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Summary

The 18th Australian Infantry Brigade returned from the Buna and Sanananda campaigns a victorious but physically broken force. It had suffered more than 96 per cent casualties owing to a combination of weather, terrain, disease and the enemy, and would have to reconstruct the foundations of the brigade, built around a core of experienced veterans and the assimilation of motorised troops and replacement soldiers.1 The 18th Brigade would have to start building basic soldiering skills, the integration of jungle warfare lessons learnt, and the introduction of formal brigade leadership schools. This is also the period when the brigade undergoes a dramatic reorganisation under 7th Division’s establishment as a jungle division, which was outlined in chapter 1.

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We often laughed when we should have cried.

Allchin, Purple and Blue

The key battles at Buna and Sanananda fought by the 18th Infantry Brigade Group as part of Warren Force would result in its most disastrous casualties of the war. The 18th Brigade would suffer more casualties in one month than all three Australian Infantry brigades suffered in the three-month battle with the Japanese along the Kokoda Track.1 Owen Curtis, a soldier in 2/12th Battalion, noted in five weeks of fighting in the Buna and Sanananda regions of New Guinea that the brigade would suffer a staggering 96 per cent casualty rate.2 However, these same battles would pioneer brigade-level combined arms tactics in the jungle.

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Chapter 5 - Rebuilding the 18th Infantry Brigade

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Chapter 4 - The Battle of Buna

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Chapter 5 - Rebuilding the 18th Infantry Brigade

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Chapter 4 - The Battle of Buna

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