World War II: The Papuan Campaign

 Australia in WW2: 

Since Australia aided the Allies in so many invasions, we will focus on one key invasion that shifted the tides in the south-east campaign: The Papuan campaign. During the Second World War, Japan quickly swept through most of South-East Asia and by 1941 was only 150 km from the border of Australia after annexing Papua New Guinea. Now Japanese bombers were carrying out air raids on the northernmost territories of Australia. One of the most brutal attacks was on the 19th of February 1942 in the city of Darwin. A force of 242 aircraft attacked and killed at least 235 people. 

(source: ww2db.com)

The Japanese Invaded the island of Papua New Guinea and invaded Lae and Salamaua to secure a position to protect their developing base in Rabaul. Unknowned to the Japanese, some Australian guerrillas and the New Guinea volunteer rifles had created observation posts around the base and successfully raided Salamaua on 29 of February. The defeat of the Japanese in the battle of the Coral Sea denied sea access to Port Moresby to the Japanese. The Japanese then tried to attack the settlement from the north using a route called the Kokdoa track to cross the rough terrain of the Owen Stanley range. They then were only met with resistance from a weak CMF brigade. While the brigade proved successful to delay the Japanese, they were not able to stop it. Even with fresh reinforcements arriving from two AIF divisions they weren't able to stop the Japanese. The Japanese  Force was however forced to retreat back to the track on the same day, as supply problems and ammo loss made any further advance impossible and a counter-attack on Buna was feared. The Australians continued to pursue the Japanese along the track until the Japanese forces formed a Bridgehead in the north coast of Papua. (early November) They were eventually pushed out by commonwealth forces. 

After the defeat, the Japanese retreated and withdrew to a defensive position  in the territory of New Guinea. In order to secure/protect their important military bases at Lae and Salamaua. They then proceeded to invade the city of Wau which ended up in a complete disaster with allied troops even pushing the Japanese back to their bases. The Japanese forces began to withdraw their forces to the coast on February 4th. During the final weeks of fighting, the Japanese made a last attempt to secure Lae but was thwarted by RAF and AIR forces during a bombing raid. After this, the Japanese finally withdrew from the island. 

Trivia: 

The Australians were one of the first countries to declare war on the Axis powers. 

Australia sent nearly 1 million people to support the allies during the war. 

The Australians sent troops to fight alongside the Americans in the island hopping campaign in the pacific. 

They also sent troops for the invasion of Sicily.  (Sicily is an island in the south of Italy