The first defeat of the japanese on land in WW2

My father was an Officer with the AIF 3.7 inch AA guns at Milne Bay and he told me that when they were using them they were actually firing them with open sights with barrels depressed as low as they would go straight in and through the jungle .

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Originally Posted by UncleHo

From memory it was the 39th div Chockos that turned the Japs on the Kokoda track,and fought them down onto the plains,and that the US troops at Milne Bay had an Aust battalion behind them to keep them inline with the 2 Aussie Battalions.

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this thread is suprising in how it shows how little the posters actualy know.

Milne Bay Yanks were militia ( usa chocos) there performance was discussing. Which lead to the comment by ( the Fat aussie boss dude) Rather a tired Australian than a fresh Yank, ( or some such words)

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Originally Posted by Windaroo

My father was an Officer with the AIF 3.7 inch AA guns at Milne Bay and he told me that when they were using them they were actually firing them with open sights with barrels depressed as low as they would go straight in and through the jungle .

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Originally Posted by UncleHo

From memory it was the 39th div Chockos that turned the Japs on the Kokoda track,and fought them down onto the plains,and that the US troops at Milne Bay had an Aust battalion behind them to keep them inline with the 2 Aussie Battalions.

My 1st wife's father was one of the few survivors of HMAS Perth,can't remember his station or rank but I think it was Engine room but off duty.

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The 3.7 inch was designed as a secondary role anti tank gun. In fact Rommel was held up at Tubrok because of the 3.7 engaging the 5th panzers. There was anti tank rounds for the gun. How ever at Milne bay the AA HE round was used , fused for 45 sec, ( maximum) which acted as a impact fuse with a say .2 sec delay. It also explains why the rounds could be fired though the bush with out the round going off as was the problem with the 25 pounders. The only reason the 3.7 was being used at such range was the bloody things weighed 9 tones and could not be moved up unlike the 25 which were moved up but were hampered by the foliage. Add to that the 25 was hopeless for indirect fire

A really good book on this THE 61st BATTALION 1938-1945 the queensland cameron highlanders war milne bay-madang-bougainville. the units motto A CAMERON NEVER YIELDS. the writer is james watt it covers everything about the 61st AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION (AIF) it fills me great pride as my two great uncles names are in the back and its a bloody good read.

Just finished reading Kokoda, written by Peter Fitzsimons. A very interesting read

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FRENCH, Corporal John Alexander
2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion, A.I.F.
4th September 1942, at Milne Bay, New Guinea (Posthumous Award)

CITATION: At Milne Bay on the afternoon of 4 September 1942, a company of an Australian infantry battalion attacked the Japanese position east of the K.B. Mission where it encountered terrific rifle and machine-gun fire. The advance of the section of which corporal French was in command was held up a by fire from three enemy machine-gun posts, whereupon, Corporal French, ordering his section to take cover, advanced and silenced one of the posts with grenades.
He returned to his section for more grenades and again advanced and silenced the second post. Armed with a Thomson submachine-gun, he then attacked the third post, firing from the hip as he went forward. He was seen to be badly hit by the fire from this post, but he continued to advance. The enemy gun ceased to fire and his section pushed on to find that all members of the three enemy gun crews had been killed and that corporal French had died in front of the third gun pit.
By his cool courage and disregard of his own personal safety this non-commissioned officer saved the members of the section from heavy casualties and was responsible for the successful conclusion of the attack.

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Originally Posted by ugu80

FRENCH, Corporal John Alexander
2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion, A.I.F.
4th September 1942, at Milne Bay, New Guinea (Posthumous Award)

CITATION: At Milne Bay on the afternoon of 4 September 1942, a company of an Australian infantry battalion attacked the Japanese position east of the K.B. Mission where it encountered terrific rifle and machine-gun fire. The advance of the section of which corporal French was in command was held up a by fire from three enemy machine-gun posts, whereupon, Corporal French, ordering his section to take cover, advanced and silenced one of the posts with grenades.
He returned to his section for more grenades and again advanced and silenced the second post. Armed with a Thomson submachine-gun, he then attacked the third post, firing from the hip as he went forward. He was seen to be badly hit by the fire from this post, but he continued to advance. The enemy gun ceased to fire and his section pushed on to find that all members of the three enemy gun crews had been killed and that corporal French had died in front of the third gun pit.
By his cool courage and disregard of his own personal safety this non-commissioned officer saved the members of the section from heavy casualties and was responsible for the successful conclusion of the attack.

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This is the sort of action by very brave and i guess regular aussie blokes is why we enjoy the freedom and lifestyle we have. what they did and what they saw makes them the stuff of legends but to them they were just doing their job. if australia was in the same situation again i sometimes wonder if the current generation of smart phone, hair product, social media, addicted pants half way down the ass its all about me generation would handle the same things the boys in WWII went through.

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Originally Posted by 85 county

this thread is suprising in how it shows how little the posters actualy know.

Milne Bay Yanks were militia ( usa chocos) there performance was discussing. Which lead to the comment by ( the Fat aussie boss dude) Rather a tired Australian than a fresh Yank, ( or some such words)

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To be fair, the American troops were unblooded, poorly trained, for example, during 20 months of jungle training , in Nth Qld, one American Regiment performed a single night patrol. Most were National Guardsmen, from the mid-west. The Americans at Buna were good ol' boys from the American backwoods, utterly unprepared for the terrors of jungle warfare. Their youth & inexperience troubled the American commanders, " their soldiers " observed Eric Bergerud, " although extremely enthusiastic, were very young, & very poorly trained...with just enough savvy professionals to hold it together. ....what was, in essence, a childrens crusade ".


When war broke out in the Pacific, the well trained, equipped and led US Marines were sent to Guadalcanal. This fact reflected the relative unimportance of the Kokoda campaign in the eyes of the US Commanders. They thought the Buna campaign would be a mopping up job. Bob

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Originally Posted by whlump

Just finished reading Kokoda, written by Peter Fitzsimons. A very interesting read

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Read Paul Ham's book, ' Kokoda'. A much better read, IMO. Bob

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Originally Posted by bob10

To be fair, the American troops were unblooded, poorly trained, for example, during 20 months of jungle training , in Nth Qld, one American Regiment performed a single night patrol. Most were National Guardsmen, from the mid-west. The Americans at Buna were good ol' boys from the American backwoods, utterly unprepared for the terrors of jungle warfare. Their youth & inexperience troubled the American commanders, " their soldiers " observed Eric Bergerud, " although extremely enthusiastic, were very young, & very poorly trained...with just enough savvy professionals to hold it together. ....what was, in essence, a childrens crusade ".


When war broke out in the Pacific, the well trained, equipped and led US Marines were sent to Guadalcanal. This fact reflected the relative unimportance of the Kokoda campaign in the eyes of the US Commanders. They thought the Buna campaign would be a mopping up job. Bob

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I once read where the American troops were sent to Milne Bay because it was thought to be safe and they would not be subject to combat. The 'better' US troops were sent to Port Moresby.