The Principles of War Podcast
Palliers Hill
New Guinea CampaignPodcast

43 – The considerations for the attack on Palliers Hill

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The Considerations for the Attack – we look at these factors in this classic infantry attack.  Have a listen to the podcast on your favourite podcast player for all of the details on this battle.


We look at the considerations for the attack as LT Pallier assaults the hill that would come to bear his name.

The Considerations for the Attack are:

  • Surprise
  • Concentration
  • Penetration
  • Fire Support
  • Security
  • Tempo
  • Rapid Reorg
  • Enemy Reserve
  • Objectives and Phases

How did LT Pallier, MAJ Lee and BRIG Dougherty consider these factors as they planned the assault?  These are quite important, give that there is only 19 rounds of OS available and that the force ratio is around 1:1, not ideally for an attacking force.  The terrain is very difficult, with very little difference better left, right and the middle, so weighting as many of these considerations in his favour was critical to success for Pallier.

A big thank you to Phil Bradley for all of his help with these podcasts.  He is the expert on the later New Guinea campaign, so if you are interested in reading more about this attack and the rest of the campaign, please read his books.

Check out the show notes for the podcast for all of the information that we cover in this episode as well as the images and other details that didn’t make it into the podcast.

Join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.

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4 comments

Jill Bear October 9, 2019 at 7:55 am

Thank you, James. It’s good to see this assault reaching a wider audience.
I believe Brig Dougherty was also observing from the Three Pimples when the attack went in. He approved the recommendations for the awards of MM to Silver and Whitechurch and DCM to Bear.
Noel Pallier was wounded in the early stage of the attack, but was mentioned in despatches for continuing to direct the attack.
Happy to share more of my research with you.

Reply
James Eling October 9, 2019 at 7:57 am

Would love to hear more.

Reply
Altenburg Jeff October 11, 2019 at 6:27 pm

Excellent job you’re doing. Discovered your podcast and this site a number of months back. I try not to miss a single episode. I hope you will be looking at and discussing the Kokoda Track campaign.

Reply
James Eling October 28, 2019 at 2:38 am

Hey Jeff, thank you. Yes we are looking at the Kokoda campaign, in conjunction with the Battle of Milne Bay – but we have a few battles to tackle before that. It will be a while off, but will definitely be covering it.

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