These podcast episodes by Warwick O’Neill from the Australian Military History podcast was commissioned by History Guild as part of our support of THE BLOODY BEACHHEADS: THE BATTLES OF GONA, BUNA AND SANANANDA – ONE DAY CONFERENCE.

By late 1942, the Allies had pushed the Japanese forces back along the Kokoda Track and were now down on the coastal plains of northern New Guinea. The Japanese may have been retreating, but they intended to hold the vital beachheads from Gona down through Sanananda to Buna. The fight to take the beachheads would be bloody and brutal, but first the Australians and their American comrades had to get there.

The Gona Battlefield. Points X, Y and Z are referred to in Part 2 of the podcast.
Large scale map of the Japanese Beachheads, November 1942.
Assault on the Japanese positions, 21st-30th November 1942.

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