ISBN: 9780760323496

"From the book: " Concealed behind coconut log fortifications, the Australians could clearly hear the rumble of diesel motors and the scrape of steel hulls on coral. John N. Jones, a twen… Mehr…

"From the book: " Concealed behind coconut log fortifications, the Australians could clearly hear the rumble of diesel motors and the scrape of steel hulls on coral. John N. Jones, a twenty-three-year-old corporal from New South Wales, was patrolling the perimeter at 0225 when he saw the barge-like landing craft approaching the beach, their silhouettes faintly backlit by the fires burning in Rabaul. The first boatload displayed remarkably poor discipline. Some of the Japanese were talking, others laughing, and one even shined a flashlight. Jones pointed a Very pistol skyward and pulled the trigger. Seconds later, the flare cast a bright light over the beach, catching the Japanese troops by surprise. "We allowed most of them to get out of the boats," recalled Kenneth G. Hale, another corporal in A Company, "and then fired everything we had." The Australians cut loose with a withering blast. The staccato chatter of machine guns and the popping of Enfield rifles blended into a solid roar. Some of the newly delivered Thompson submachine guns added their distinctive rattle, and Captain Matheson's antitank guns joined in with a nasty whip-"crack," Lost among all the gunfire was the metallic thumping of mortar rounds leaving their tubes. Additional flares whooshed skyward, lighting up the beach just as the mortar shells began to land near the barbed wire. The Japanese, thrown into disarray by the explosions and concentrated firepower, twice attempted to rush the wire and twice were driven back. Media > Book, [PU: Motorbooks International]<

2006, ISBN: 9780760323496

[PU: Zenith Press USA 2006. ISBN 9780760323496.], AUSTRALIAN MILITARY WW2 WWII PAPUA NEW GUINEA PNG RABAUL BRITAIN LARK FORCE 2/22ND 2/22 ARMY, Jacket, Hard cover dust wrapper, 304pp, b&w… Mehr…

[PU: Zenith Press USA 2006. ISBN 9780760323496.], AUSTRALIAN MILITARY WW2 WWII PAPUA NEW GUINEA PNG RABAUL BRITAIN LARK FORCE 2/22ND 2/22 ARMY, Jacket, Hard cover dust wrapper, 304pp, b&w plates. Light wear to edges of dust wrapper and boards, pages lightly tanned; a very good copy. At 2.30 am on January 23, 1942, the little-known tropical island of New Britain was the site of the Australian Army's darkest hour. Lark Force, 1,400 men and six nurses, the bulk of them from 2/22nd Infantry Battalion, had been deployed to fortify and defend Rabaul, the capital of Australia's mandated territories. The Japanese had other plans. Outmanned, outgunned, and a long way from home, the heroic defence of Rabaul by the Australians of Lark Force is here grippingly told.<