15 January 1943

The Allies are optimistic that the end is in sight at the battle for Sanananda but the deep swamps are hampering their attempts to cut off the retreating Japanese.

Most of the time the pestilential water in the swamps is up to the soldiers’ armpits, in places it is over their heads. Many are already suffering from malaria and each day more are struck down by diseases like dysentery, scrub typhus and dengue fever.

14 January 1943

Sick Japanese POW captured at Sananada tells of plans for evacuation of the area, apparently to the mouths of the Kumusi and Mambare Rivers, about 70 km to west, where boats will rescue them.

Brigadier George Wootten sends troops into Sanananda Junction. They find it deserted. Allied troops begin to follow up the retreating enemy but are slowed by the appalling conditions, much of it through shoulder-deep swamps where progress is around 100 metres an hour.

13 January 1943

While the Allies argue over whether to continue their costly attack at Sanananda or revert to starving the defenders into submission, Jap commander Col Tsukamoto changes the equation by ordering his troops to evacuate the Killerton-Sanananda Junction.

Apparently the Australian charge yesterday had been more successful than originally thought. The Jap defenders are demoralized and exhausted and their commander has taken the unusual course of trying to save them.

12 January 1943

The last major battle of the Papuan campaign explodes into action at 5 past 8 in the morning as Australian 18^th Brigade attacks along the main Sanananda Track and the Americans assault via Tarakena.

Tanks roll along the main track, raised above the surrounding swamps, which cannot support their weight. They are immediately sent packing by a combination of anti-tank guns (even though the tank commanders had been assured none existed there) and Jap suicide squads which leap on them with Molotov cocktails and grenades.

The infantry supporting the tanks are decimated by a massive wave of fire from the deeply-embedded Jap fortifications. One Australian battalion suffers almost 100 casualties without making any ground.

45 Diggers are killed in action on the day. At Allied headquarters, Australian protests against the needless slaughter result in a stalemate as the leaders ponder their next step.

11 December 1943

The build-up for the final attack at Sanananda continues with nine Diggers killed in action patrolling during the day. The battle has now been running for two months as the Japanese defences extend deeply inland from the coast, further than both Buna and Gona.

Eichelberger plans to launch the final massive assault tomorrow, hoping to snuff out the last serious Japanese threat in Papua.