New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific, was the focus of military action from 1942 to 1944. The Japanese well understood that by controlling New Guinea, they could readily invade Australia. The Allies understood this as well.

The Japanese captured Lae and Salamaua on New Guinea's Huon Gulf coast on March 8, 1942. This served as a springboard to the conquest of the Dutch East Indies and put the Japanese in position for an assault on the key base of Port Moresby, in southeastern New Guinea, the final position defending Australia. The U.S. Navy intercepted the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7-8, suffering a tactical defeat but achieving a strategic victory in that the Japanese were forced to withdraw their Port Moresby-bound invasion convoy.

The next major Japanese assault on New Guinea came on July 21-22, 1942, when elements of the Eighteenth Japanese Army (under Adachi Matazo) landed at Gona and Buna. From here, the Japanese launched a new offensive against Port Moresby. On August 26, 1,900 Japanese troops landed at Milne Bay but were repulsed by combined Australian and American engineer troops, who were building airstrips.

On July 22, two Japanese regiments left Gona-Buna on a treacherous march along the Kokoda Trail over the 13,000-foot Owen Stanley Range. They occupied Kokoda village on August 12 and reached Ioribaiwa on September 17, putting the advance guard of the Japanese force just 32 miles from Port Moresby. Here, however, they were intercepted by the 7th Australian Division, which counterattacked, driving the Japanese out of the mountains and down into the swamplands around Gona and Buna. Joined now by U.S. and other Australian units, the 7th Division fought a fierce jungle campaign that drove the Japanese out of Gona on December 10, 1942, and out of Buna on January 3, 1943. The last Japanese resistance in this area, at Sanananda Point, was neutralized on January 23. With this, Papua was liberated. U.S. and Australian forces had suffered 8,546 combat casualties in this phase of the New Guinea Campaign, whereas Japanese losses were estimated at 12,000 killed and 350 captured; some 4,000 Japanese withdrew successfully. Victory in this phase of the campaign allowed Douglas MacArthur to seize the initiative and begin the Allied counteroffensive in the Southwest Pacific. . .

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