T H E P R O B L E M O F N E W G U I N E A
the P-40, P-39, and P-400, of special suspension gear for bomb
shackles on the same planes, and of interchangeable bomb bay tanks
for the B-26 and the A-zo. Labor was more readily available, and
gratifying progress marked vital construction in the advanced area.31
A beginning made on the improvement of airstrips in the north, to-
gether with the prospect for better maintenance, carried the promise
of reduction in a hitherto appallingly high rate of a c ~ i d e n t . ~ '
Preparations were still incomplete, but the time had come for a
move forward. O n zo July, General Headquarters moved from Mel-
bourne, where it had been located since April, to Brisbane. Air service
activities at Townsville were increasing. Additional fields were com-
ing into use on Cape York and around Port Moresby; engineers had
reached Milne Bay for the purpose of developing airstrips there, and
orders had been issued to secure the area about Buna, farther north
on the coast of N e w Guinea, for a still more advanced airfield that
would strengthen the Allied Air Forces in its effort to restrict Japa-
nese activity on the Huon Gulf, and at the same time would place
the American planes in a better position to co-operate with our naval
forces in the fulfilment of task But before these orders could
be executed, the enemy on z I July landed at Buna in preparation for
a push across the mountains against Port Moresby.
By the time the Marines went ashore on Guadalcanal to begin a
fight for the Solomons, the forward movement in Australia had been
accelerated to meet a new challenge for the possession of New Guinea.
T h e two contests would be fought bitterly and simultaneously, and
from them men would date the beginning of the collapse of the
world's newest empire.
48 3