Geography and Environment
Like most of the islands of the South Pacific, the Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago are of volcanic origin with steep mountain slopes, jungle and treacherous marshes, where malaria was a problem for all deployed troops. The hot, tropical climate was rarely ameliorated by the torrential rain storms and dense clouds which afflicted the region. The inhabited islands had been managed by Australia as a League of Nations Mandate before the war, and there was only a settlement of Westerners originally settled by Imperial Germany before the First World War that was centered on coconut plantations and missionary complexes.
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Famous quotes containing the words geography and, geography and/or environment:
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