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The brigade report noted that subsequent operations were ‘characterisedby all the factors common to previous campaigns in undeveloped areas, wherejungle, poor communications and climate have exercised great influence ontactical progress’.99 Of particular concern were the supply lines, which relied ontrack systems that required significant engineering improvement and were highlysusceptible to degradation by the region’s regular rains.Dexter’s operations initially went smoothly and he succeeded in pushing souththrough a succession of company firm bases until his troops occupied Mosina on9 February. Long visited the battalion on 11 February and recorded that it ‘is ashappy a crowd as I’ve ever seen’.100 Dexter, however, recorded that the weatherchanged in early February, the track became ‘a morass of mud’ and that thebattalion became reliant on native carriers for casualty evacuation and aircraftfor resupply.101 Contacts with the enemy were light, but relatively frequent, andby the end of February the battalion had killed a total of sixty Japanese, nearlytwice as many as any of the other battalions since the start of operations in thesouth.102 Of particular note was a successful platoon raid on a Japanese positionat Warapa, which was later identified as a Japanese battalion headquarters.103 Itwas potentially the most significant action of the battalion’s entire campaign butthe rapid withdrawal of the raiding party may have resulted in lost opportunitiesto exploit this lucky success—Dexter certainly thought so.104 The battalion reportsummarised this period, and the unit’s overall campaign in the south, as:99 ‘7 Aust Inf Bde Report on Operations 26 Oct 44 to 16 May 45’, p. 1, 7 Infantry BrigadeWar Diary, August 1945, Appendices, AWM 52, Item 8/2/7.100 Long’s notes, 11 February 1945, AWM 67, Item 2/71.101 Dexter, ‘The Battalion – My Home’, p. 165, AWM PR01182, Item 4.102 ‘Enemy Casualties from 18 Jan 45 to 28 Feb 45’, Appendix 107 to 7 Infantry BrigadeWar Diary, February 1945, AWM 52, Item 8/2/7.103 Field’s diary, 14 February 1945, AWM 3DRL6937, Item 7.104 Dexter, ‘The Battalion – My Home’, p. 165, AWM PR01182, Item 4.22 — A tale of three battalions