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South West Pacific theatre of World War II

  • Western New Guinea campaignThe Allied command set a clear goal for early 1944. They needed to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions in the Pacific theater.
  • Operation MoThe Japanese Navy General Staff first considered Operation Mo in 1938. This early planning phase focused on consolidating control over Southern Seas areas…
  • Battle of the Java SeaOn the 27th of February 1942, Rear Admiral Karel Doorman led a multinational Allied fleet from Surabaya toward the Java Sea.
  • Battle of LuzonThe Battle of Luzon was the largest land battle of the Pacific Theater in World War II, pitting Allied forces from the United States, the Philippines…
  • Borneo campaignOn the 1st of May 1945, Australian soldiers paddled toward a small island off the north-east coast of Borneo in handmade folboats, slipping past…
  • Philippines campaign (1941–1942)The Philippines campaign of 1941-1942 opened in the pre-dawn hours of the 8th of December 1941, just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese…
  • Philippines campaign (1944–1945)By mid-1944, American forces sat only southeast of Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines. Fleet Admiral Chester W.
  • End of World War II in AsiaAt 3:24 on the morning of the 2nd of September 1945, a ceremony in Tokyo Bay brought the deadliest conflict in human history to its formal close in Asia.
  • Battle of MindanaoThe island of Mindanao offered very little inspiration for soldiers who would have to fight there. It boasted a long and irregular coastline, and the…
  • Battle of Buna–GonaJapan's entry into World War II began with the attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941. This coordinated assault included simultaneous strikes on…
  • Bombing of DarwinThe Bombing of Darwin began at 9:58 am on the 19th of February 1942, when 188 Japanese aircraft appeared over a small Australian town that had no functioning…
  • Invasion of Lingayen GulfOn the 22nd of December 1941, the Japanese 14th Army under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma landed on the northeastern shores of Lingayen Gulf at Agoo…
  • Battle of the Coral SeaOn the 4th of May 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy began Operation MO with a clear goal: seize Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
  • Kokoda Track campaignThe Kokoda Track campaign was fought between July and November 1942 in the Australian Territory of Papua, and it nearly cost Australia the war in the Pacific.
  • Operation CartwheelIn February 1942, Japanese forces captured Rabaul on the island of New Britain from Australian troops. This location became a major forward base for Japanese…
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)The Battle of Rabaul began before dawn on the 23rd of January, 1942, when a South Seas Force of around 5,000 Japanese troops entered Simpson Harbour and…