Buna-Gona-Sanananda Part 1

The Struggle to Reach the Beaches

A Japanese bunker on the Sanananda Track

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 2/12th Battalion moving past US troops on the Sanananda Track

The interior of a Japanese bunker

A patrol moving through the Kunai Grass

The water table was so high that troops were unable to dig proper weapon pits.