SECRET MILNE BAY AFTER-ACTION PHOTO REPORT'Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. 19 - 31 ...

SECRET MILNE BAY AFTER-ACTION PHOTO REPORT
'Photographic Report Milne Bay, Wanigela Mission, Pongani. 19 - 31 October 1942. SECRET' by Lt. Col Russell P. Reeder, Inf, OPD, War Department. From the estate of Col. Russel Reader (1902 - 1998). Original photographs taken just after the first defeat of the Japanese on land, signed by the author and all the borrowers of this contemporary report. Privately printed for U.S. Army use during the New Guinea campaign in WWII, dated 19 - 31 October 1942, and stamped 'Secret'. This photographic report was made just shortly after the Battle of Milne Bay (August - September 1942), one of the major battles of the Kokoda Campaign and the first time a major Japanese operation had been comprehensively defeated. Milne Bay was the first major battle of the Pacific campaign in which Allied troops decisively beat Japanese forces, with the Australian Militia troops and the elite Second Australian Imperial Force playing crucial roles. This defeat of the Japanese at Milne also prevented Japanese troops from bypassing the holding action that the Australians were conducting on the Kokoda Track. The importance for Allied morale of stopping the attack on the Kokoda Track and of winning the first land battle was critical.
The report with 5 notes stapled to the front wrapper, each stamped 'Secret', the top one a typed note with the initials 'T. T. H.' for GENERAL TOM HANDY, and below it the initials of GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. This typed note reads: 'Memo for Colonel Young: the Chief of Staff may be interested in looking over these pictures', dated Dec. 3, 1942. Marshall was named chief of staff when World War II began; after the war, his economic recovery program for Europe became known as the Marshall Plan, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The 28 b/w photographs were taken in New Guinea by Russell Reeder. The images are preceded by a bird's eye view of the Coral Sea and Gulf of Papua, titled 'Artist's view of the Papuan Peninsula showing the ruggedness of the peninsula', and with Allied airplanes routes & distances indicated. The photographs include view of Milne Bay dock (with ship sunk by Japanese); the stream crossing the main road in Milne Bay; blast pens and dispersal bays at No. 1 strip; a P-39 being repaired in the rain; view of No. 3 strip at Milne Bay. ('I saw B-17s land on this strip ... An important part of the battle at Milne was decided at this strip'); Colonel Harry Knight, Cavalry & Colonel B. Q. Jones at Japanese graves alongside No. 3 strip; gasoline storage dumps at Milne; Australian 2 pounder on improvised mobile mount; part of a company of US Aviation engineers, eating; Dispersal strip at Milne near No. 1 strip; Loading injured into plane at Milne for Port Moresby; Landing Field at Wanigela Mission; Wanigela Mission showing the pier; unloading the USAT 'King John' at Wanigela Mission by native canoe; small coast lugger supplying the 128th infantry; coming into Pongani on the King John; village and landing strip at Pongani; Aviation engineers sharpening tools at Pongani strip; Natives hired to work on the strip resting; platoon kitchen of the 128th Infantry, 32nd Div, at Mendaropu; Lieut. General R. L. Eichelberger talking to battalion and company commanders, 128th Infantry, 32nd Div. after their arrival in New Guinea, Sept. 26, 1942. Mostly 7 x 4.75 inches, mounted on card, bound in brown manilla binder.
In 1941, Colonel Russell Reeder was transferred to the Army Operations Division, Gen. George Marshall's general staff, Washington, D.C. In April 1944 Reeder was assigned to command the 12th Infantry Regiment within the Fourth Infantry Division. Reeder's regiment of 3,200 soldiers fought on Utah Beach during D-Day. On June 11, 1944, during the Battle of Normandy, Reeder received a shrapnel wound in his ankle that almost severed his left leg. Reeder was taken back to England, and from there was taken to the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, and his leg was amputated.