'Java is heaven, Burma is hell, but you never come back alive from New Guinea' - A Japanese military saying.
The capture of Lae was the most complex operation for the Australian army in the Second World War. In many ways it was also a rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of France with an amphibious landing combined with the first successful large scale Allied airborne operation of the war. But this is not just a book about a successful military campaign that changed the course of the war in New Guinea. It also brings together the extraordinary stories of the Australian, American and Japanese participants in the battle, and of the fight against the cloying jungle, the raging rivers and soaring mountain ranges that made New Guinea such a daunting battlefield.
Phillip Bradley brings a compelling clarity, humanity and new insight into a little known but crucial Australian battle of the Pacific War.
