I recently finished reading Our Island Road to Tokyo, by General (retired) Robert Eichelberger. His Eight Army did much of the leg work reconquering the Philippines, and other divisions/corps he commanded fought the early war to retake New Guinea.
It is not a particularly well written book, with kind of a Grandma Moses literary style. But what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for with a simple narrative that highlights an important but mostly forgotten chapter in the pacific war.
Few Americans realize how important the Island of New Guinea was at the start of WWII. Situated just off the Australian coast, NG straddled the supply lines to our best/sole ally and largest/main base in the region. The Japanese controlled the entire north coast of this massive island, and much of the first year and a half of our Pacific war was contesting this control (eg, Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, defense of Port Moresby) and then retaking the place. The latter was an arduous affair, fought on a shoestring amid appalling jungle conditions. In a series of jungle treks and amphibious jumps, US and Australian forces fought for over a year to seize places with unlikely names like Buna, Weewak, Salamaua, and Sanananda. Malaria and other disease were common, shoes/uniforms rotted apart in the torrential rains and mud, diet was monotonously bad, and fanatical Japs were constantly trying to kill you. There were tens of thousands of US casualties, and many times that number (mostly killed) on the Japanese side.
And to think, that this was less than 75 years ago.