Kokoda Track - We Shall Remember Them !, World War II - Papua New Guinea Options

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23rd July marks the 60th anniversary of the first engagement by PNG and Australian forces against the invading Japanese in WWII. Out of the chaos and death that followed came the enduring heroism of the Kokoda Trail, and the special relationship that has bound PNG and Australia ever since, writes MALUM NALU.

ONE of the bloodiest campaigns of the Second World War began 60 years ago this Sunday. And it has forever sealed the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea. It was on this day, in 1942, that Japanese troops landed on the northern coast of New Guinea and unexpectedly began to march over the Owen Stanley Ranges with the intent of capturing Port Moresby. Had they succeeded, the mainland of Australia would have come under dire threat.

Photograph - On the Kokoda Trail -- time for a smoke break as an Aussie soldier lights up his PNG mate's pipe.

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July 23 -- Remembrance Day -- marks the 60th anniversary of the first engagement between the opposing troops on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.

The 21st Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Potts DSO MC, was rushed to New Guinea and within days, its 1500 men were closing in on the precarious Owen Stanley Ranges in an attempt to position themselves to stop the advance of the Japanese forces -- now building up to over 10, 000 men.

The brigade also engaged the ill-trained but gallant militia 39th Battalion at Isurava in the foothills on the far side of the range.Kokoda was arguably Australia's most significant campaign of the Second World War.
More Australians died in the seven months of fighting in Papua, and the Japanese came closer to Australia, than in any other campaign.

Many of those young Australians, whose average age was between 18 and 19, now lie buried at the Bomana War Cemetery outside Port Moresby.The famous photograph of "fuzzy wuzzy angel" Raphael Oimbari leading a blindfolded wounded Australian epitomizes the close relationship between Australians and Papua New Guineans which has come about because of the battle of Kokoda.To read between the lines of "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels", the celebrated poem by Australian digger Bert Beros, will bring you to tears.

The poem, while sentimental, touches a chord that has endured to this day in the hearts of both Australians and Papua New Guineans.It tells of the prayers of worried Australian mothers, whose young sons are fighting the Japanese on that rugged trail, and how their prayers are answered in the form of "fuzzy wuzzy angels".

Many a mother in Australia when the busy day is done
Sends a prayer to the Almighty for the keeping of her son
Asking that an angel guide him and bring him safely back
Now we see those prayers are answered on the Owen Stanley Track.

For they haven't any halos, only holes slashed in their ears
And their faces worked by tattoos with scratch pins in their hair
Bringing back the badly wounded just as steady as a horse
Using leaves to keep the rain off and as gentle as a nurse

Slow and careful in the bad places on the awful mountain track
The look upon their faces would make you think Christ was black
Not a move to hurt the wounded as they treat him like a saint
It's a picture worth recording that an artist's yet to paint

Many a lad will see his mother and husbands see their wives
Just because the fuzzy wuzzy carried them to save their lives
From mortar bombs and machine gun fire or chance surprise attacks
To the safety and the care of doctors at the bottom of the track

May the mothers of Australia when they offer up a prayer
Mention those impromptu angels with their fuzzy wuzzy hair.

- Bert Beros


Strain shows on the faces of these PNG carriers as they negotiate the notorious Kokoda Trail. Pix courtesy: Michael Coutts and South Pacific Magazine

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In 1942, a seldom-used track climbed from the small village of Buna on the north coast of Papua, over the Owen Stanley Ranges and on to Port Moresby. The track was fairly easy up the slopes through Gorari and Oivi to the village of Kokoda, which stood on a small plateau 400 metres above sea level, flanked by mountains rising to over 2000 metres.
It then climbed over steep ridges and through deep valleys to Deniki, Isurava, Kagi, Ioribaiwa, Ilolo and, at Ower's Corner, linked with a vehicle road leading from plantations in the hills above Port Moresby down to the coastal plains.

Between Kokoda and Ilolo, the track often climbed up gradients so steep that it was heartbreaking labor for burdened men to climb even a few hundred yards. Much of the track was through dense rainforest, which enclosed the narrow passage between walls of thick bush. At higher levels the terrain became moss and stunted trees, which were often covered in mist. From July to November 1942 this was the setting for a bitter campaign to prevent the fall of Port Moresby.

Eora Creek along the Kokoda Trail :

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On January 23, 1942, the Japanese landed at Kavieng on New Ireland and at Rabaul on New Britain where they quickly overcame the Australian defenders.

On 8 March, the Japanese established themselves firmly at Lae and Salamaua in Morobe.

Salamaua Beach

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But the famous Battle of the Coral Sea from May 5 to 8 averted a Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby.

The American success at the Battle of Midway in June not only destroyed Japan's capacity for undertaking long range offensives but also provided the Americans with the opportunity to move from the defensive to the offensive.

The Japanese, who were regularly bombing Port Moresby with 20 to 30 bombers with fighter escort, decided on the overland attack across the Owen Stanley Ranges.On the Kododa Trail the Australian 7th Division resisted the Japanese General Horii's overland attempt to capture Port Moresby, and the advance was halted within 30 miles of the city.

A small force of Australians known as "Maroubra Force" arrived at Buna on July 21st, 1942, as the first Japanese force of 1500 men landed at Gona, eight miles to the west.

What followed will forever go down as one of the most heroic defensive actions in the annals of military history.

The first engagement between the opposing troops was on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.

Kokoda is a small plateau on the north-east slopes of the Owen Stanley Range and possessed a small airstrip the retention of which, for at least as long as it would take Australia to fly in supplies and reinforcements, was of great importance.

Isurava War Memorial

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However, the remnants of "Maroubra Force", exhausted by a month's constant fighting, were unable to achieve this. Valiant though their effort was, even recapturing the plateau after being driven out, the Japanese need was of equal importance.

They needed a forward base at Kokoda for their drive over the ranges along the "Kokoda Trail" to Port Moresby and they struck before the Australians were able to muster sufficient strength.

The initiative now remained with the Japanese and Australian withdrawal began again -- through Isurava, Alola, Templeton's Crossing, Myola, Efogi, Menari and Nauro until at Ioribaiwa Ridge, beyond which the Japanese could not be permitted to penetrate, a final stand was made.

From August 26 to September 16 in 1942 Brigadier Potts's Maroubra Force, consisting of the 2/16th Battalion, together with the 2/14th, the 2/27th and the militia 39th and scattered elements of the ill-trained 53rd Battalion -- outnumbered and outgunned by an estimated 5 to 1 -- fought the Japanese to an eventual standstill on the ridges overlooking Port Moresby.

Two main battles were fought during that period (Isurava August 26 to 29 and Brigade 'Butchers' Hill from September 6 to 8).

In general, the desperately tired but determined force kept themselves between the Japanese Major General Horri's South Sea Force and Port Moresby -- defending, retreating and then counter-attacking in a masterly display of strategic defence.

Conditions were almost indescribable.

It rained for most of the time, the weary men endured some of the most difficult terrain in the world and they were racked by malaria and dysentery. But they kept on fighting, making the enemy pay dearly for every yard of ground. They bought time for those being prepared to come up from Port Moresby to relieve them.

The Australians, however, had a surprise in store for the enemy.
This was in the form of 25-pounder guns brought from Moresby to the road head at Ower's Corner and then laboriously dragged into position at Imita Ridge, opening up on the enemy's barricades. It was now the turn of the Japanese to suffer what the Australians had suffered in the preceding two months.

The young men from Victoria who recently walked the Kokoda Trail, could only imagine what it must have been like for our diggers.

Seen here at the top of Brigade Hill, Leigh McDonald, Daniel Taylor and David Wynn - photograph taken July, 2003 :

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Australian shelling smashed Japanese defences and aggressive patrols inflicted severe losses. On the morning of September 28th the Australians were closing in and it became evident then the Japanese were withdrawing.

The chase, with the Australians the pursuers, was now on.
The Japanese, despite sickness and hunger, were still formidable and tenaciously defended all the places in their withdrawal as the Australians had in their retreat some weeks earlier.

Kokoda was entered on November 2 and this was the beginning of the end of Japanese hopes in Papua. The campaign now entered a phase known as "The Battle of the Beaches".

The Japanese were bottled up in the area from where they had begun their drive against Port Moresby some months previously -- Buna and Gona.

This final campaign began on November 19, 1942, and ended on January 22, 1943, when all organised resistance by the Japanese in Papua ended.

Buna & Sanadana - famous photograph taken during the war :

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Lt Col Honner DSO MC, who commanded the gallant 39th in the campaign, later wrote of these men in the foreword to Peter Brune's book 'Those Rugged Bloody Heroes': "They have joined the immortals." Of those that did not survive, he wrote: "Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free."


Footnote from editor: Whenever our trekkers return from walking the Kokoda Track, we try and include a detour into the Bomana War Cemetery where it brings it home to them, just how many lost their lives on the Kokoda Trail.

Photograph - Bomana War Cemetery - 10th July, 2003 :

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Lest we forget!

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