The controversial campaigns: the role of the Australian Army in the South-West Pacific area, 1944-1945

© 1982 Anthony Paul HastingsDuring the final year of the war in the Pacific, the Australian Army was confined to “mopping-up” by-passed Japanese forces in the New Guinea area and Borneo, left behind by the American advance through the Philippines and towards Japan. The Australian Army did not have any combat forces in any of the well known Pacific campaigns of 1944-45, such as, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Nevertheless, mopping-up involved the Australians in many bloody clashes against the Japanese, who always fought with great tenacity, and by the end of the war the Australian Army had more troops in the field than at any other time. On the other hand, the Australian campaigns were, by the standard of that period of the war, on quite a small scale, and overall Australian casualties were fairly light