AllMovie

Crusade in the Pacific is a video series that documents the fighting between the United States and Japan's Empire of the Rising Sun during and immediately after World War II. Each episode examines a crucial stage in a war that was contested bitterly and marked by unheard-of savagery. This episode, Crusade in the Pacific: The Road Back - New Guinea, covers the fight for New Guinea, a badly needed base for Japan's eventual plans for Australia. Untested American and Australian troops turned back Japan in a campaign still unbelievable for its bitter tenor. In some of the worst terrain on earth, the U.S. and Australian troops prevailed, and together with the Japanese defeat at Guadalcanal, drove the first nails into the Japanese coffin.