In the dark first months of 1942, the Japanese advance sweeps south across the Pacific, and Fiji lies squarely in its path. The islands guard the sea and air routes that keep Australia and New Zealand supplied, yet the garrison is far too small to hold every shore.
The answer is an unusual one. In the least accessible corners of the main island, a handful of New Zealanders are sent to raise small bands of guerrillas from the Fijian people, and to hide them in the bush. Their orders are not to win battles, but to buy time: to harass any landing, close the single coast road, and hold the enemy back until stronger forces can move up.
This first part follows the making of the First Commando Fiji Guerrillas. New Zealand officers and non-commissioned officers go out into the remote villages, win the trust of the Fijian people, and train them week by week as scouts and guerrillas. They must first master a country of mountains, jungle, and flooded rivers that tests the teachers as hard as the taught. This is a story of formation, of hard training and harder ground, and of an unlikely partnership forged in the villages of Viti Levu, in the shadow of an invasion that may come any day.
Source: Colin Larsen, Pacific Commandos: New Zealanders and Fijians in Action.
For maps, photographs, and the full source base behind this series, visit worldwar2-sof.com
Search terms: WW2 Pacific, Fiji Guerrillas, New Zealand commandos, jungle warfare, Viti Levu, guerrilla training, special forces history
#WW2 #WWII #PacificWar #MilitaryHistory #HistoryPodcast #Fiji #NewZealandHistory #Commandos #SpecialForces #WorldWarTwo #Podcast #History #JungleWarfare #WW2History #PacificTheatre
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