Curated playlist
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
- Western New Guinea campaignThe Western New Guinea campaign brought soldiers from three different armies onto the same stretch of tropical coastline in 1944 and 1945. Forces of the Dutch East Indies army, known as the KNIL, fought alongside American and Australian…
- Operation MoAllied commanders already knew Japan's Port Moresby invasion force was coming.
- Battle of the Java SeaAt the Battle of the Java Sea, a Japanese admiral thought the Allied fleet had lost its nerve.
- Battle of LuzonMost Japanese soldiers who died in the Battle of Luzon were killed by starvation and disease, not enemy fire.
- Borneo campaignAustralian soldiers paddled handmade folboats toward Tarakan island on the 1st of May 1945.
- Philippines campaign (1941–1942)Japanese bombers caught nearly every American heavy bomber in the Philippines parked on the ground.
- Philippines campaign (1944–1945)Soldiers pumped 3,000 gallons of diesel into Fort Drum in Manila Bay and lit it.
- End of World War II in AsiaJapan's Tokyo Bay surrender was not the end of the war in Asia. The last major surrender came October 25, 1945.
- Battle of MindanaoOn Mindanao, American planners avoided the heavily defended gulf and landed on an undefended coast.
- Battle of Buna–GonaThe Battle of Buna–Gona ended with evidence that starving Japanese defenders had eaten their own dead.
- Bombing of DarwinDarwin had no working radar and no usable fighter planes when 188 Japanese aircraft arrived in 1942.
- Invasion of Lingayen GulfKamikaze attacks at Lingayen Gulf on January 6, 1945 hit at a rate approaching 50 percent.
- Battle of the Coral SeaIn the Battle of the Coral Sea, the fleets never saw each other. Carrier planes did all the fighting in May 1942.
- Kokoda Track campaignAt one point in 1942, Japanese forces stood within 32 km of Port Moresby on the Kokoda Track.
- Operation CartwheelAllied forces made Japan's Rabaul base harmless without ever storming it. Operation Cartwheel bypassed it instead.
- Battle of Rabaul (1942)Before dawn on January 23, 1942, about 5,000 Japanese troops landed at Rabaul. Roughly 1,400 Australians held it.