World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Party at Arawe

A staff car rolled to a dockside some where in New Guinea, discharged a four-star passenger. Columns of green-clad U.S. soldiers boarding transports recognized Douglas MacArthur's plain shirt and trousers, braided cap, plump cigar. Brigadier General Julian Cunningham walked over, saluted.

"Hello, Cunningham," said the Commander in Chief. "How are you? Ready for the party?"

Everything was ready. Within the next 24 hours, Douglas MacArthur's men had crossed 90 miles of blue sea, wrenched a beachhead from the Japs on New Britain Island, pressed closer the western arm of the Allied pincers...

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