Gona’s Gone
The Battle for the Beachhead 1942
Peter Brune
St Leonards, NSW : Allen and Unwin, 1994
Paperback 400pp RRP:$32.99
Reviewer: Douglas McKenzie, January 2025
This short summary of the beach-head battles on the Northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea in late 1942, is a gut-wrenching story of extreme bravery and suicidal determination. There has been much written about the 39th Battalion and the 21st Brigade in their battles to conquer the Kokoda Track, but the subsequent battles of the beach-head (Gona, Buna & Sanananda) have faded from our collective memory. This bloody conflict to evict the Japanese South Sea Force prevented enemy consolidation and back-up reinforcements, which would have resulted in an attack on Port Moresby thus culminating in a direct threat to mainland Australia.
Following the advance along the Kokoda Track by the 39th militia Battalion and the 21 Bde ( 2/14 , 2/16 & 2/27 battalions)- 2nd AIF - during September 1942, the combined Australian Force prepared to attack and capture Gona Mission on the coast. As anticipated, there were various delays in the attack due to personnel and supply deficiencies, but the most destructive influence came from allied HQ where General Tom Blamey, under US pressure, demanded an immediate assault with inadequate air and artillery support. Japanese positions were heavily fortified and Australian troops attacked across open ground suffering heavy casualties. The attacks on log-covered positions were reminiscent of Lone Pine at Gallipoli in 1915. The initial attacks were a failure, and several senior officers were relieved, much to the anger of the troops who blamed HQ for the initial failures.
In addition to a fanatical enemy, the Australians also faced Mother Nature in the form of torrential rains, fetid swamps, malaria, scrub typhus, dysentery and dengue. That any soldier survived this ordeal is hard to believe. The casualty figures are sobering. Of the 1800 Australian troops who started the campaign, the following numbers of troops emerged uninjured from Gona – 2/14 Bn (57), 2/16 Bn ( 56), 2/27 Bn( 70), 39th Bn (32). These depleted units had to be reinforced so as to attack Sanananda in mid-December.
In the final analysis, despite the capture of Gona Mission, the battle of Gona ( Nov 19 – Dec 3) was a disaster due to various factors. There was a lack of pre-battle reconnaissance and Japanese numbers were seriously underestimated. Inadequate fire-power support by bombers and artillery failed to soften up Japanese positions and snipers were very active, causing high officer, NCO and machine-gunner casualties. No quarter was given and none expected. Despite many acts of extreme bravery there were no VCs awarded for this campaign. Pte Kingsbury, 2/14 Battalion, was the only VC awarded (posthumously) for his actions at Isurava on the Kokoda Track.
Speaking as an ex-Army medical officer and thinking about the number of casualties, I found this history of the dark days in New Guinea to be quite depressing. It reminds me of a quote from Otto von Bismarck that ‘history only becomes interesting when people start dying’. And this was an interesting but costly campaign.
