WORLD WAR II NEW GUINEA
WORDS DAVID LEVELL
GI sacrifices in a Papua New Guinea
hellhole helped turn the WWII Pacific
tide against the Japanese.
Ghost to coast
ntain, PNG
Ghost Mou
ID 013979
HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHY: AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
G
American troops at
a signaller’s post, Bu
na
ENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Allies’ south-west
Pacific forces, issued an order to the general of
the US 32nd Division on November 29, 1942:
“Take Buna or don’t come back alive”. Many
didn’t. The hard-won Allied seizure of this Japanese Papua
New Guinea beachhead saw some of WWII’s most ferocious
fighting, under utterly nightmarish conditions.
The Kokoda Trail campaign of 1942 – which led to the fall
of Japan’s Buna and Gona bases – is so venerated by Australians that many would be astounded to find New Guinea
described in the US as “the forgotten war of the South Pacific”.
Instead, the American memory is dominated by triumphs
such as Coral Sea and Guadalcanal. And in Australia, while
New Guinea is the best-remembered Pacific war theatre, the
role played by US infantry there is likewise little known.
That now may change, with the 32nd Division’s dramatic
story now the subject of The Ghost Mountain Boys, a new book
and documentary by James Campbell, who retraced their
steps on a 16-day trek through some of PNG’s toughest
terrain. Just how tough can be seen in the reaction by veteran
GI Stanley Jastrzembski, who told Campbell, “I would’ve taken
an enemy bullet before going back into those mountains.” 
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NEW GUINEA WORLD WAR II
at Buna airstrip
ID 014014
Wrecked Japanese bo
mber
‘‘
About 50km south-east of the
Kokoda Track, the Kapa Kapa
Track has even harder terrain
126th Infantry Regiment – an expedition which saw them
dubbed the “Ghost Mountain Boys”.
On November 16, the first of this thousand-strong US
contingent headed into the mountains via the obscure Kapa
Kapa Track, hardly ever traversed by outsiders before. About
50km south-east of the parallel Kokoda Track, it boasts even
harder terrain and is almost a full kilometre higher in altitude,
reaching about 3000m at Ghost Mountain, the soldiers’
nickname for Mount Obree, known locally as Suwemalla.
The original plan had them veering west onto Kokoda once
across the Owen Stanleys, to harass or cut off the retreating
Japanese. But forward scouting indicated it was impossible to
travel fast enough for this, so the orders changed to covering
the Australian flank before proceeding to Buna.
Unlike Kokoda there were no Japanese bullets to worry
about, but the battle against nature was bad enough. Climbing an endless succession of steep razorback inclines, the
Americans struggled to carry up to 36kg of field equipment
and six days’ rations. Every day was an onslaught of stinging
nettles, leeches and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Tropical
downpours had them completely drenched and wading to
the shins in mud. They couldn’t light fires to cook their rice
and the bully beef made them ill. Soon they pretty much all 
ILLUSTRATION: LIONEL PORTIER
As Japan’s swathe through the Pacific cut ever closer to
Australia in 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin demanded
Australian troops be returned from the Mediterranean and
North Africa to defend their home turf. Our 6th and 7th
Divisions came, but the 9th could not be spared, so as a
compromise raw US 32nd Division troops – until then
slated for Europe – were sent instead.
Like many of the Australian “ragged bloody
heroes” of Kokoda fame, the 32nd recruits were
militia, National Guardsmen from Wisconsin and
Michigan. They arrived almost spectacularly
unprepared for the soul-destroying harshness of
New Guinea’s tropical wilderness. Ironically they
had trained in Louisiana, where numerous swamps
could have helped hone jungle fighting skills. But they
did little more than march through farmlands, which
continued upon their arrival in Australia. In New Guinea
they carried leather toilet seats, but no insect repellent or
waterproof containers to preserve matches or anti-malarial
tablets. Inevitably, some 70 per cent of the division was
incapacitated by tropical disease during the campaign.
In September 1942, Australian troops repulsed an enemy
landing at Milne Bay on the south-east tip of New Guinea –
Japan’s first land defeat of WWII. Having secured this vital
stronghold, the Allies launched a three-pronged attack on
Japan’s Buna and Gona bases. The Australians had by far the
hardest job, having to fight the Japanese all the way across
the Owen Stanley Range via Kokoda, and then take Gona.
Most US troops were airlifted to the north coast, although
reaching the battle zone was still a hardship with many GIs
getting trenchfoot after long marches through swamps. The
third approach was an overland assault on Buna by a single
American battalion – the 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Division’s
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NEW GUINEA WORLD WAR II
had fevers, tropical ulcers or dysentery. Their commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Geerds, suffered a heart attack and
was replaced by Major Herbert “Stutterin’” Smith.
Ghost Mountain itself was “the eeriest place I ever saw”,
according to Sergeant Paul Lutjens. Tramping along a
narrow trail dropping thousands of metres either side, the
troops found themselves enveloped in rain and steam, passing
phosphorescent fungus and glowing moss. All was silent and
still, except for the rush of an unseen subterranean river.
“It was the strangest feeling I ever had,” Lutjens wrote in his
diary. “If we stopped, we froze. If we moved, we sweated.”
After 42 days struggling some 200km over the mountains,
famished and sick, the Ghost Mountain Boys were put under
Australian command, along with the other two 126th Infantry battalions, to help capture a Japanese supply base at Girua
(between Gona and Buna). But Major General Edwin
Harding, the 32nd Division’s popular commander, had other
ideas, wanting one battalion back to assist his 128th Infantry
at Buna. Australian General George Vasey obliged, releasing
the one he wanted least – the dispirited Ghost Mountain Boys,
fever-ridden and exhausted by their mountain ordeal.
Buna and Gona proved harder nuts to crack than anyone
had imagined. The 16km coastal strip was defended by 6500
Japanese, many freshly landed and all determined to fight to
the death. Buna itself was surrounded by a tidal swamp
barrier and heavily fortified with concealed machine-gun
posts. Without tanks, sufficient artillery or flamethrowers,
the Americans struggled to make headway. Food and medicine were also in short supply; malaria continued to run 
LEST WE FORGET…
Theatres of war have become
popular tourist attractions.
The following Pacific stages
are stark reminders of
imprisonment, sacrifice and
endurance against the odds.
NEW GUINEA
Kokoda Trail
www.kokodatrail.com.au
Plenty will argue the toss over
“trail” or “track”, but most
agree Kokoda was our most
vital WWII victory, saving Port
Moresby and thus Australia
from enemy designs. Every
year, several trekking
companies take some 2000
ID 013993
carry wounded
“Fuzzy wuzzy angels” Buna
ar
ne
ers
ldi
so
American
‘‘
people on the arduous 96km
pilgrimage, following the
footsteps of the diggers and
“fuzzy wuzzy angel” porters
over the Owen Stanley Range.
Check the trail’s website for
updates. Visit www.nghols.
com for tours to other WWII
sites in PNG.
SINGAPORE
Changi Museum
1000 Upper Changi
Road North, Singapore.
www.changimuseum.com
Changi Prison became Japan’s
main staging camp for POWs
after the fall of Singapore on
February 15, 1942. From here,
thousands went to various
Famished and sick, the Ghost
Mountain Boys were put
under Australian command
locations to be starved, beaten,
tortured and worked to death.
The museum, relocated in
2001, tells the tragic story
and displays historical items
such as prisoners’ belongings.
Regular coach tours visit key
WWII sites in Singapore.
MALAYSIA
Sandakan-Ranau Death March
www.sandakan-death
march.com
In 1945, Japanese soldiers
force-marched 2434 POWs
(mostly Australian) through
250km of dense Borneo jungle
from Sandakan POW camp to
Ranau village. All but six died.
Today full (six- and 11-day) and
part (three-day) tours along the
route of this war crime depart
from Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.
THAILAND
Thailand-Burma
Railway Centre
73 Jaokannun Road,
Kanchanaburi.
www.tbrconline.com
An estimated 160,000 Asian
forced labourers and Allied
POWs died while building
415km of track under barbaric
conditions, including 2646 of
some 12,000 Australians. The
museum also offers tailored
“pilgrimages” to view the
remnants of one of Japan’s
most notorious war crimes.
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NEW GUINEA WORLD WAR II
ID 0141101; ID 014225
move to Sanananda
US and Australian troops
‘‘
Lieutenant General Eichelberger (cen
tre) at
Buna
rampant. Having discarded their heavy steel helmets in the
mountains, the GIs were easy pickings for snipers, and morale
plummeted. Even so, the Ghost Mountain battalion made the
first penetration of the enemy perimeter at Buna on November
30, driving the Japanese back several hundred metres.
MacArthur, safe in Port Moresby and ignorant of field conditions, saw Buna as a flimsily defended sitting duck and was
furious at the delay. He sacked Harding, accused his troops of
cowardice and ordered Lieutenant General Bob Eichelberger
to take Buna immediately “regardless of casualties”. While
a steely leader willing to risk his life with a conspicuous frontline presence, Eichelberger won the nickname Eichelbutcher
for losing so many lives on fruitless frontal assaults.
As it turned out, Harding’s more cautious approach was
vindicated. Eichelberger reverted to his predecessor’s tactics
of small-unit, aggressive patrolling – and Buna did not fall
until the tanks Harding so desperately wanted finally arrived.
The deadlock was finally
broken by an outstanding
act of heroism
Although racked by disease, barely fed and inadequately
armed, the Ghost Mountain Boys did not lack courage.
Stutterin’ Smith was badly wounded by mortar fire while
leading his men against a banzai charge. Sergeant Paul
Lutjens, hit by a grenade and shot while fetching help for his
surrounded platoon, crawled his way through under heavy
fire. The deadlock was finally broken by an outstanding act
of heroism on December 5, when Sergeant Herman
Bottcher led an 18-man patrol through the jungle to the
beach, fighting all the way. For a week they held off more than
1000 enemy soldiers with one machine gun, killing 120 and
enabling the relieving 127th US Infantry – who arrived on
December 13 – to close in and take Buna on January 2, 1943.
Australian soldiers had already won Gona, and the campaign
ended with victory at nearby Sanananda on January 22.
The Allies paid a high price for the victory, Australian and
American, with casualty rates in some units near 90 per cent
– mostly due to malaria. Of the Ghost Mountain Boys, just six
officers and 126 GIs were still standing when Buna fell.
The mountain trail that tested them so sorely has largely
retained its ghostly mantle, little visited by outsiders since the
war. When James Campbell made the journey in 2006, he
found locals keen for a Kokoda-style trekking industry, which
may depend on the interest his book and documentary raise
in the 32nd’s undeservedly obscure baptism of fire.
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