Sanananda A Bastard of a Place
The Battle for the Beachhead New Guinea 1942 - 43
David W Cameron
Newport, NSW: Big Sky Publishing, 2024
Paperback 480pp RRP: $36.99
Reviewer: David Rees, November 2024
Dr David W Cameron is a well-known Australian historian who has written many military history books about Australians at war. This latest book is the seventh book written by him about some of the many campaigns undertaken by the Australian Military Force in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War. The other books are Saving Port Moresby, The Battle for Isurava, Bloody Buna, Gona’s Gone, The Battle for Kokoda Plateau and Retaking Kokoda.
In this new book about Sanananda, Cameron concentrates on the campaign that was fought and won by the combined American and Australian forces from 16th November 1942 to 23rd January 1943 against the Japanese beachhead positions at Gona, Buna and the most heavily defended beachhead of Sanananda in Papua. The total number of Australians and American troops involved in the campaign was around 20,000, while the total number of Japanese troops was estimated to be around 8,000 plus. The Allied Brigades and Regiments involved in the campaign included initially two Australian brigades (16th and 25th) of the AUS 7th Division and two regiments of the US 32nd Division. However, when progress towards the beachheads came to a stalemate in early December 1942, the Australian 30th and 21st Brigade which also had the 39th Battalion, were added to the campaign. These were later augmented by troops from the Australian 14th and 18th Brigades, and two additional US regiments for the final push towards Sanananda.
The campaign was fought under very harsh and muddy jungle conditions causing many soldiers to suffer from debilitation and death due to scrub typhus, malaria and dysentery. The number of battle and disease casualties during the campaign was over 6,200 Allies and an estimated 6,500 Japanese. This was extremely high compared to other campaigns because of the poor battlefield conditions where most of the fighting area was covered in swampland and kunai grass. This made movement difficult, while radios wouldn’t work because of the damp and any protective foxholes that were dug soon became filled with water. In the case of the Allies there were additional problems of poor logistics, insufficient artillery. and only limited light M3 Stuart tank support, little intelligence about the enemy strength and location and the absence of effective reconnaissance or accurate maps. [Some of the maps even showed rivers flowing uphill!] The RAAF provided some air cover but could not easily undertake effective reconnaissance or identify enemy areas due to the thick jungle.
In describing each battle, the author used extracts from the letters and documents of all ranks from both sides. So, the reader is better able to appreciate the confusion and sheer chaotic terror of the close fighting in thick jungle from the accounts of the men themselves rather than from the author. Many men became easily lost and isolated for many days before re-making contact with their unit. Like Peter Brune who wrote an earlier book in 2003 called A Bastard of a Place , David Cameron draws attention to the crises of command in the PNG campaigns and how General MacArthur and General Blamey used some of the Australian field commanders as scapegoats for the high casualties and slow campaign progress and sacked them in order to protect their own positions. This book has an index and has lots of endnotes and references plus black and white photos which provide a wealth of information on what it was like to fight a Second World War battle in Papua New Guinea. A good read!
The RUSI – Vic Library is most grateful to the publisher for making this work available for review.