A Division At War — Part I
The tanks allowed this advance . Colonel MacNab , one of the battalion commanders , described their effects :
The tanks really did that job . They apparently completely demoralized the Japs ... who fought like cornered rats when they were forced into the open as a result of having their fires masked when the tanks broke through their final protective line .... There were few holes knocked in the bunkers except where the tanks stood off and blasted them at short range with their 37-mm guns . 21
The Stuarts ran right through the heavy small arms fire . Two were lost : one to a Molotov cocktail and the other to mechanical failure . The remaining three tanks advanced to within 500 yards of Cape Endaiadere , destroyed a strongpoint , and then moved to the New Strip , where another attack with three more tanks took place . A system of twenty bunkers , a system that had held up a month of repeated attacks , was engaged and destroyed . 22
The Old Strip still remained . All of the Japanese heavy weapons ( two 75- mm guns , two 37-mm guns , several 25- mm dual and triple pom-poms , three 3-inch dug in naval guns ) defended the Old Strip . Getting there meant crossing the bridge , which the Japanese had blown a hole in . It was repaired and on Christmas Eve , Eichelberger launched his next attack . 23
The attack , preceded by the fire of the lone US gun , went well , at first . The Japanese then knocked out three more tanks . The infantry advance stalled . The
US gun destroyed one of the 3-inch enemy naval guns but could not locate the others . The infantry resumed their advance and seized all the big Japanese guns , finding them out of ammunition . Any remaining Japanese bunkers were eliminated over the next week . By 3 January 1943 , the battle finally ended .
Six weeks of combat in the jungle had taken its toll : 707 killed in action and 1,680 wounded in action . Those numbers were compounded by 7,125 non-battle casualties ( sickness , heat exhaustion , battle fatigue ). The 32nd Infantry Division entered this battle with 10,825 men . Ninety percent at some point were not effective . It is remarkable they fought as well as they did . New Guinea was their wartime home for the next two years . The next major battle along the Driniumor River saw the 32nd Infantry Division once again in an avoidable , precarious situation .
After Buna , the 32nd needed rest . They also needed intense training , both for replacements and veterans , and plenty of heavy weapons and equipment . Never again would they enter battle with only one artillery piece and no tanks . The year 1943 would be a year of training , integration of new weapons and equipment , and assimilation of a new command structure . General Eichelberger moved on . The new division commander was General William Gill ( leading the division through the end of the war ). The 32nd Infantry Division became part of the US Sixth Army , General Walter Krueger commanding . Krueger was responsible for the tactical part of the New Guinea campaign . Strategically , MacArthur and
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