page_title: Landing at Nadzab
section_title: Follow-up
hierarchical_section_title: Landing at Nadzab / Battle / Follow-up
caption_attribution_description: English: Two of five trucks carrying members of the 2/33rd Infantry Battalion and the 158th General Transport Company which were destroyed when a B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into the marshaling park near Jackson's Airfield on 7 September 1943, causing the death of 59 men and injuries to 92. The eleven members of the Liberator's crew also died in the accident.
context_page_description: The Landing at Nadzab was an airborne landing on 5 September 1943 during the New Guinea campaign of World War II in conjunction with the landing at Lae. The Nadzab action began with a parachute drop at Lae Nadzab Airport, combined with an overland force.
  The parachute drop was carried out by the US Army's 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment and elements of the Australian Army's 2/4th Field Regiment into Nadzab, New Guinea in the Markham Valley, observed by General Douglas MacArthur, circling overhead in a B-17. The Australian 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, 2/6th Field Company, and B Company, Papuan Infantry Battalion reached Nadzab after an overland and river trek that same day and began preparing the airfield. The first transport aircraft landed the next morning, but bad weather delayed the Allied build up. Over the next days, the 25th Infantry Brigade of the Australian 7th Division gradually arrived. An air crash at Jackson's Field ultimately caused half the Allied casualties of the battle.
  Once assembled at Nadzab, the 25th Infantry Brigade commenced its advance on Lae. On 11 September, it engaged the Japanese soldiers at Jensen's Plantation.
context_section_description: Meanwhile, a force under Lieutenant Colonel J. T. Lang, consisting of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, 2/6th Field Company, and detachments from the 7th Division Signals, 2/5th Field Ambulance and ANGAU, with 760 native carriers, set out from Tsili Tsili on 2 September. Most of the force moved overland, reaching Kirkland's Crossing on 4 September, where it rendezvoused with B Company, Papuan Infantry Battalion. That night, a party of engineers and pioneers set out from Tsili Tsili in 20 small craft, sailed and paddled down the Watut and Markham Rivers to join Lang's force at Kirkland's Crossing. The small river-borne task force included 10 British 5-ton folding assault boats and Hoehn military folboats. which met up with 2/6 Independent Commandos who had reconnoitered the proposed crossing area with 8 of these folboats the day before. While neither river was deep, both were fast flowing, with shoals and hidden snags. Three boats were lost with their equipment and one man drowned. On the morning of 5 September, Lang's force was treated to the sight of the air force passing overhead. At this point, the Markham River formed three arms, separated by broad sand bars. Two were fordable but the other was deep and flowing at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph). Using the folding boats and local timber, they constructed a pontoon bridge, allowing the whole force to cross the river safely with all their equipment. That evening, they reached the Americans' position.
  The next day they went to work on the airstrip with hand tools. Trees were felled, potholes filled in and a windsock erected. Fourteen gliders were supposed to fly in three light tractors, three mowers, a wheeled rake and other engineering equipment from Dobodura. Because the lack of opposition made immediate resupply non-urgent, and because he had doubts about the proficiency of the glider pilots, whom he knew had undergone only minimal training, General Blamey decided that the glider operation was not worth the risk to the glider pilots or their passengers and cancelled it, substituting instead the afternoon supply run by specially modified B-17s. Lacking mowers, the Kunai grass was cut by hand by the pioneers, sappers, paratroops and native civilians and burned, causing the destruction of some stores and equipment that had been lost in the long grass and "a swirl of black dust". By 11:00 on 6 September, the 1,500 feet (460 m) strip – which had not been used for over a year – had been extended to 3,300 feet (1,000 m).
  The first plane to land was an L-4 Piper Cub at 0940 6 September, bringing with it Colonel Murray C. Woodbury, the commander of the U.S. Army's 871st Airborne Engineer Aviation Battalion. Three transports followed, nearly running down some of the throng working on the strip. Another 40 aircraft followed in the afternoon, many containing American and Australian engineers. The 871st followed the next day with its small air-portable bulldozers and graders. They located a site for a new airstrip, which became known as No. 1, the existing one becoming No. 2. The site proved to be an excellent one; an old, dry riverbed with soil largely composed of gravel. A gravel base and steel plank was laid to accommodate the fighters based at Tsili Tsili that were in danger of bogging down when the weather deteriorated. By the end of October there were four airstrips at Nadzab, one of which was 6,000 feet (1,800 m) long and sealed with bitumen.
  While engineers and anti-aircraft gunners arrived from Tsili Tsili, no infantry arrived from Port Moresby on 6 September because of bad flying weather over the Owen Stanley Range, although the 2/25th Infantry Battalion was flown to Tsili Tsili. On 7 September, reveille was sounded for the 2/33rd Infantry Battalion at 03:30 and the unit boarded trucks of the 158th General Transport Company that took it to marshalling areas near the airfields in preparation for the movement to Nadzab. At 04:20, B-24 Liberator 42-40682 "Pride of the Cornhuskers" of the 43rd Bombardment Group piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Howard Wood set out from Jackson's Airfield on
caption: Two of five trucks carrying members of the 2/33rd Infantry Battalion and the 158th General Transport Company which were destroyed when a B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into the marshalling park near Jackson's Airfield on 7 September 1943
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