
12-10-10, 11:40
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MLU Administrator
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 14,829
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan
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For future reference:
Quote:
WW2 1945 PHOTO LOADING RAAF TRUCK INVASION OF TARAKAN
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DESCRIPTION:
We offer for your consideration an original WW2 1945 photo of the loading of an RAAF truck into a landing craft ready for transportation from Morotai Island for the invasion of Tarakan, Borneo. Note that the truck is carrying a heavy grader for the making of an airstrip for RAAF planes. The truck weighs 23 tons. The Australian invasion of North Borneo was as much a political exercise as it was a military one:
The decision by the Allies to invade Borneo in 1945 was for the most part political. It had only marginal strategic value. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area, planned the operation partly to alleviate concerns of the Australian government that its forces were being relegated to operational backwaters, as New Guinea had become. MacArthur had largely left Australian forces out of the most significant operation of this stage of the war – the liberation of the Philippines – with only some warships and a few air force units taking part. The invasion of Borneo was intended to make Australian forces more visible again in pressing home the war against Japan.
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Regards,
Hanno
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