MacArthur Strikes Back Decision at Buna, New Guinea, 1942-1943

The Japanese defense of the Buna area of the northeastern coast of New Guinea was organized around major strongpoints. Taken together they formed a well-designed complex of mutually supporting bunkers concealed by dense tropical vegetation and sited in such a manner as to cover every possible avenue of approach. It was hot and humid, a mixture of jungle and swamp infested with insects and leeches. Scrub typhus, malaria, dengue fever, and dysentery were epidemic.