Qualla: Battle of Goodenough Island https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Goodenough Island https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island Battle of Goodenough Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit Casey, Hugh J., ed., Public domain. They had been stranded for two months. Three hundred and fifty men of the 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force had come ashore at Goodenough Island on 24 August 1942 to rest their crews during a daylight pause on the way to attack Milne Bay. Nine Australian Kittyhawks caught them with their seven landing craft pulled up on the beach, destroyed every craft, their radio, and most of their stores. Eight Japanese were killed. The survivors became a problem for which the Japanese Navy could find no easy solution and for which the Australians, eventually, found a cold one. By October there were 285 of them left on the island, suffering from malaria, resupplied intermittently by submarine, waiting for a rescue that could not come. Six hundred and eighty kilometres from Port Moresby, seventeen hundred nautical miles from Rabaul, the survivors held a slice of beach and inland track on one of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands. The Allies decided they needed Goodenough Island. The stranded men were going to have to be cleared.

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Image: Casey, Hugh J., ed. | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Goodenough Island: The Island and the Plan https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. Goodenough Island is the northernmost of the D'Entrecasteaux group, a roughly oval landmass twenty-one miles by thirteen that rises sharply to Mount Vineuo at 2,536 metres in its centre. Its western side is jungle and rainforest. Its northeastern side opens into grassy plains of ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-the-island-and-the-plan.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Goodenough Island: Waiting Out the Destroyers https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. The plight of the stranded Japanese force had not gone unnoticed by their own high command. On 10 September two destroyers sailed from Rabaul to try a rescue. Allied aircraft found them before they could reach the island. Task Force 44 cruisers were detached to intercept; they mi...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-waiting-out-the-destroyers.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Goodenough Island: Drake Force Lands https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Arnold commanded Drake Force - the 2/12th Battalion with attachments, around 640 men. They boarded the destroyers HMAS Stuart and Arunta at Milne Bay on 22 October. Arnold's plan was a pincer: 520 men under his own command would land at Mud Bay in the so...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-drake-force-lands.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Goodenough Island: Hand Grenades Down a Hill https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. The Japanese commander held his fire until the Australians were almost on top of his position, then opened up with machine guns and mortars. The men who had already crossed the creek found hand grenades being rolled down the hill on top of them. Those still behind the creek were ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-hand-grenades-down-a-hill.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Goodenough Island: Amoeba https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. The fighting had cost the Australians 13 killed and 19 wounded. Japanese casualties were harder to count - they had recovered and buried their own dead - but the estimate was 20 killed and 15 wounded in the battle itself. One Japanese soldier, Shigeki Yokota, evaded capture on th...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-amoeba.mp3 0:06 6 full Battle of Goodenough Island: The Documents in the Tin https://qualla.com/battle-of-goodenough-island/ Photo credit US Army, Public domain. There is one more piece to the story, which happened after the main battle and deserves telling. In March 1943, in the aftermath of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, groups of Japanese troops and sailors were once again shipwrecked on Goodenough Island. The Australian 47th Infantry...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/6/f/battle-of-goodenough-island-wp/rq6f-battle-of-goodenough-island-the-documents-in-the-tin.mp3 0:06 7 full