Secondly, almost constant rain throughout the operation turned all tracks into mud wallows and much of the area into a swamp, slowing movement.
The Australians were able to block Japanese access to the airfields by the only practical approach, along the coastal flats. There were tracks in the mountains but they ran north south, as did the ridges leading down from the mountains, while the Japanese wanted to advance from east to west, across the grain of the country. Where the Japanese landed was a narrow coastal strip between the bay and rugged mountains. To understand the effect of this error on the course of events it is vital to take account of the weather and the terrain. This was seven kilometres east of where they intended to land, a fact that had important consequences. With an escort of cruisers and destroyers the first Japanese landing, of 809 SNLP and 362 NP, took place between Waga Waga and Wandula on the northern coast of Milne Bay on the night of 25 August 1942. Two light tanks, two 37mm guns and two 70mm howitzers accompanied the force. He decided to go ahead without waiting for Imperial Japanese Army infantry, supposing that the 2300 Imperial Japanese Navy personnel he had on hand, formed into Special Naval Landing Parties and Naval Pioneers, would be more than adequate for the task. A battery of 2/5th Field Regiment was to make an important contribution to the victoryĪ force amounting to an Imperial Japanese Army regiment was to be available for Milne Bay but Admiral Mikawa, who ordered the operation, believed there was probably less than one battalion of Allied troops there. One advantage the Australians had at Milne Bay, that they did not have on the Kokoda track, was artillery.
Of 9458 Allies present when the Japanese landed just 4500 were infantry (7th Brigade and 18th Brigade), 644 were from the Royal Australian Air Force, and 1365 were American engineers and anti-aircraft gunners. Please use the video player controls buttons on the map. This guided map video was created from a legacy Flash file. Much like the Japanese base at Sanananda a large portion of the Allies at Milne Bay were devoted to non-combat tasks building, maintaining and supplying the base and its most important component, the airfield.
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