My Dad ( 18583 Sgt. JONES V.H.) was with 7Sq Royal Australian Air Force stationed at Aitape (Eye-tah-pee).  Although not wounded in battle he contracted several diseases that affected him for the rest of his life.  Namely Dengue fever, Malaria and a fungal infection in his ears that drove him mad with the itch and discharge.   I'm sure that many of the Americans would have also been so affected in the same way.  Although it was a "bastard of a place" some of the stories he told were quite humorous especially about the "Yanks".  Then again he could find humour in any situation a wonderful trait I have inherited from him.  Thank you for the wonderful, in-depth sèries you present, even if your pronunciation of some of the Pacific place names leave a lot to be desired.

John McManus is an excellent addition. An absolutely enthralling historian one could listen to for hours!

You have enlightened us on another little-known battle of the Asia-Pacific War.  Thanks for such a fine presentation.

Just finished John McManus's trilogy of the US Army in the Pacific. Excellent all around.

Bill has the best lighting, you can tell he is an engineer.

That vignette of the Australian troops finding the codebooks in the swamp is quite reminiscent of the Union soldier stumbling across a copy of Lee's orders prior to Antietam.

My father was a Sargent in the148rgt of the 37th division. This entire series has fleshed out many of his experiences and many of the places he talked about. Thank you.

My uncle was Kia in Aitape in Aug 1944. And MacArthur’s interference caused a lot of unnecessary casualties.  The Japanese 18th army headquartered in Weiwak in New Guinea was cut off by leapfrogging over them and taking Aitape. However, the 18th had 130,000 soldiers and mustered a huge force to attack Aitape a couple hundred Km of Jungle distant.  This was anticipated and a defensive line was prepared along a river about 10 miles from the Aitape airfield.  
   As the Japanese forces drew near, MacArthur interfered and demanded the general in charge hurry up and get the confrontation over with.  So the local general ordered a large percent of soldiers on the defensive line cross the river and go looking for the Japanese in the jungle. Then when the Japanese attacked the defensive line, the thinned defense could not hold even though they had the advantage of a river in front of them.  The weakened defensive line was overrun by the Japanese instead of being stopped while trying to cross the river.   If MacArthur had not demanded the general hurry up and get the battle over with, then the defensive line would not have been thinned and it would have held against the larger attacking force because the advantage of the river.  Also, as one would expect,  moving through the jungle eliminated the advantage of defensive positions and the river and casualties were sustained.  MacArthur’s demand was unnecessary meddling because the Japanese were going to have to cross the river and were not in a position to dally.
     MacArthur wanted the anticipated battle to be completed quickly in order to convince FDR his plan was working and that it should be continued instead of the Navy’s proposed solution.  RIP uncle Toivo whose name in Finnish meant Hope. Justice would have been if FDR ordered MacArthur to leave the defensive line, cross the river and walk through the jungle looking for the approaching Japanese 18th Army, just to make an impression on someone.

Thank you for the information on these programs. I was born on Dec 7th in 1956, and have read alot about ww2, especially in the pacific.  You and your guests have been very educational.  Please keep up the great work!!

My father was in these landings. He called it Ah - tap- ee . The actions he always talked about was the march over the Owen Stanley mountains with the Aussies and the battle of Driniumor river.  Dad was in a dugout at the river bank position with an M-2 heavy machine gun. Changed the barrel twice in 48 hours. When the Japanese stormed their lines they were mowed down so that the river was clogged with floating bodies of the Japanese. Dad was at pearl with the 19th inf 25th div. My father thought Kruger and Echelburger were was brilliant, hated dug out Doug.  Pop's was in the Alamo force and the Alamo scouts later in the war. The he went to Hollywood and became an actor.
My dad's CO is still alive here in Taos. He is now 102 . Great series gentlemen - I never knew about the code book until this little lecture, but no cigars. ( i'm sure you will know the reference).

I felt bad when it was said it was a battle overlooked because "there were no Marines". I gotta admit I kinda grouped all these New Guinea actions without really looking at any of them in any detail. A harrowing tale for certain. Learned alot on this one

Got a sea story for you. High school buddy told me a story his father told him. Seems he was on New Guinea and they had headhunters with them as scouts. One evening these gentlemen were cooking "chicken" out of a helmet when a Japanese sniper shot the cook pot and knocked it into the fire. After screaming and shouting, they grabbed their spears and ran off into the jungle. He said, after a while, a blood curdling scream came out of the jungle. A little bit later they came back to camp. One of the scouts had a Japanese head on the end of his spear. He stuck the spear into the ground, near the campfire, with the head high up in the air for everyone to see. No more sniper fire for the rest of the operation.  And I could have sworn that he told me he was a Marine. True or false, it was a good story.

Thank you Seth Bill and John.

My father in law was a private in the sundowner division during the hollandia invasion. Upon reading his separation records for medical reasons just before the jump to the Phillipines we discovered from u.s. Army unit reports he was released at the height of WW2 because of his psychological breakdown and sent home. Apparently he befriended native head hunters and "went rogue" into the bush for several weeks and witnessed headhunters dispatching Japanese up close and personal. His stories over the years never changed or were embellished and photos he had that he later developed confirmed the barbarity he described   He was disabled enough that he received a disability pension from the VA from what he witnessed and endured. His records indicated he spent weeks at an army hospital in Utah for his mental breakdown vHe described cannibalism by both the Japanese and Americans that haunted him until his passing in 1994

Great coverage of little exposed but important and vicious campaign on New Guinea. What miserable conditions those men had to endure.

For a moment there, I thought I had missed an episode. I was expecting Pt 2 of the Battle History of CV-6, but then I realized you guys didn't promise Part 2 coming consecutively. No worries, I can wait until later in the war to revisit the exploits of Big-E. Meanwhile John McManus is a great guest and the topics of the "latter stages" of the South Pacific campaign are too often neglected, so .... great episode!!

This has been another wonderful episode. As a recent subscriber to this channel I have found myself going back to every episode .

Thank you. I was completely unaware these battles had happened.

On my sidebar as I am watching this episode there is a link to the previous episode on the Big-E. It shows that it has been viewed over 35,000 times in just one week. Wow! Considering that this channel only has 21,100 subscribers it says a lot about the pull of the USS Enterprise. Also, it was one of the best episodes by the UHOTPW.

Thanks gentlemen, I enjoyed your presentation. Thanks to John, I am reading his excellent trilogy and will read more books authored by Mr McManus. You're appreciated.