at night than his own. A week later the Monsoon winds shifted, making MacArthurs' old house now the cooler— and he never asked for Kenney to switch back.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b William Manchester, "American Caesar", 1978, Little Brown Company, 793 pages, ISBN 0-316-54498-1[page needed]
- ^ Buna Pacific Wrecks Retrieved October 16, 2016