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Buna was General Douglas MacArthur's first offensive campaign against Japanese troops in World War II. As supreme commander, Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), MacArthur expected American soldiers to seize the Japanese forward base at Buna, on Papua New Guinea, speedily and without many casualties. After all, the SWPA intelligence officer, Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, assured MacArthur on the eve of the operation that there was 'little indication of an attempt to make a strong stand against the Allied advance.' The battered Japanese forces were closely defending the airstrip at Buna and had established an embarkation point to the west of the base–all pointing to a general withdrawal by sea. MacArthur and the officers and men of the U.S. 32nd Infantry Division, the unit ordered to take Buna, therefore expected a quick victory. They were told–and they believed–that Buna would be a pushover, taken in a few days from the emperor's understrength and already badly mauled forces. Unfortunately for the American soldiers, no one told that to the Japanese defenders.
Chain of Command Eichelberger relieved Harding on December 2, 1942. (Harding and Eichelberger had been West Point classmates in 1909.) Eichelberger also sacked the regimental commanders and most battalion commanders. He replaced Harding with the division's artillery commander, Brigadier General Albert W. Waldron. "Some of the 32nd's officers privately denounced Eichelberger as ruthless, Prussian."
Other Memories On 9 February 1942, Brigadier General Edwin F. Harding took command of the Division. He was promoted to Major General on 13 February.
