Скачать или смотреть The British Lost Singapore, the Dutch Lost Java — Then the Australians Won at Milne Bay

The British surrendered Singapore. The Dutch lost Java. The Americans fell at Bataan. By mid-1942, Japan's military seemed unstoppable — their elite marines had never been defeated on land.
Then came Milne Bay.
In August 1942, Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces — the same troops who had conquered Wake Island and Guam — landed at the eastern tip of New Guinea. They expected victory in 72 hours. What they found instead were Australian soldiers who refused to break.
This is the story of how militia conscripts and Tobruk veterans, supported by RAAF Kittyhawk fighters, handed Japan its first unambiguous land defeat of the Pacific War. Fighting in torrential rain, through impenetrable jungle, in brutal hand-to-hand night combat — the Australians held.
Field Marshal Sir William Slim later wrote: "Australian troops in Milne Bay inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Some of us may forget that of all the Allies it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army."
This video covers the complete battle: the desperate Allied situation in early 1942, the race to build airfields at Milne Bay, Japan's flawed intelligence and planning, the savage night fighting, the critical role of air power, and the bloody Australian counterattack that drove Japan's marines into the sea.
📚 Sources include official war diaries, veteran memoirs, and military histories.
⏱️ Chapters:
0:00 — The Myth of Invincibility
[Add timestamps after final edit]
🎖️ Dedicated to the men who fought at Milne Bay — August-September 1942.
#WW2 #MilneBay #PacificWar #AustralianHistory #WorldWarTwo