Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea • May 4, 1942 On this date in 1942 the five-day Battle of the Coral Sea began. A Japanese invasion fleet of five troop transports and seven destroyers from their bastion of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, in concert with a Japanese carrier force from Truk (Chuuk) in…
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea · May 4, 1942 On this date in 1942 the five-day Battle of the Coral Sea began. A Japanese invasion fleet was steaming toward the capital of Australian Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, which had the potential of becoming, after Rabaul’s capture earlier in January, another major Japanese staging point…
Batavia (Jakarta), Dutch East Indies · March 8, 1942 The mineral- and oil-rich Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) was Japan’s next colonial target in the Pacific Theater—this after Allied resistance had collapsed in the British Crown colony of Singapore (February 15, 1942) and all but did so in the Philippines with Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s forces holed…
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea · May 4, 1942 On this date in 1942 the five-day Battle of the Coral Sea began. A Japanese invasion fleet was steaming toward the capital of Australian Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, which had the potential of becoming, after Rabaul’s capture earlier in January, another major Japanese staging point and…
Batavia (Jakarta), Dutch East Indies · March 8, 1942 The mineral- and oil-rich Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) was Japan’s next colonial target in the Pacific Theater—this after Allied resistance had collapsed in Singapore (February 15, 1942) and all but did so in the Philippines with Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s forces holed up on the rocky, jungle-covered Bataan…