For the second time in the South Pacific the Japs got a bellyful of surprise. Chased out of bases in the Solomons, last week they decided to attack Milne Bay, which lies at the southern tip of New Guinea. They headed south in warships and transports. Allied fighter planes lugging small bombs spotted them, strafed their transports and sank a gunboat. But under a screen of low-lying clouds and a tropical downpour, they ducked into the ten-mile-wide mouth of Milne Bay, launched barges and poured out on the swamp-fringed shore.
Then came the surprise. The extent of military installations and the strength...