Item #7913 "Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. SECRET 19 - 31 October 1942" Lt. Col. Russell P. Reeder, Red.
"Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. SECRET 19 - 31 October 1942".
"Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. SECRET 19 - 31 October 1942".
"Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. SECRET 19 - 31 October 1942".

"Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. SECRET 19 - 31 October 1942".

U.S. Army, 1942. Hardcover. Real photographs taken just after the first defeat of the Japanese on land, signed by the author and all the borrowers of this contemporary report. Privately printed for U.S. Army use during the New Guinea campaign in WWII, dated 19 - 31 October 1942, and stamped "Secret". This photographic report was made just shortly after the Battle of Milne Bay (August - September 1942), one of the major battles of the Kokoda Campaign and the first time a major Japanese operation had been comprehensively defeated.

Milne Bay was the first major battle of the Pacific campaign in which Allied troops decisively beat Japanese forces, with the Australian Militia troops and the elite Second Australian Imperial Force playing crucial roles. This defeat of the Japanese at Milne also prevented Japanese troops from bypassing the holding action that the Australians were conducting on the Kokoda Track. The importance for Allied morale of stopping the attack on the Kokoda Track and of winning the first land battle was critical.

The report with 5 notes stapled to the front wrapper, each stamped "Secret", the top one a typed note with the initials T. T. H. for General Tom Handy, and below it the initials of General Marshall, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. This typed note reads, Memo for Colonel Young: the Chief of Staff may be interested in looking over these pictures. Dated Dec. 3, 1942." Marshall was named chief of staff when World War II began; he greatly increased the size of the Army and helped devise Operation Overlord. After the war, his economic recovery program for Europe became known as the Marshall Plan, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 27 b&w real photographs here were taken in New Guinea by Russell Reeder (1902 - 1998) who was a graduate of West Point, one of its most admired graduates, and a highly decorated D Day commander at the Normandy invasion in WWII. After the war he was appointed superintendent at West Point, where he created a leadership course for cadets which is still part of the curriculum and was an athletic director coaching the baseball team. His writing career centered on American military history.

The images are preceded by a bird's eye view of the Coral Sea and Gulf of Papua, titled "Artist's view of the Papuan Peninsula showing the ruggedness of the peninsula, and with Allied airplanes routes & distances indicated.

The numbered real photographs include:
view of Milne Bay dock (with ship sunk by Japanese);
the stream crossing the main road in Milne Bay;
blast pens and dispersal bays at No. 1 strip;
a P-39 being repaired in the rain;
View of No. 3 strip at Milne Bay. ("I saw B-17s land on this strip ... An important part of the battle at Milne was decided at this strip");
Colonel Harry Knight, Cavalry & Colonel B. Q. Jones at Japanese graves alongside No. 3 strip;
gasoline storage dumps at Milne; Australian 2 pounder on improvised mobile mount;
Part of a company of US Aviation engineers, eating;
Dispersal strip at Milne near No. 1 strip;
Loading injured into plane at Milne for Port Moresby;
Landing Field at Wanigela Mission;
Wanigela Mission showing the pier;
unloading the USAT "King John" at Wanigela Mission by native canoe;
small coast lugger supplying the 128th infantry;
coming into Pongani on the King John;
village and landing strip at Pongani;
Aviation engineers sharpening tools at Pongani strip;
Natives hired to work on the strip resting; platoon kitchen of the 128th Infantry, 32nd Div, at Mendaropu;
Lieut. General R. L. Eichelberger talking to battalion and company commanders, 128th Infantry, 32nd Div. after their arrival in New Guinea, Sept. 26, 1942.

The original photographic images mostly 7 x 4 3/4", mounted on card, two per page, bound in brown manilla binder, legal size paper, with printed title on cover. From the estate of Russell Reeder. Very good. Item #7913

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