New Guinea: The Allied Jungle Campaign in World War II (Stackpole Military Photo Series) Paperback – Illustrated, June 15, 2015

Great pictures and great information about the New Guinea campaign. My Dad was in New Guinea in World War II and I wish I would’ve had this book while he was still alive. Brings so much information to me and the rest of my family about the conditions that my dad and others lives through. Great job on this book. Thank you.

Great book! This book offers the most detailed account of the New Guinea campaign that I have found. For some reason the land, air, and sea assaults on and around New Guinea have never received the historical attention that the Solomons campaign has. This book really starts putting the New Guinea campaign on an equal footing with the other South Pacific and Southwest Pacific battles.The text provides an adequate description of the various assaults along the Kakoda Trail and the amphibious landings along on the north coast. The greatest features of the book, of course, are the extensive photos.An aside comment from me: it's interesting that locales such as Lae, Salamaua, Finchhafen, Port Moresby, Wewak, Aitape, Hollandia, and so forth appear on maps as having the same significance as European or North American cities. In fact, at the time, Port Moresby and maybe Rabaul had populations of around 3 000. The other locales had populations of less than 2 000. If the same criteria applied to maps of Europe or any other continent had been applied to New Guinea and the Solomons Islands, there would have been no cities indicated in the area at all. The entire area simply wasn't economically significant.That brings up another issue that isn't discussed in the book: why did the US and Australia attack New Guinea at all? There were no strategically important things in New Guinea such as oil, coal, aluminum, or iron ore. It wasn't essential to occupy New Guinea in order to defeat Japan: a sea blockade would have isolated the the entire Japanese garrison on the island and probably caused most of the Japanese soldiers to starve to death (as many of them did anyway). The map on page 2 clearly shows that New Guinea is no closer to the Philippines than the Marianas Islands which the US seized in June of 1944. I'm pretty sure that historically the answer is Douglas McArthur's ego. He had to be given something to command and New Guinea was all that was available. Can you imagine Douglas McArthur and his colossal ego being in command of US forces in the Mediterranean in 1943 or in France in 1944? The British probably would have attacked him! Bernard Montgomery had enough ego as it was; a second such ego in the area simply could not have worked.Another book on a related subject that I think is excellent is "Fire in the Sky -- The Air War in the South Pacific" by Bergerud (2000). It provides detailed accounts of the air campaigns in both the Solomons and New Guinea.

A great book to read with pictures when you are researching WW2 battles and units.

My deceased father in law 1st Lt. Edward T. Stark was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, his 1st Bronze Star and a Purple Heart at the Battle of Salamaua. While I am glad to have Diamond’s book in my library, I was disappointed that the 162nd of the 41st Division received little attention for their efforts at Salamaua. This assault was amphibious and was fought day and night for 76 days before securing victory. The heroic efforts of the 162nd deserve to be carefully documented by Diamond and other historical authors.

Terrific book. My only complaint is that the various battle descriptions were not dated. But the author presented a powerful narrative that illustrated just how terrible conditions were, and how involved the fighting. It ought to be required reading in Australia, for many reasons - military, political, and social.

fleshes out the rest of the story of the greatest generation

My home town NG company was H co, 2nd BN. 126th INF. So I knew some of the guys while growing up in the 50s. Great read on a little known area of WWII, unless you are from WI or mI.

Husband Geoff reviewing. Outstanding picture book, many photos I have never seen. I will be looking at some of the other books by the same publisher. Don't expect a lot of accompanying history info, mostly just photo captions. What it does it does well.