“Bob, I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive ... And that goes for your chief of staff, too.”
They took Buna and a lot of soldiers didn't come back alive. My father joined the 32nd ID in Australia as a replacement in early '43 after the Buna campaign. After some R&R and further training they returned to New Guinea until Nov. '44, when they went and retook the Philippines for MacArthur. Everyone knows about the Bulge and the race to the Rhine, but not New Guinea, Leyte, and Luzon, which occurred in the same time frame. (/pet peeve)