What a Japanese General Wrote After Australian Commandos Overran His Battalion in 48 Hours

#Kaiapit #AustralianCommandos #WW2Pacific In September 1943, a Japanese Major General sat in a tent in the Finisterre Range waiting for a signal from a five-hundred-man battalion group he had sent into the upper Markham Valley. The signal never came. For thirty-six hours, the wireless stayed silent. When the survivors finally staggered out of the kunai grass, they said the Yonekura Force had been attacked by an Australian force "of unexpected strength." This documentary tells the story of what really happened at Kaiapit — how 190 Australian commandos of the 2/6th Independent Company, flown into an unfinished airstrip they had never seen before, walked 12 kilometres through two-metre kunai grass, seized a village at last light, and at dawn on the 20th of September 1943 destroyed a Japanese battalion group nearly three times their size in a fight that lasted four hours. Discover the tactical decision that saved the company — a 24-year-old Australian captain who understood that the only way to survive the assault was to attack — and the weapon that shredded a closely bunched Japanese column at close range in the kunai: the Owen submachine gun. 🔥 In this video: The Yonekura Plan: Why the Japanese needed Kaiapit to threaten Nadzab and cover the retreat from Lae. The Airlift: How 13 twin-engined transports put a rifle company on a strip prepared by a US forward air control team. Captain King's Decision: The moment a young Australian officer chose to charge out of the perimeter instead of holding it. The Owen Gun: Why the Australian sub-machine gun cleared kunai grass in a way no other weapon could. The Silence: How a Japanese divisional headquarters spent 36 hours not knowing its own battalion had been destroyed. Sources of Where I get my facts: Bradley, P. (2004) The Battle for Wau: New Guinea's Frontline 1942–1943. Cambridge University Press. Coates, J. (1999) Bravery Above Blunder: The 9th Australian Division at Finschhafen, Sattelberg and Sio. Oxford University Press. Dexter, D. (1961) The New Guinea Offensives, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 1, Volume 6. Australian War Memorial. Tanaka, K. (1980) Operations of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Papua New Guinea Theatre During World War II. Japan Papua New Guinea Goodwill Society. Threlfall, A. (2014) Jungle Warriors: From Tobruk to Kokoda and Beyond, How the Australian Army Became the World's Most Deadly Jungle Fighting Force. Allen & Unwin. Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes. #Kaiapit #AustralianCommandos #WW2Pacific #NewGuinea #26thIndependentCompany #OwenGun #MilitaryHistory #MarkhamValley