PropertyValue
rdf:type
rdfs:label
  • Battle of Milne Bay
owl:sameAs
Strength
  • 1943
  • 8824
dcterms:subject
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dbkwik:world-war-two/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:worldwartwo/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate
colwidth
  • 20
Partof
  • the Pacific War during World War II
Date
  • 1942-08-25
Commander
  • *
Align
  • left
  • right
Caption
  • Australian troops at Milne Bay in 1942, shortly after the battle.
Width
  • 22
Casualties
  • Australia:
  • United States:
  • * 14 killed
  • * 167 killed or missing * 206 wounded
  • * 625 killed
Result
  • Allied victory
combatant
  • *
Place
  • Milne Bay, Territory of Papua
Source
  • – Sergeant Arthur Traill, 2/12th Infantry Battalion, Australian Army.
  • – British Field Marshal Sir William Slim.
Conflict
  • Battle of Milne Bay
Quote
  • "Lying across the [air]strip were dozens of dead Japs... As our officer crossed in the vanguard a Jap, apparently wounded, cried out for help. The officer walked over to aid him, and as he did the Jap sprang to life and hurled a grenade which wounded him in the face. From then on the only good Jap was a dead one, and although they tried the same trick again and again throughout the campaign, they were dispatched before they had time to use their grenade. "Our policy was to watch any apparent dead, shoot at the slightest sign of life and stab with bayonet even the ones who appeared to be rotten. It was all out from then on, neither side showing any quarter and no prisoners were taken."
  • "We were helped, too, by a very cheering piece of news that now reached us, and of which, as a morale raiser, I made great use. Australian troops had, at Milne Bay in New Guinea, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. If the Australians, in conditions very like ours, had done it, so could we. Some of us may forget that of all the Allies it was the Australian soldiers who first broke the spell of the invincibility of the Japanese Army; those of us who were in Burma have cause to remember."
is Battles of