Word: guinea
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...MacArthur's surge had its beginnings in adversity last September, when the Japs routed Australian troops in the New Guinea mountains and pushed within 32 miles of Port Moresby, the key which locked the door against an invasion of Australia. For six months U.S. infantry troops had been jungle-training in Australia. The problem was how to get them to New Guinea from Australian bases 600 miles away...
...George Kenney scraped together every transport plane he could find, including old, outmoded B18 bombers, early version of four-motored Liberators left over from Java, Lockheed and Douglas planes made in the U.S. for the Indies' K.N.I.L.M. airlines. George Kenney then flew thousands of soldiers to New Guinea. It was the first big airborne troop-transport job undertaken by the U.S. in a theater of operations...
...Land. Meanwhile Australian troops, battle-toughened in Libya and the Middle East, were rushed to New Guinea and hastened up the trail to stop the Japs. Over the jungle and mountain trail that leads out of Moresby they slogged through mud a foot deep, through rain that never ceased. The Japs, weakened by dysentery and undernourishment, withdrew as fast as they had advanced. The Australians pushed on toward the gap at the top of the Owen Stanley Range. They started down the slope toward Buna, where the Japs landed last July. Last week they took Kokoda, a thatched native village...
Papua is only one-fourth of the island of New Guinea, but it is the most important part of that eerie, partially explored island. For the first time since they landed there last February, it seemed that the Japs might have to look to the defense of their bases, Lae and Salamaua, 150-odd miles northwest of Buna. If MacArthur could take Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea would be lost to the Japs. Already Australian Commandos were harassing the two bases, working in the dead of night with their knives and tommy guns...
...Army Minister Francis Forde, Foreign Minister Herbert Evatt erupted, denounced Baldwin, denied his charges. General MacArthur, incidentally disowning any political ambitions (see p. 21), duly announced he had received the utmost cooperation. But informed observers judged Baldwin was not far wrong, guessed the recent improvement of news from New Guinea, including the Allies' recapture of the Jap base at Kokoda, was one sign that Douglas MacArthur was already solving some very serious internal problems. If this was true, Washington had one good reason (among a lot of bad ones) for dividing the Pacific command. The Navy, steering clear...