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| Location Lat 5° 16' 10S Long 147° 10' 24E Malala located at an elecation of 3' aboce sea level on the northeast coast of Long Island. Also spelled Malola. To the east is Cape Reaumur. Inland to the west is Mount Reaumur. To the southwest is Lake Wisdom. Prewar and during the Pacific War located in the Territory of New Guinea. Today located in Madang Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Wartime History On December 25, 1943 at 2:15pm an Allied landing force of three Landong Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP) and five Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) departed Finschafen transporting the U.S. Army 592nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment (592nd EBSR), D Company and followed the north coast of New Guinea bound for Long Island. The rest of Company D were embarked aboard three PT Boats that left Finschafen at 6:00pm and caught up with the landing craft already underway. In total, the Allied invasion force included 185 Americans plus 35 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel from No. 338 Radar Station (338 RS) with LW/AW Mark IA radar plus technical personnel from No. 41 Wing. By 11:45pm the force arrived off off Malala on the northeast coast of Long Island. On December 26, 1943 at 2:00am the first wave aboard the PT Boats landed by rubber rafts with two capsizing but no men or equipment was lost. At 5:20am the second wave of landing craft attempted to reach shore but the surf soaking some of the radar equipment and they diverted to a better beach south of Cape Reamur where the second wave with the remainder of the force and equipment landed by 1:00pm. The force land with two .50 caliber machine guns, two 37mm guns, four 60mm mortars and four bazookas for defense plus a D9 bulldozer, two jeeps and a trailer water tank. Overnight, torrential rains caused Lake Wisdom to overflow and flooding again wet equipment. On December 27, 1943 the personnel from No. 338 Radar Station (338 RS) moved their radar and two generators atop a hilltop with an elevation of 150' on the east coast. Due to the wet season rains and humidity the radar had many equipment failures and required two new generators and a new transmitter that were landed by January 27, 1944. Meanwhile, the garrison worked to build defenses, camp sites and supporting facilities. Over a five day period, they cleared a small runway (Cub Strip) 1,500' x 50' for light aircraft. The garrison was resupplied by landing craft from Finschhafen and sometimes by PT Boats. On February 17, 1944 the 592nd EBSR withdrew aboard a LCVP and seven LCMs and earned praise from U.S. Army General Walter Kruger for "by a display of aggressiveness and superior seamanship, accomplished its mission in the face of unusual odds." By early April 1944, as the threat of Japanese was mainly to the west, the radar station was disassembled and moved from Malala using landing craft to Matafuna Point on the west coast over a one week period. Long Island Airfield (Cub Strip) During late December 1943 or early 1944 built by the U.S. Army for light aircraft disused by late February 1945. References NAA "Long Island & S. East portion of Sub Division 7 - Rai Coast. Aug. - Sept. 1932. Madang District. A. Nurton" (NAA: NAA: A7034, 28) (Page 3) On 16th August [1932] I left Gumbi base camp in the launch MV Pahi together with four members of native police. Mr. Murphy, the owner of the launch, accompanying... At 11.30 same night we left for Long Island shortly after midnight a strong S. E. gale sprang up & the vessel battled through it until 3 P. M. the next day, on the 17th, at which our we reached N.W. coast of Long Island. To gain the S. E. coast, where the villagers are, was impossible owing to the severity of the seas. The next day [18 August, 1932] the gale had slightly abated, & Murphy decided to run before it & return to pick me up about 10 days later. For five days, until the 22nd., while awaiting carriers from Malala, I spent exploring that entirely uninhabited locality... In this humanless land it was interesting to note the fearlessness of birds, iguanas, crocodiles, turtles & pigs: all of these being exceedingly plentifully..." (Page 4) "On the 22nd [August 1932] the patrol left [walking], proceeding N. round point Keo... thence south to the village of Malala, a distance of not far short of 20 miles. The patrol reached Malala at dusk..." (Page 5) "I was informed by the natives, whose ancestors, three generations ago, came from one of the Siassi Islands about 20 miles to the S. E., that all of Long Island and Crown Island, was originally thickly populated with villages all round the coast... I estimate by native lore that the eruption occurred about 300 years ago (certainly not more remote than that). The explosion blew the centre of the island out, leaving an elevated crater, now a lake, of about 20 square miles in extent." [RAAF formation and unit records:] No.s 334-338 Radar Station (August 1943 - January 1946) (NAA 638252) Put 'em Across: A History of the 2d Engineer Special Brigade, 1942-1945 (1946) page 65 At Close Quarters (1962) page 198 "The liberation of Huon Gulf forced the PT's to extend their patrols further up the coast of the Huon Peninsula; to the islands to the north, Long Island" The Australian Museum "Long Island, Papua New Guinea: Introduction (1982) by Specht, Jim; Ball, Eldon E.; Blong, R. J.; Egloff, B. J.; Hughes, Ian M.; McKee, C. O.; Pain, C. F. Pub. 164 Sailing Direction (Enroute) New Guinea (1994) pages 214-215 (9.50 Long Island), 268 (index Long Island) Beyond Pongani Mission (2001) pages 248-251 Radar Yarns (1991 revised October 2007) pages ii (Table of Contents), 34-36 (338 RS Long Island), 169 (338RS), 194 (appendix A radar stations) [PDF] Radar Returns - Unit 338 RS Long Island Coastwatchers at War in New Guinea... the 2nd Mission (2002) by Lionel Veale Pub. 164 Sailing Direction (Enroute) New Guinea (2018) pages 219, 268 (index Long Island) Pub. 164 Sailing Direction (Enroute) New Guinea (2020) pages 219, 268 (index Long Island) Contribute
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