All language subtitles for Buried Secrets of WWII Series 1 Part 5 The Battle That Won the Pacific War 1080p

Narrator: Papua new guinea.

One of the most unexplored
places on earth.

Beneath this dense jungle
there are scars of a bloody

Battle that may have
changed the course of history.

World war ii was fought
on vast landscapes
across the planet.

Marty (over radio): Where we're
going, we don't need roads.

Narrator: But the evidence of
that war is disappearing fast.

Pete: That is one of
the coolest things I've
ever seen in the water.

That's it.
Congratulations!

Narrator: Now, technology
expert pete kelsey...

Pete: I've gotta scan this...

Narrator: And military
historian marty morgan...

Marty: Oh my god,
look at this view.

Narrator: Are using
21st century technology
to strip away the present

And reveal the buried
secrets of world war ii.

This time...

Why was japan's
most fearsome fighter plane
downed minutes from take-off?

Pete: That's amazing.

Narrator: What part
does a hidden underground
fortress play in

This long and bloody campaign?

Marty: Cranking
up right now...

Narrator: And can marty and
pete find the most remote
battlefield on the planet,

Lost for nearly eight decades?

Pete: Marty, this
terrain is insane.

(theme music plays).

Narrator: 1937,
world war ii is approaching,

And japan has its sights
set on building an empire.

It's the beginning of a
five-year rampage across
the pacific ocean.

They're fast, terrifying
and unstoppable...

Painting the ocean the
red of the rising sun.

By 1942 they have full
control of the western pacific.

Only one major territory
was left unconquered.

Australia.

And before they could attack,
one thing stood in their way.

The remote jungle of
papua new guinea.

But japanese troops
never made it to australia.

Their ambitions
crushed in a bitter and

Now largely forgotten campaign
here on papua new guinea.

Nearly 80 years on,
scanning expert pete kelsey
and military historian

Marty morgan want
to understand how events
here turned the tide of war.

The answers lie hidden
in the dangerous jungles
and murky swamps.

Historical accounts show
that in January 1942 the

Japanese launched an attack
on the island of new britain.

Their target?

The port of rabaul.

It was a vital strategic
location defended

By a small force of
just 1400 australians.

Marty: From up here I can
really picture it, pre-dawn,
January 23rd, 1942,

A japanese force of over
5000 men land at four
points around rabaul.

The japanese quickly overpower
the smaller australian
force that was here.

And they seize rabaul

And more importantly
they seize this,

The ideal fleet anchorage,

Simpson harbor.

Narrator: Rabaul was
the perfect location
for a japanese attack

On the papua new
guinea mainland.

But the allies
soon retaliated.

They dropped 3,000 tons of
explosives on the rabaul
base in one month alone,

It was bombed
more than berlin.

And yet somehow the
japanese held rabaul for
the next three years,

Only giving up when
hiroshima was bombed, and
japan finally surrendered.

But how did they defend this
place so far from home from

The combined might
of the allied forces?

Local historian and wreck
diver rod pearce has been

Studying the waters
around rabaul for decades.

He thinks clues about the
japanese defenses lie in
the waters of the harbor.

Marty and pete join
him in the search.

Pete: Tell me you
have sonar gear?

Rod: Yep I've got it.

(laughter).

Marty: So what
are we waiting for?

Narrator: Using sonar,
rod's boat scans the harbor.

It's not long before
marty spots something.

Marty: Hey rod!
We've got something.

Rod: Let's have a look.
Marty: Yeah.

Is that what I think it is?

Rod: Yep, definitely
worth a dive.

Narrator: Pete is taking
cutting edge photogrammetry
kit on the dive.

Pete: I'm going
to go down and have a
look, see what it is.

♪ ♪

Narrator: Photogrammetry
captures thousands of images

And uses state of the art
software to create a 3d model.

It's not long before
they reach the aircraft
marty located with the sonar.

On the wing is the
symbol of the rising sun,

This plane is japanese.

Then the team locate
another wreck nearby.

This time the structure
is much less clear,

But pete scans
it just in case.

Rod: What do you
think of that?

Pete: Rod, that's a
japanese airplane!

Rod: Yep, absolutely amazing.

Pete: That's incredible.
Rod: Absolutely.

Pete: That is one of
the coolest things I've
ever seen in the water.

Narrator: So what
are these planes and
what can they reveal?

Can pete's scans uncover
the extraordinary evidence
of the aircrafts' fate?

Pete: Marty have a look,
clearly an airplane.

Marty: Oh definitely.

Pete: Clearly upside down.

Marty: Clearly a fighter,
that looks like a zero to me.

Pete: Really?
Marty: Yeah.

Pete: Fighter?
Marty: A fighter definitely.

Narrator: The japanese
zero was a legendary
fighter plane with a

Kill ratio of 12 to 1 in the
early days of world war ii.

The zero wreck
was largely intact,

But what can the scans
show of the more damaged wreck?

Pete: Have a look at this one,
this one is a bit of a mess.

All I can tell you is
pretty much what you see
it's big, it looks heavy.

Marty: It's shattered,
it's in a bunch of pieces

And that automatically
makes me suspect this
is an allied aircraft

That was brought down by
japanese anti-aircraft fire

During one of the air raids.

Pete: Allied?

Marty: This looks like
it might be an avenger.

Narrator: The tbf avenger
was the newest addition
to the americans'

Fleet of torpedo
bombers in 1942.

It had airborne radar
that could locate
targets in the dark.

So allied aircraft
could relentlessly
attack japanese positions,

Both day and night.

Returning to the scan of
the japanese fighter plane,

Pete has noticed
something unusual.

Pete: Have a look at this
because this just grabbed me
when we were in the water.

That is a rock,
inside the wing.

Marty: Embedded in the wing?

Pete: It's about that
big, grapefruit size.

Marty: Is the prop blade bent?
Pete: It is, yep.

Marty: Is the landing gear up?
Pete: Is up.

Marty: So it sounds like
something happened on take off.

Pete: What put a rock
in his way, you know,
in his flight path?

Marty: Maybe the field was
under attack while he was
trying to get in the air,

There was an explosion nearby.

So this guy was rolling out,

He got it airborne,
brought his gear up,

Threw a rock into the wing.

Pete: That would
do it, wouldn't it?
Marty: That would do it.

Pete: That would explain why
it's in such perfect condition
except for this rock.

Narrator: These scans show the
japanese were taking off to
defend themselves even while

Bombs rained down around them.

But what they can't explain
is just how they held off the

Might of the
allies for so long.

Narrator: Pete kelsey
and marty morgan are on
a mission to discover

How the japanese managed
to hold the key strategic

Town of rabaul in
the face of a massive
allied retaliation.

The us alone dropped
20,000 tons of explosives.

This level of bombing
should have led to
surrender in months.

But local historian
rob rawlinson thinks
a clue to the japanese

Success lies
on the outskirts of town.

Rob: Get in here okay.

Pete: Wish me luck.

Rob: Ok well we've managed to
get in the entrance has been
covered up by a landslip,

Some are exposed, and some
are opened up all the time
because of the weather.

Follow me.

Narrator: Contemporary
accounts tell of a buried

Japanese military
fortress at rabaul.

Rob believes
that these caves were

An underground headquarters
for the japanese forces.

Rob: The japanese
concreted the tunnels
to stop them collapsing,

You can see the tubes
inside of the tunnels,

These would have been
coconut palms then they
would have cut them off.

They would have held
the roof in place.

Marty: Is that metal from
like a hinge or something?

Rob: Yeah, there would
probably have been a hinge
here and probably a door here;

There were
probably two doors,

There might be some hinges over
the other side, are there?

Marty: Looks like it.
Rob: Yeah.

Narrator: In these dark,
difficult conditions,

It's almost impossible
to get a proper picture of
what really lies buried here.

Rob: Now we go up here.

Marty: Whoa!

This area is dripping
with water even today.

Narrator: Pete is going to use
3d laser scanning technology
to build the first ever

Digital model of the tunnels,
bringing them to life...

Out of the darkness.

His hand-held scanner
fires out tens of thousands
of laser beams a second.

It then measures the response
time to create a detailed
point-scan model of the tunnel.

Can it prove that this really
was the military fortress?

Pete returns to base
to process the results.

His findings are remarkable.

Pete: I actually really kind
of like this one just because
it's so random and complex,

Great evidence of just how
easy it was to actually
tunnel in this lava rock.

Narrator: This
subterranean world is vast.

A massive system that is,
in places, five stories high.

And there is clear evidence
that it was occupied.

Pete's scans reveal
offices, barracks, a
complete underground city.

Safe from allied bombing
raids, deep underground.

And in one part of the
tunnels the scan points to an
area with a darker purpose.

Pete: Let's bring up
this other tunnel we
went in with rob,

What I'm thinking is,
that's clearly a
concrete door frame.

And you go a little
further in,

And see these nooks,

Are you thinking
what I'm thinking?

Marty: Yeah, that looks
like a place where they
are keeping prisoners,

And why would you build a
door frame in a tunnel if

You didn't want
people getting out of it.

Pete: So what?

Downed airmen because
of all these air raids?

Marty: Absolutely, and
australians that were captured

Here during the
invasion in 1942.

Narrator: The japanese were
notorious for the terrible
treatment of prisoners of war,

And pete's scan suggest
rabaul was no exception.

Eye witness accounts confirm
that those that managed to

Stay alive were
packed into the tunnels.

They also reveal that
forced labor was the key
to japanese survival,

They worked the prisoners
to death to create
the fortress so quickly.

Rabaul was a safe location
from which they could
make their next move,

An assault on port
moresby and the mainland.

Port moresby,
capital of papua new guinea,

Just 300 miles from the
northern coast of australia.

If it fell to the japanese,
they would have control of

Australia's main
shipping route,

Leaving it isolated
and vulnerable to invasion.

But the first japanese
attack ended in disaster.

May 4th, 1942, the
japanese send a fleet of nearly

50 ships on a mission
to take port moresby.

This time, after losing
rabaul, the allies were ready.

The us navy intercept
the enemy in the coral sea

And cripple japan's
best naval vessels.

The japanese wouldn't
attack from the sea again.

What the japanese did
next was bold, brave
and totally unexpected.

They decided to use their
highly trained jungle forces
to launch an overland attack,

Through some of
the most inhospitable
terrain on the planet.

But something equally
unexpected stopped
them in their tracks.

Narrator: Somehow in
1942, australian forces
in papua new guinea,

Newly trained
and barely tested,

Managed to hold off the brutal
might of the japanese army.

And marty morgan
and pete kelsey are on a
mission to find out how.

Pete: So we are going to go?
Marty: We're going!

Pete: We're going, going.
Marty: Its electric isn't it?

Pete: Wow!

Narrator: Marty
has discovered accounts of a
ferocious and decisive battle,

Deep in the
treacherous jungle.

But the battlefield has
been lost for decades.

Marty: We're cranking
up right now.

Narrator: Pete and marty want
to use 21st century technology

To find and explore it.

Marty (over radio): Where we're
going, we don't need roads.

Pete (over radio): Unbelievabl!

Narrator: July 1942, over
4000 jungle trained japanese

Soldiers land on the
northern beaches at buna.

Their mission was to use a
jungle path called the kokoda
trail to attack port moresby.

It crosses the owen stanleys,
a formidable mountain range,

With an elevation
of 13,000 feet.

Marty (over radio): The
owen stanleys are notorious
for being some of the most

Treacherous and rugged
terrain on planet earth
and I believe that what

I'm seeing is living up
to that reputation.

Narrator: The
australians got wind of
the invasion within days.

They immediately sent
two battalions into
the steaming jungle.

They had no idea what
was waiting for them.

Marty (over radio):
I've spent my entire life
reading about this battle

And I have never appreciated
it fully until just this momen.

Pete (over radio):
Coming in hot,

It's the only opening in the
canopy I've seen in 30 minutes.

Narrator: Marty and pete are
greeted by local villagers to

Guide them through the jungle
to a place they call etoa.

The locals' ancestors passed
down stories of the war that

Swept through their
land nearly 80 years ago.

Sam: This place was a wasteland.

All the trees and plants
were dead, the rivers
were polluted with blood.

We couldn't drink the water
for 7 or 10 years afterwards.

This stream that
goes down to eora creek,

Many soldiers died
there, it's full of bones.

Narrator: Located midway
between port moresby and
buna on the kokoda trail,

Etoa was clearly the
scene of heavy fighting.

But can technology find
proof of the bloody
stories they tell?

And is this the place
where the australians
defeated the japanese?

The team set up camp
on the only flat piece
of land for miles.

At first light,
pete gets to work.

He's going to use a drone
fitted with a powerful laser
scanning system, lidar.

The data it records will allow
him to strip away the trees

And map the area around
the camp in amazing detail.

Pete: Now I know what
was inside that big box.

You must be jeremy.

Jeremy: I am.

Pete: And gavin then?
Gavin: Nice to meet you.

Pete: I'm pete, wow am I
glad you guys are here.

Narrator: Jeremy
and gavin are experts
in gathering lidar data

From challenging
environments.

Pete: So what
have you brought?

Jeremy: Well we've
brought this larger drone and

A lidar mapping
system called hoverrmap.

Hopefully it will allow
us to penetrate through the
canopy so that we can image

The ground and hopefully find
some interesting features.

Pete: That's perfect because
what we are looking for are

Any signs of battle, of warfare,
so you can guess them.

Trenches, foxholes, whatever
and this can do that right?

Jeremy: It can.

Narrator: But flying a
drone in this dense jungle
is incredibly difficult...

The thin air drains
the drone battery quickly,

And keeping eyes on
it during the short flight
window is a challenge...

So pete's smaller drone
will be their eyes in the sky.

Gavin: We are at 6,000 feet,
and the last time I flew this
type of mission at 6,000 feet,

The best I could get was six
to seven minutes flight time.

In between windows of
weather, so we are really
up against a lot here.

Pete: Because hitting a
tree here would be a bad day.

Jeremy: Yeah it's pretty
much a pack up our
stuff and let's go back.

Pete: How shall we do this?

Shall we put the little
one up first, get eyes in
the air, what's the plan?

Jeremy: Sounds like a plan.
Pete: Yeah? Okay.

Narrator: Pete and the
team start with a scan of
the area around the camp,

Hoping they might
find something.

Jeremy: Roger.

Narrator: If not, they'll
widen the search.

Pete: This is great already
he's covering so much ground,

This would take us weeks
to walk what he's doing.

First flight successful,
the birds come
back, it's all good,

Of course now we want to push
further out and get more data.

Narrator: Pushing
further out will take
the drone further from

The controllers
over tougher terrain,

And is fraught with danger.

Jeremy: Now he's climbing
to 40 meters...
Gavin: Okay.

Jeremy: Coming across...
Coming over.

Gavin: Okay. Just stop it
there hold hold hold.

Jeremy: Yep, holding.

Gavin: That's good position.
That's three minutes.

Jeremy: Roger.

Pete: Wow he is way low!

Jeremy: You need to come home.

Pete: He is low.

Jeremy: We are
having a problem.

I can't climb, it
wants to come right down.

Gavin: Its descending.

Jeremy: Yep, there's nothing
I can do to stop that.

Gavin: Here it comes!

Pete: Oh no! Oh no!
That's bad, that is bad!

Jeremy: Well then
that's game over.

Narrator: In the dense papua
new guinea jungle, pete,

Jeremy and gavin are
hunting for the missing drone.

Gavin: I've got a
rough idea where it is.

Jeremy: Yeah where's that?

Gavin: See that tall dead
skinny tree in front of you?

Narrator: If the lidar unit
is undamaged, there's a chance
they can retrieve its data.

Gavin: Yeah, the tall skinny
one, with straggly branches.

Jeremy: Can you show me where?

Man: Right at the top.

Jeremy: Oh yeah, there it is,
right on the top, okay, well,

Hopefully we can find
a way to get it down?

Narrator: With the fate
of the lidar map still unknown,

Marty heads onto
the ground around the
camp with gregory bablis,

A curator at the papua
new guinea national museum.

He was one of the
first historians ever
to explore this site,

And he thinks there
is evidence of fighting
visible to the naked eye.

Gregory: Marty keep your
eyes open for things we
can find of the surface.

Marty: There are still
things on the surface?

Gregory: Yeah they are
scattered all over the place,
the whole island's littered

With surplus materials
from the war.

I think I got something here.

Marty: Uh-oh... Uh-oh.

Gregory: That's a nice find.

Marty: Tell you that's
a nice find, alright.

Gregory: What do
you reckon that is?

Marty: That's an australian
water bottle, isn't it?

Is it common to find
things like this?

Gregory: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Marty: Let's keep looking.
Gregory: Yeah.

Jeez. I think there's some
things here under the brush.

Marty: Oh that's
something isn't it?

Is this a helmet?

Gregory: Yeah that's a helmet.

Marty: Oh that's japanese.

Uh oh, wow! Oh my god!

Gregory: Look at this!

This looks like the locals have
found things around the area

And just kind of plied
them up in one place.

Narrator: Lost in the jungle
for nearly eight decades this

Is the wartime evidence that
marty has been looking for.

Marty: Oh god look
at this japanese type 99
light machine gun magazine

Its corroded through to where
you can see the spring inside...

Gregory: Oh yeah.
Marty: That's incredible.

Yeah. There was
a fight up here.

Narrator: Pete, gavin
and jeremy have retrieved
their missing drone.

Jeremy: The drone's
a total write-off.

Narrator: To find evidence
of a real battle, the drone's
lidar scan will be critical.

They hope it'll reveal
fighting positions, dug
outs, signs of battle...

But only if they can
get the data off the drone.

Jeremy: You see that?

Its transferring
the data off.

Gavin: Yeah, that's
why I left it on. Amazing...

Jeremy: Yeah, it's pretty good.

Narrator: As night
falls back at camp pete
processes the lidar data

And transforms it into a 3d
landscape of the jungle floor.

Pete: Now look at that.

Narrator: With
the damaged drone,

The team have only covered a
small part of the target area.

So have they managed
to capture any of the
battlefield itself?

Jeremy: Well, we have
found some potential sites.

Pete: Uh, yeah.

Jeremy: What do
you make of that?

Marty: They are quite
deep aren't they?

Narrator: The lidar reveals
two pits in the jungle
floor that appear man made.

They are located
very close to the camp.

Pete: There's no doubt
those are fighting positions.

Marty: Yeah those are
prepared fighting positions.

Narrator: But to find out
for sure they'll have to be
checked out on the ground.

Jeremy: So do you think that
that gives you guys some targets
to look for tomorrow?

Pete: This is great.

Narrator: Have
the team found evidence of
a battlefield that has been

Lost to the outside world
for nearly eight decades?

Narrator: Marty and pete
are deep in the jungle
of papua new guinea,

On the kokoda trail,
investigating the forgotten
battlefield of etoa.

Pete has made the first 3d
lidar model of what he hopes
is the battlefield site.

Arranged around their
modern-day camp, the scanning
has revealed a series of

Anomalies they think might
be dug-in fighting positions.

And marty sets out with
archaeologist kenneth
miamba to investigate.

When they reach
the location, nothing is
visible to the naked eye.

Marty: You think
you have something?

Kenneth: Yes, its spongy
so if you literally stand
on top of the hole here.

Marty: Oh yeah, I feel
it, you want to hit it
with the metal detector

And see if there's
something in there.

Kenneth: Yes, I'll give
it a try and see what's
coming out from the hole.

(low frequency noise).

Marty: Oh, I hear it.

Kenneth: It's picking up
something really heavy here.

Marty: So shall we dig it?

Kenneth: Yep.

Marty: Alright, I'm just
gonna dig in literally.

Oh!

Kenneth: There it is!

Marty: Jackpot there is it!

It's a boot heel...

That's incredible.

Soldiers don't just discard
their boots so this belonged

To somebody who
didn't make it out.

Narrator: This is an
australian boot heel, but the
japanese were known to take

Boots from fallen soldiers,
so it's not certain proof
of an australian position.

So they move to another pit
identified by the lidar in
search of stronger evidence

That these are
fighting positions.

This one is located
directly north of the camp.

(low frequency noise).

Marty: Well this
is interesting,

You guys just found two
very interesting artifacts.

Both of them 1941 dated,
mark 7.303 caliber cartridges.

One fired, one unfired,
and that's a sort of an
exceptional thing to find.

That's proof positive
that australian troops were
fighting right here over this

Prepared fighting position and
the interesting detail about

That is what's
exactly behind me...

That's our camp.

Narrator: The cartridges
are solid proof that
these pits discovered by

The lidar are dug in
fighting positions for
australian soldiers.

Marty believes that the
australians were shooting
in the direction of the area

Where they have set up camp.

But who and what were the
australians firing on?

Back at camp, the team have
been investigating another
anomaly identified in the

Lidar scan.

Marty: We heard you
guys found something.

Gregory: Yes!
Marty: Oh, look at that!

Gregory: What is it?
What do you think it is?

Marty: Oooooh pete
what do you think?

Pete: Can I touch?

Gregory: Yes you can
but be careful, it
looks like sulphur.

Pete: Sulphur?
Marty: Well if there's
sulphur, maybe it's a battery?

Gregory: Yeah.

Marty: But that knob
wouldn't be on a battery?

Pete: Oh that looks
like numerals.

Marty: This is a radio,
because that's how you're
changing your frequency.

Pete: So this would
be a pot then?

Wow!

Narrator: Contemporary
records help the team identify
the radio as japanese.

And this radio type
was only issued to
battalion commanders.

It's positive proof that
they are near a base for
a sizeable japanese force.

Marty: So that makes me think
that where we camped might

Have been a japanese
battalion headquarters.

Narrator: The
ground-truthing has confirmed
what the team suspected,

This was the location where
the australian soldiers
attacked a japanese camp

Pushing them back away
from port moresby.

They've finally found
the battlefield they
were looking for.

And there is more.

The radio has been buried.

Pete: But why bury a radio?

Marty: Ah radio operators were
under a very strict order that
in the event that you had to

Abandon your equipment or
surrender you had to either
destroy it or bury it,

So whoever buried
this did it in a hurry.

Narrator: Australian soldiers
who fought in the kokoda
campaign recall that the

Japanese were a formidable
opponent, often unafraid
to fight to the death.

But this radio suggests
something different
happened here.

Marty: If they did this,
they didn't stand and fight,

They didn't stand and fight
to the death like they would,

They withdrew,
they withdrew under
pressure from the enemy.

Pete: Wow, wow wow.

Narrator: So what happened
to them in this jungle?

Why did they run?

Narrator: Pete kelsey and
marty morgan have discovered
that the battle of etoa

Ended with the
japanese held at bay.

And records suggest that
when the australians
attacked them here,

The japanese were
already in serious trouble.

Pete: So what do you suppose
actually happened down there?

Marty: The japanese,
the farther they go,
the weaker they get,

And they reach
a breaking point

And it's not far from here
that they have to pull back.

Narrator: Military
records reveal that the
japanese set out on this

Campaign with just over
two weeks of rations.

But australian resistance
slowed them down...
For four months.

Tropical disease had taken
its toll, 3000 men, over half
of the troops on the trail,

Had severe malaria,
or were starving.

With port moresby almost
within sight, the exhausted
japanese were forced to

Give up and retreat back
along the kokoda trail.

And the australians would push
the retreating soldiers back

To the coast from
where they had come.

November 1942.

The kokoda trail campaign
ended where it began

At the buna coast,
still in japanese hands.

And just a mile
from the beach at buna,

Marty discovers the wreckage
of something that helped

The allies to finally
win this fight.

Marty: Oh my god look at
this, the wreckage of a b24.

Narrator: The american
b24 bomber could
carry 5,000 pounds

Of bombs for nearly 2000 miles.

More importantly the
b24s could avoid the heavily
defended japanese beaches

And supply reinforcements.

Marty: Aircraft like this that
are not just contributing to
the strategic air war against

The japanese base at
simpson harbor and rabaul.

But they are also
contributing to ground combat
operations around buna.

Because airplanes
like this, they could
function as a transport

And they could move supplies.

And it is spectacular
to see this one still here
after all these years.

Narrator: Supported
by aircraft like these, in
September 1942 american troops

Finally joined in the
battle for papua new guinea.

It would take
a brutal struggle,

But the tide of the
pacific war was finally turned.

January 22nd, 1943,
exactly a year since
their arrival in rabaul,

The japanese were finally
driven off the papua
new guinea mainland.

It had been a fight to save
australia, waged in the
air, sea and in the jungle.

But it also shook america
to the core, with one iconic
image taken at buna beach.

Pete: Are we getting
near... The place?

You know the place.
The photo place.

Marty: The famous photo, yeah.
Pete: Are we?

Marty: It's just up ahead.

Narrator:
On September 20th, 1943

Life magazine printed
a truly shocking image...

For the first time
the american public saw a
photograph of their own dead

From world war ii.

Pete: Is this it?

Marty: This is it, there's no
doubt about it it's probably

Further down
the beach this way.

Pete: It's there.
We're here.

Marty: I think we're on it.

Pete: That is chilling.

Marty: When I
turned 14 my parents gave
me a book for my birthday

Of the most famous photographs
of the second world war.

And I still have that book,
and I loved it because it
was full of all the things

That a 14 year old boy
gets excited about.

Airplanes and tanks and
ships and machine guns.

But it also included
this photograph.

And at that age,
this had a powerful
emotional impact on me

That changed the
course of my life.

I cannot begin to estimate the
emotional impact this would
have had on people back home.

These three us army soldiers
are just three of the

292,000 americans
who were killed in action

During the second world war.

But millions of people saw
them because of this image.

And millions of people
personalized the human loss
of the second world war

Through this image,
and it was right here.

Narrator: Around
14,000 allied soldiers
including 7,000 americans

And 200,000 japanese
lost their lives in the
fight for papua new guinea.

An unknown number
of papuans also died, in a
war that wasn't their own.

Captioned by
cotter captioning services.