Milne Bay is a large bay in

Milne Bay Province Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,345 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited. The province has ...

, south-eastern

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. More than long and over wide, Milne Bay is a sheltered deep-water harbor accessible via

Ward Hunt Strait The Ward Hunt Strait is a 30 km wide stretch of water in Milne Bay, separating Papua New Guinea from Goodenough Island in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands. The Dart Reefs and Keast Reef are located in the centre of the channel.Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...

to the north and south, and on the northern shore, a narrow coastal strip, soggy with sago and mangrove swamps. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne.

History

* Surveyed by Luis Vaez de Torres in July 1606. * Surveyed by Captain Owen Stanley, R.N. F.R.S. in 1850.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the area was the site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942 and by late 1943 it became the major support base, Naval Base Milne Bay, for the New Guinea campaign through the development of Finschhafen as an advanced base after that area was secured in the Huon Peninsula campaign. By January 1944 about 140 vessels were in harbor due to congestion at the facilities. Congestion was relieved by opening of a port at Finschhafen and extensive improvements at Milne Bay. Malaria was a major problem in New Guinea and Milne Bay was particularly hard hit with incidents of the disease hitting at a rate of 4,000 cases per 1,000 troops per year and estimated 12,000 man-days a month lost time. There were three planes ditched off the island in 1943, a P-38H Lightning, a P-38F Lightning, and a

B-24D Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models de ...

"The Leila Belle" (MIA).Basilisk Island
Pacific Wrecks

21st Century

The HMPNGS ''Seeadler'' fired upon a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

ese fishing vessel on December 23, 2016. Her captain died, and the poacher sank.

Gallery

File:Milne Bay NASA.jpg, Milne Bay seen from space. File:MilneBay-Alotau.JPG, Milne Bay from Alotau. File:Treehouse at Milne Bay - Papua New Guinea - 1884-1885.jpg, Treehouse, in 1884-1885 File:Milne Bay.jpg, Map of the bay

Footnotes

References