"No other battle in Papua New Guinea tested the Allies so completely and unexpectedly as did the Battle of the Beachheads - Buna, Gona and Sananda. To be sent to this battlefield was to pass figuratively through the gates of hell. For two awful months, from 19 November 1942 to 22 January 1943, unit after unit was flailed against obstinate and lethal Japanese defences. -- P.1