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Kokoda 7942
Papua New Guinea July - November 1942
Front iJnd biJck c�r photogriJph
iJnd d�all
Soldiers of the 2/27th Battalion resting in early October 1942 after they had been cut off for nearly two w�ks in the Jungle and mountains
to the east of the ICokoda Track.
Many were suffering from exhaustion and mild malnutrition_
AWM 027117
Title page photograph
Papua New Guinean stretcher·
bearers carrying the wounded across a stream In the Owen
Stanley Range on 1 O<:tober '942 during the Australian withdrawal
down the Kokoda Trad,
August-September 1942, AWM 013262 lal'l'.\ 1'I"oIlI,'li"II'
ISBN 1920720049
C Commonwealth of Australia 2002
Inside c�r
A group portrait of 9 Platoon,
A Company, 2f14th Battalion, AIF. on
the ICokoda Trad some time in
August 1942. This platoon fought in the Battle of Isurava, 27-30 August.
Seven of these men were killed at
Isurava, including Private Bruce
Kingsbury, who was posthumously
awarded the Victoriil Cross for his
brilvery during that action,
AWM 089220
This work Is copyright Apiirt from any us.e il5 permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no piirt may be reproduced by any process Without prior wlilten permission from the
Commonwealth available from the Depiirtment of Communications. Information
Technology and the Arts. Requests ilnd Inquiries concerning reproduction and rights
should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Admonistration,lnteliectual
Property Branch, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts, GPO Box 2154, Canberra ACT 2601 or at http://www_ddta gov_aufcca.
Published by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Canberra, 2002.
ResearChed and written by Dr Richard Reid, photo editing by Courtney Page-Allen,
teKt editing by Kerry Blackburn,
layout and des'gn by Carina Manning,
Commonwealth Depiirtment of Veterans' Affairs, Canberra 1001
P739 August 2002, July 2003
Message from the Minister
The battle fought along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea
against the Japanese between July and November 1942 was
one of the most significant in our history. Never before. or since. have the land forces of a determined enemy come so close to our shores. Indeed, we need to remember that at the time, the now
independent nation of Papua New Guinea was Australian
controlled territory.
The photographs and text in this book are a tribute to the
thousands of soldiers who served and suffered for Austra lia in the
jungles and mountains of Kokoda in 1942. More than that, the book
emphasises the human loss and sacrifice of that terrible campaign.
It is also a reminder of the great debt we owe to the people of Papua
New Guinea who toiled up the track with our men, brought them their supplies and carried our wounded.
The men of Kokoda take their lineage from the original Anzacs and
through their personal courage, endurance, sacrifice and mateship in
the jungles of the Owen Stanleys, created a legend of their very own.
Like Gallipoli, Kokoda claims its own chapter in our history.
Sixty years after the Kokoda Track campaign, we share a moment of
silent reverence to remember these young Australians who did so
much for their country. It was a desperate time, our darkest hour, and
these Austra l ian soldiers were fighting for home and hearth, against
the might of a determined enemy.
Their story inspires a nation. We owe it to them to be the very best
we can be in honour of their memory.
We must never forget.
Minister for Veterans' Affairs Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence
Kokoda 7942
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
The Kokoda Track is a narrow, jungle-enclosed pathway across the Owen Stanley
Range over the roofaf Papua. It climbs from the hi l ls north of Port Moresby through
small settlements such as Uberi, Kagi. Efagi and Isurava to a height of over 2,200 metres.
Towering over the range west of Isurava is Mount Victoria, 4,073 metres, a summit
regularly hidden by grey rain clouds. Beyond Isurava, the track falls away through Deniki
down the northern slopes of the range to the little village of Kokoda, and then on through
gentler foothills to the banks of the swift-flowing Kumusi River. Before World War II, few
people used the track. Europeans wanting to cross the damp, rain soaked mountains did
so by plane and the only travellers along this isolated footway were government patrol
officers and local villagers. Distances on the track were measured not in kilometres, but
in the days it took to travel through the rugged terrain from place to place, up and down
one precipitous slope after another.
For the Austra lian soldiers sent to serve in the Owen Stanleys in '942, the surroundings
were a shock. lieutenant Don Simonson, 39th Battalion, from the temperate climate of
Victoria, recalled his first encounter with the Kokoda Track:
Well we moved into a country that we had never dreamt of before. It changed so much
depending on the height of the mountain range through which we were travelling as
to what we came up against - at the highest peaks there was moss forest and leeches
by the millions and although we were wearing leggings [they] could somehow ... get in.
Within a short distance you wouldjind a mass of blood around the bottom of your legs
and these would be fUll of leeches, dropping off and lying on your socks. But in these
moss forests, where you couldn't see the sun, the roots of the trees are all covered in
moss and the track was only root from root. Further along, where it was not quite so
high,you would spend three hours climbing up a small pad through the jungle where
if you werejirst in the morning you were lucky it was reasonably solid. Jfyou were the
last in the evening, and it had been raining for two hours,you were dead unlucky.
The mud was a foot deep all the way along. (Don Simonson, 39th Battalion, interviewed on
the Australia Remembers Pilgrimage to PapualNew Guinea, June/July 19951
n
courage War came to the Kokoda Track in July 1942. During the night of 21-22 July. a Japanese
invasion force from Rabaul. New Britain, began landing at Gona Mission on the north
Papuan coast. This was Major General Horii's 'South Seas Force', whose instructions were to
take Port Moresby. if feasible, by a thrust across the mountains. Another Japanese force would land later at Milne Bay at the eastern tip of Papua to secure aircraft landing grounds
and to prepare for an assault on Port Moresby from along the south Papuan coast.
As the Japanese pressed inland from Gona, they were opposed by soldiers of the Papuan
Infantry Battalion and a company of militiamen of the 39th Battalion. Indeed, for the first
month after the Gona landings the young Victorians of the 39th were virtually the only
Australian force resisting the enemy drive towards the Owen Stanleys. During this period
the Australians moved back to Kokoda village, which fell after a sharp engagement on
29 Ju ly. lieutenant Colonel Will iam Owen, the commanding officer ofthe 39th Battalion,
was killed. lieutenant A G Garland recalled Owen's leadership:
He was a fine man. He Jormed us up around the perimeter oj Kokoda because that
was where the Japanese would attack ... and he walked around the top oj the perimeter
where we were aI/lying down ... And I said 'Sir, I think you are taking an unnecessary
risk walking around among the troops like that: 'Well: he said 'I've got to do it.'
I suppose a half hour later he got shot right through the forehead. [Garland quoted In
Peter Brune, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, Sydney, 1992, P-47J
On 8 August '942, the 39th temporarily retook Kokoda but were again driven out back to
Deniki. By now the Japanese had landed their main force and were preparing for a full
scale assault towards Port Moresby. The 39th withdrew into the mountains to Isurava
where they went into fresh defenSive positions. It was at Isurava that the battalion met its
new commander, lieutenant Colonel Ralph Hanner. Honner, an experienced soldier, quickly
summed up their condition after a month of jungle warfare:
Physically the pathetically young warriors oJ the 39th were in poor shape. Worn out by
strenuous fighting and exhausting movement, and weakened by lack oJ Jood and sleep
and shelter, many had literally come to a standstill. Practically every day torrential rain
Jell all through the afternoon and night, cascading into their cheerless weapons pits
and soaking the clothes they wore - the only ones they had. In these they shivered
,
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
through the long chill vigil of the lonely nights when they were required to stand
awoke and alert but still and silent. [Henner quoted in Brune. Those Ragged Bloody
Heroes. P.79]
Hanner arrived at Isurava on 16 August 1942 as the Japanese were beginning to probe
his forward positions. At that point, any determined enemy assault would probably have
overrun Hanner's weary battalion. A second battalion. the 53rd. had trekked from
Port Moresby and Honner sent it towards Abuari to protect a side-track over which the
Japanese could also advance. Coming up the Kokoda Track in the second half of August
were reinforcements in the shape of the 21st Brigade, Australian Imperial Force.
Forward elements of the brigade's lead battalion - the 2/14th - began reaching Isurava
on 26 August. As these hardened soldiers. veterans of the fighting in the Middle East,
made their way through the mountains they had begun to understand just how much
the 39th had endured on this toughest of battle fronts. Of their first day's march, an
officer wrote:
Gradually men dropped out utterly exhausted -just couldn't go on. You£i come to a
group of men and say 'Come on! We must go on.' But it was physically impossible to
move - many were lying down and had been sick ... many made several trips up the last
slope helping others. We began to see some of the tremendous effort the troops were
going to make to help the lesser ones in. Found many of the battalion [at 10ribaiwaJ
lying exhausted. some ate, others loy and were sick, others just lay. Some tried to eat
but couldn't. [Unnamed officer of the 2/14th Battalion. quoted in Dudley MacCarthy. South-We-st
Pacific Are-a - First Ye-ar. Canberra, 1962. P.1951
It was the intention of the 2/14th to relieve the tired 39th Battalion. but before the
whole of the 2h4th could take up positions at Isurava, the Japanese struck. The brunt of
the opening attack fell on E Company of the 39th and a breakthrough was only prevented
by desperate dose-quarters fighting:
Through the widening breach poured another flood of the attackers to swirl around the
remainder of the right platoon from the rear. They were met with Bren gun and Tommy
gun, with bayonet and grenade; but still they came, to close with the bUffet offist and
boot and rifle-butt, the steel of clashing helmets and of straining, strangling fingers.
['The 39th at Isura .... a·. Stand To. July-August 1956, quoted in McCarthy. South-West Pacific Are-o - First
Year, p.2031
endurance That day the 39th held and prevented a disastrous collapse of the Australian front while
the remainder of the 2/14th came up to support them. At Isurava, and throughout the
Kokoda Track battle, the Australians were up against a brave and determined enemy to
whom Dudley McCarthy. the official historian, paid this tribute:
They were brave and strong of purpose. They were troined and experienced in this type
af warfare. They were hard and enduring. [McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - First Yeor. P.1431
To face this threat would require equal strength of purpose, hardness and endurance.
Japanese attacks resumed at Isurava on 28 August but they failed to break the 2/14th's
lines, now established in front of the 39th Battalion. On the next day, persistent enemy
thrusts were met with dogged resistance requiring counter-attack after counter-attack.
About midday, it looked as if a breakthrough might occur. To meet this threat. different
groups of men charged back at the Japanese and, as this assault developed, one man was
seen to lead - Private Bruce Kingsbury, 2114th Batta lion:
[He] rushed forward firing the 8ren gun from his hip through terrific machine gun fire
and succeeded in clearing a path through the enemy. Continuing to sweep enemy
positions with his fire and inflicting an extremely high number of casualties on them,
Private Kingsbury was then seen to fall to the ground shot dead by a bullet from a
sniper. [Quote from Victoria Cross citation. Private Bruce Kinssbury, in McCarthy. South·West
Pacific Area - First Yeor, p.206j
For his outstanding courage and his key role in restoring the Australian position,
Bruce Kingsbury was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the first of the war in Papua
New Guinea.
By the evening of 29 August. however, the 2114th were in a bad way and withdrawal
became inevitable. At night, covered by the 2/16th Battalion, the 2114th and 39th Batta lions
moved back about two kilometres to Isurava Rest House. Throughout 29 August, the 2116th
and elements of the 53rd Battalion had held off a Japanese advance along the Abuari side·
track to the right of the Isurava position. Had the enemy broken through here, the 2114th
and 39th would have been prevented from any possibility of retreat. Intense enemy
pressure on 30 August forced a further withdrawal towards Eora Creek. As the Austra lians
fell back, over '72 men of the 2114th were cut off, including the commanding officer,
lieutenant Colonel Arthur Key.
4
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
There now commenced what has become the best known period of the Battle of the
Kokoda Track - the Austra lian fighting withdrawal between 30 August and 20 September
to Imita Ridge. It was marked by a number of features: intense rearguard actions designed
to slow the Japanese; the fortitude of the wounded; the vital contribution of the Papua
New Guinean stretcher bearers and supply carriers under the control of the Austra lian
New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU); and the desperate stories of large parties cut
off along the track.
It was in the evacuation of the wounded from Isurava that the work of the local
stretcher-bearers came to the fore. With bare feet and a surer grip on water-covered rocks and inclines than Australians, the Papua New Guineans, eight men to a bearer party, toiled
back down the track with their seriously injured charges. Captain Henry 'Blue' Steward, the
Regimental Medical Officer of the 2116th Battalion, wrote:
... they never forgot their patient5, carrying them as gently a5 they COUld, avoiding the
jOlt5 and jars of the many Up5 and downs. The last stretcher wa5 carried out by the RAP
[Regimental Aid Post] boys, two volunteers, Padre Fred and mY5elf Till then we never
knew the effort needed, nor fUlly appreciated the work the carriers were doing. Their
bare, splayed feet gave them a better grip than our cleated boots could claim on the
slippery rock5 and mud.
Some of the bearer5 di5liked the tight,jlat canva5 5urfaces of the regulation army
stretcher5, off which a man might 5lide or be tipped. They felt safer with the deeper bed5
of their own bush mode stretcher5 - two blankets doubled round two long pole5 cut
from the jungle. Each time we watched them hoi5t the 5tretcher5 from the ground to
their 5houlder5 jar another 5tint. we 5aw their 5trong leg, arm and back muscle5 rippling
under their glossy black skin5. Manly and dignified, they jelt proud oj their re5pon5ibility
to the wounded, and rarely faltered. When they laid their charge5 down for the night
they sought level ground on which to build a rough shelter of light pole5 and leave5.
With jour men each side of a stretcher, they took it in turn5 to 51eep and to watch,
giving each wounded man whatever jood, drink or comfort there might be. [H 0 Steward,
Recollections of 0 Regimental Medicol Officer, Melbourne, 1983, PP.112-1131
In a report on the medical aspects of this period of the Kokoda campaign, Colonel
Kingsley Norris, Assistant Director Medical Services, 7th Division, praised the work of all the
s
mateship Australian Army Medical Corps units. No living casua lty, claimed Norris, was abandoned to
the enemy and overall 750 wounded and sick were shepherded down the track to safety.
Norris was also full of praise for the 'walking wounded'. They had, in Norris' words, to be
treated with 'absolute ruthlessness' and not provided with stretchers:
Those alone who were quite unable to struggle or stagger along were carried. There
was practically never a complaint nor any resentment ... One casualty with Q two inch
gap in a fractured patella, splinted by a banana leaf, walked jar six days ... ['Brief Account
of the activities of the 7th Australian Division - Medical Services during Six Months Campaign in
Papua',1943,481J12/13,AWM 54)
Others who suffered greatly during this phase of the campaign were the various groups
cut off by the Japanese advance. Forced to take to the jungle, they had little food and were
often burdened by wounded. At one point a whole battalion, the 2/2]th. became
completely cut off and spent virtually two weeks trekking through often trackless country
until they emerged at Jawarere, well to the east of 11010 where the Kokoda Track began.
Two men who distinguished themselves during this ordeal were Privates J H Burns and
A F Zanker. As lieutenant Colonel G D T Cooper, commanding officer of the 2/2]th, pressed
on to get help, Burns and Zanker looked after the wounded in a jungle clearing.
Burns described one of their worst days, 23 September:
The sun was fiercer than ever and it took a lot out of the lads. Corporal Williams [one of
the badly wounded} spent a terrible night and when lanker and I washed the lads we
decided to put him on a new stretcher and put the fresh dreSSings on his wounds. It was
a terrific job but we succeeded in the end. 80th lanker and I hod a couple of blackouts
during it. We had now used two of our last three dressings ... Diarrhoea broke out
during the day and we were lifting the poor lads for the next twenty-jour hours
without respite. /Bufns quoted in McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - First Year, PP.251-252)
Corporal leonard Williams died on 24 September. On 2 October the little party was
found by patrols and they reached hospital in Port Moresby on 7 October, almost a month
after they had gone into the jungle.
As the 21st Brigade withdrew through Eora Creek, Templeton's CrOSSing and Myola, the
Japanese followed hard after them. Between 30 August and 6 September, the 2114th and
the 2116th fell back as far as Efogi where they encountered the advance parties of the
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
212'7th Battalion. The 212'7th now mounted a defensive screen at Mission Ridge just south
of Efogi. From here, throughout the night of 6-7 September, they watched as a procession
of lights moved down the track. between Myola and Efogi. The Japanese were getting
themselves into position for an attack that came just before dawn on 8 September. All day
long the Japanese charged the Australian frontal positions with determination but were
beaten back by an equally determined defence. So severe was the fighting that Captain
C A W Sims' company on that day used up its entire supply of grenades and ammunition
as well as the whole battalion ammunition reserve.
While Sims' position was being subjected to this frontal assault, other Japanese soldiers
infiltrated around the 2127th Battalion's positions. They moved well to the Austra lian rear
where elements of the 2116th were guarding brigade headquarters. Soon the headquarters
was under attack and forced to move back. Private Bert Ward, 212]th Battalion, admired
the Japanese soldiers' endurance and capacity to carry out these skilful flanking
movements:
I must admit to some degree of amazement as to how active they were, to be able to
keep going. We were flat, absolutely flat out! Physically exhausted! And so they must
have been! Still. when they encircled us at Efogi in an area like that ... You(1 have to be a
qualified mountain goat to be able to do physically what they did. [Ward quoted in Brune.
Those Ra9ged Bloody Heroes. p.1S6}
Effectively, the enemy had now cut the track between headquarters and the forward
Australian pOSitions. On the afternoon of 8 September the 2/14th tried to break out
through the Japanese positions to get back down the track. Captain Claude Nye, 2/14th ,
and Captain Frank Sublet, 2116th, led a charge in which Nye was eventually killed. Although
a few men broke through, the Japanese pOSitions held and the Australian battalions had
to find another way round the Japanese through the jungle to Menari.
As they moved off the track. the enemy pursued them vigorously but were successfully
driven off in a rearguard action by B and D Companies of the 2/2]th. Captain Harry
Katekar, 2/2]th Battalion, realised that the gal lantry of these two companies had saved
them all:
That was a tremendous operation, a wonderfUl action by B Company. They had to buy
time ... and the way they did it they counter-attacked against the Japs. The Japs were so
7
sacrifice shocked they broke contact ... They had the impetus and they were hot on our heels.
We were withdrawing with our wounded ... And then B Company was given this job to
stop them. Instead of just standing there and firing at them they counter-attacked and
that must have shocked them considerably. (Kiltekar quoted in Brune, Those RQ9ged Bloody
HerMS, p.161J
The 2/14th and 2/16th Battalions made it into Menari just as the Japanese began to shell
the area but the 2/27th was too far behind and, being forced to turn back, began its long
trek through the mountains to Jawawere. From Menari the Austra lians withdrew back to loribaiwa where the battalions of the fresh 25th Brigade - 2/2Sth, 2/315t and 2/33rd - along
with the 3rd Battalion took over the defence. By 17 September, the tired battalions of the
21st Brigade had been pulled back. After further Japanese pressure, the Australians
withdrew to Imita Ridge where the 25th Brigade, the 2/1st Pioneer Battalion and the
3rd Battalion took up defensive positions. From Imita Ridge there was to be no more
withdrawaL This was made clear in a message from Lieutenant General Sydney Rowell,
commander, New Guinea Force, to Major General Arthur Alien, commander,
7lh Division, AIF;
However many troops the enemy has they must 0/1 have walked from Buna. We are
now so for back that any further withdrawal is out of the question and Eather
[commander, 25th Brigade] must fight it out at 0/1 costs./RoweU quoted in McCarthy,
South·West Pacific Area - First Yeor, p.2Hl
Just as Rowell suggested, General Horii's men arrived at loribaiwa in an exhausted but
nonetheless elated state of mind. From that ridge they could see the searchlights of their
prize, Port Moresby. But they were now a long way from their north coast base and their
lines of supply and communication, under attack by Allied aircraft, stretched back over the
wearying and rugged Kokoda Track. They also faced fresh Australian troops and the
likelihood that more were on the way. Moreover, the Japanese force which had landed at
Milne Bay in late August had met defeat and Japanese on Guadalcanal in the Solomon
Islands were also experiencing difficulties against the Americans. Rather than allow Horii's
men to risk themselves in what might prove an impossible task - the taking of Port
Moresby - the Japanese high command ordered them to withdraw. seizo Okada, a war
correspondent from a Tokyo newspaper, was with Horii and his commanders when the
news to pull back was received:
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
On a thin straw mat in the tent the elderly commander was sitting solemnly upright on
his heels, his face emaciated, his grey hair ref/ecting the dim light of a candle that stood
on the inner lid of a ration can. Lieut-Colonel Tanaka, his stoff officer, sat face to face
with him also on a mot. Two lonely shadows were cost on the dirty wet canvas ... there
was a strong body of opinion among the hot-blooded battalion commanders
advocating a desperate single-handed thrust into Port Moresby. But Stoff-Officer Tanaka
remained cool, and reasoned with them saying that it was a suicidal action even if
everything went well except the supply of food, which was in a hopeless condition.
[From Seize Okada, 'Lost Troops', English typescript, MSS0732. Australian War Memorial]
Between 21 and 24 September, the guns of the 14th Field Regiment at Owers' Corner
bombarded the Japanese. Australian patrols probed the area around Imita Ridge and some
men were killed. However, when a planned attack went in at loribaiwa on 28 September
1942, there was no opposition. The Japanese were gone.
The final phase of the Battle of Kokoda Track lasted from 28 September to 15-16
November. For the Australians it was a period of pursuit oftheir enemies back over the
Owen Stanleys. At Templeton's Crossing (12-17 October), Eora Creek (21-29 October) and
Oivi-Gorari (S-11 November), Japanese rearguards mounted stubborn delaying defences.
These were not small actions but drawn out and costly affairs which drew in the bulk of the Australian forces committed to the advance - the 2Sth Brigade, the 16th Brigade
(2i1st, 2i2nd and 2i3rd Battalions) and the 3rd Battalion. Supporting units included the
2/4th, 216th and 14th Field Ambulances and the 2/Sth and 2/6th Field Companies,
Royal Australian Engineers. The Japanese purpose was to buy time for the bulk of their men to escape back to the north coast. During this withdrawal the Japanese soldiers went through an ordeal every bit as gruelling as the Australians had faced in the earlier phase of the battle. War correspondent, Seize Okada, wrote;
At Mount Isurava which stood at the northern end of the path across the Owen Stanley
Range the narrow path was congested with stretchers carrying the wounded soldiers
bock to the field hospital on the coast. There were so many of them that they hod been
delayed here since the wholesale retreat began. Some of them were on makeshift
stretchers, each made of two wooden poles with a blanket or tent-cloth tied to them
with vines and carried by four men. They made slow and laborious progress, constantly
courage held up by steep slopes. The soldiers on them, some lying on their backs, emitted groans
of pain ot every bump. In some cases, the blood from the wounds was dropping
through the canvas or blanket on to the ground. Some looked all but dead, unable even
to give out a groan. (From Seiza Okada, 'lost Troops', English typescript, MSS0732, Australian War
Memorial]
As the Australian battalions moved back across the Owen Stanleys they realised once
again how reliant they were on the Papua New Guineans. Supply was the most critical
element of the whole Kokoda campaign for everything eaten or fired at the enemy had to
be carried long distances to supply dumps along the track. Air dropping was carried out by
the so-called 'biscuit bombers', United States Army Air Forces Douglas transport ai rcraft,
but much material was lost in the bush or was damaged on impact. Despite these losses,
these air drops were an essential supplementary source of supply durin8 the Australian
advance of October and November 1942.
However, much of the food and equipment essential to was'n8 this war along a remote
and mountainous pathway had to be carried forward either by the troops themselves or
by the local carriers, who were recruited in large n umbers from their families and villages.
When working with the forward battalions the carriers brought along the medical gear,
signals equipment, and the heavy weapons and ammunition. This was an arduous task.
Australian war correspondent Osmar White described the condition of the carriers after a long day's march:
Lines of exhausted carriers were squatting ... eating muddy rice off muddy banana
leaves. Their woolly hair was plastered with rain and muck. Their eyes were rolling and
bloodshot with the strain oj fang carrying. Some of them were still panting. [Osmar
White, Green Armour, Sydney, 1945, P.1651
The 3rd Battalion led the way back up the Kokoda Track. As they moved on through
Nauro, they saw much evidence of the swift Japanese withdrawal. Bodies and equipment
lay everywhere and many ofthe enemy had died of malnutrition and disease. Indeed, it
was realised that some Japanese had been reduced to eating wood, grass, roots and other
inedible material. By 12 October, elements of the 2/33rd and 2/31st Batta lions were
converging on Templeton's Crossing. Higher command thought this rather slow progress
fl
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
against a weakened and outnumbered enemy force, but nobody back in Australia, or
among those senior commanders who had only ever ventured to the beginning of the
Kokoda Track, had any idea of the difficu lty of supply in the high Owen Stanleys.
At Templeton's Crossing, the Japanese mounted their first serious defensive action.
It took the men of the 2/33rd. 2/2Sth, 2/31St and 3rd Battalions virtually a week of hard
fighting to force the Japanese out of their positions before the advance could proceed.
In this high area, the track ran along narrow, bamboo-lined ridges and the Japanese had
made many carefully concealed weapons pits. Each of these had to be individually
captured before further forward movement was possible. The official history described
how this had to be done:
They [the 3rd Battalion] had first to dispose of a machine gun and Tongs [Sergeant
Bede Tongs] did it. He crawled up to a fire lane, under fire, and tossed a grenade which
lobbed right in the pit. The two Japs in the pit were blown clean out and sprawled one
on top of the other - dead. That started the ball rolling. The men got excited and began
yelling and whooping. [Captain Atkinson, 3rd Battalion, quoted in McCarthy, South-West Pacific
Area - First Year. P.273l
After the Japanese were pushed back at Templeton's Crossing, the 16th Brigade
battalions relieved the men of the 25th Brigade. On their way through the mountains,
these veterans gained a sense of what the struggle along the Kokoda Track had cost.
The war diarist of the 16th Brigade recorded:
Along the route were skeletons, picked clean by ants and other insects, and in the dark
recesses of the forest came to our nostrils the stench of the dead, hastily buried, or
perhaps not buried at all. [Quoted in McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - First Year, p.2S,)
The 16th Brigade took over the advance beyond Templeton's Crossing in an area of deep
ravines along Eora Creek. Here the track crossed steep ridges hemmed in by jungle making
its way over what the official Australian historian described as 'the torn side of the
mountain'. In this rugged country, the Austra lians fought their way forward until they
reached an area just to the north of the village of Eora Creek, regarded as the best position
on the whole Kokoda Track from which to mount a defence. Here the Japanese were well
dug in and waiting:
endurance The Japanese had had the good sense to establish this forest fort [Eora Creek] on the
only water to be found on the ridge. Consequently.for the four days before support
orrived, the men a/the company [Captain J M Gall's company, 2/3rd Battalion) hod to
catch rainwater in their gas copes and drink water from the roots af the 'water tree: Their only food was dehydrated emergency ration, eaten dry and cold. Every time one of
the patrols from the company located one oj the outlying Japanese machine gun posts,
scouts were killed or wounded. Then the post would be outflanked and overrun with
Brens, Tommy guns, and grenades. but each night the attacking parties had to
withdraw to defensive positions and in the darkness the Japanese would fe-establish
the posts or put out others. The Japanese snipers were alert and good shots.
[Unidentified member of Captain Gall's company, quoted in Mccarthy. South· West Pacific Area - First
Year, PP.297-298]
As at Templeton's Crossing, enemy resistance at Eora Creek was intense. Attack and
counter-attack led to many casualties on both sides. To the front of their fortress the
enemy had managed to tie down forward elements of the 2/1st and 2/2nd Battalions.
Eventually, the 2/3rd Battalion and one company of the 2/2nd Battalion worked their way
on to high ground above the main Japanese position. From there, on the late afternoon of
28 October, the Australians swept down the hill on the right flank of the Japanese fortress
and broke through :
We sailed into them firing/rom the hip ... the /orwOld scouts were knocked out, but the
men went on steadily advancing/rom tree to tree until we were right through their
outlying posts and into the central position. Suddenly the Japanese began to run out.
They dropped their weapons and stumbled through the thick bush down the slope. [Lieutenant B H MacDougal, 2/3rd Battalion, quoted in McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - Fjrst
Yeor, p-3031
With the enemy defences at Eora Creek broken, the way lay open across the mountains,
past lsurava and back down to Kokoda village. On 2 November 1942, a patrol from the
2/31St Battalion entered Kokoda and found it abandoned. On 3 November, Major General
George Vasey, commander, 7th Division, hoisted the Australian flag once again over
Kokoda. Soon the airstrip was open, supplies could be flown in and wounded men could be
evacuated quickly. The significance of Kokoda, wrote the official historian:
"
The Battle of the Kokoda Track July-November 1942
... lay only in its name which would identify in history the evil track which passed across
the Papuan mountains from the sea to the sea. [McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area -First
Year, P.314l
One last hurdle faced the Australians along the Kokoda Track - the Japanese defences
between the settlements of Oivi and Gorari. Here, bitter fighting against wel l-developed
positions again held up the advance. By 9-10 November the Australian battalions had
encircled the area and the Japanese defenders were trapped. On 11 November, the
Japanese finally broke and tried to make their way through the jungle to the Kumusi River.
Some managed to cross in two boats while others, including General Horii himself,
attempted to raft down the river to the coast. Many were drowned, including Horii, and
others were shot by snipers from Papuan I nfantry Battalion patrols.
On 13 November, Australian patrols reached the Kumusi where the famous Wairopi
bridge lay i n ruins. The 2/5th Field Company Engineers repaired a wrecked Japanese boat and, attaching it to a block and tackle, ferried a company of the 2/33rd Battalion to the far
bank, where a small bridgehead was established. Allied ai rcraft dropped steel rope and
tools and the engineers soon rigged up two flying foxes and two small suspension bridges
made from rope and logs. BY'7 November, the battalions of the 16th and 25th Brigades
were across the river.
With the Australian crossing of the Kumusi River, the Battle of the Kokoda Track came to
an end. The Japanese withdrew to their invasion pOints and Australian and American
soldiers now faced a terrible struggle to capture the enemy strongholds on the north coast
at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. Only with the fall of Sana nand a, in late January 1943, was
the Japanese threat to Papua over. With this defeat ended the threat that Japanese a ircraft
flying from locations such as Port Moresby might have posed to civilian and mil itary
targets along the Queensland and Northern Territory coasts.
Between 21 July and 16 November 1942, Australia lost over 600 killed or died of wounds during the Battle of the Kokoda Track. A further 1,000 were wounded. Some of the dead
were buried along the track or in graveyards at places like Efogi and Kokoda. After the war
all the graves of those killed in Papua were brought into the Bomana War Cemetery near
Port Moresby. Private Bruce Kingsbury VC, 2114th Battalion, lies buried there, as does
Lieutenant Roy Mackay, 2/31St Battalion, of Campsie, NSW, killed in action on 11 November
'3
mateship during the last engagements on Kokoda at Oivi and Gorari. The names of those missing in
action were recorded on the Port Moresby Memorial at Bomana and among them is
lieutenant Colonel Arthur Key, commanding officer of the Z/14th Battalion, who was
executed in enemy hands around 10 September '942.
Since World War II , many people have written about the Kokoda campaign, a campaign
now seen as perhaps second only to Gallipoli in its significance to Australian history. In a
way the original Anzacs were never able to do, hundreds of veterans of the Kokoda Track
have, in oral histories and video interviews, told their personal stories of the hardships and the sacrifice of those who died there. And like Gallipoli, the story that has most gripped
the popular imagination is that of the endurance of wounded men and the care given to
them by mates, medical personnel and stretcher bearers. It is no coincidence that the
largest war painting commissioned by the Australian Government about Kokoda was
William Oargie's Stretcher bearers in the Owen Stanleys. It shows Papua New Guineans
tending a wounded Austra lian as they carry him along the Kokoda Track.
What words then, can sum up such an important national experience� Immediately
after the war Colonel Kingsley Norris wrote an article about the war in Papua New Guinea.
His narrative ranged over all the major campaigns from 1942 to 1945 but he captured what
for him had been the essence of Kokoda in these words:
The courage and cheerfulness of these casualties were wonderful - sometimes almost
incredible ... That no known live casualty was abandoned ... is a magnificent tribute to
the fitness and fortitude of these men. Time and rain and the jungle will obliterate this
little native pad; but for evermore will live the memory of weary men who have passed
this way. [Kingsley Norris. 'The New Guinea campaign', The Medical Journal of Australia.
15 December 1945, p-4291
'4
A soldier of the Papuan Infantry Battalion in January 1941. It was a patrol of the PIB that on
23 July '942, at Awala, first encountered the Japanese advancing from the north Papuan
coast up the Kokoda Track. AWM 006218
Kokoda village and airstrip photographed in mid·July 1942, shortly before the arrival of
the Japanese. AWM 128400
� ,6
On 18 August '942. men of the 2/14th Battalion. Australian Imperial Force. sharpening their bayonets. Sergeant john Manol of the 39th Battalion remembered his first encounter with a veteran of the 2h4th: I thought Christ had come down again! We all did. We thought a/them
as Gods, these blokes. They were tall and they were trained. (Manol quoted in Brune, Those Ragged
Bloody Heroes, P.98] AWM 026261
Papua New Guinean carriers on the Kokoda Track in August 1942. Captain G H 'Doc 'Vernon,
the medical officer for the carriers on Kokoda, wrote: ... the immediate prospect before them
was grim, a meal that consisted only of rice and none too much of that, and a night of
shivering discomfort for most as there was only enough blankets to issue one to every man.
[vernon, quoted by Victor Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond; The Story of the 39th Battalion, 1941-1943,
Melbourne, 1988, p. 12S.J AWM 013001
,8
In August 1942, sappers of the 2/14th Field Company Engineers, AIF, bui lding a road on the
approaches to the Kokoda Track from Port Moresby. AWM 016310
A group portrait of 9 Platoon, A Company, 2114th Battalion, AIF, on the Kokoda Track some
time in August 1942. This platoon fought in the Battle of Isurava, 27-30 August.
Seven of these men were killed at Isurava, including Private Bruce Kingsbury, who was
posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery during that action. AWM 089110
fl
Studio portrait of Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury V(, taken i n '940 before his departure with
the 2/14th Batta lion for the Middle East. This photograph was donated to the Australian War
Memorial by the 2/14th Battalion Association. AWM Pol637.001
Papua New Guinean stretcher bearers tending Private A Baldwin, 2J33rd Battalion, on the
Kokoda Track, October 1942. Of the care of the bearers, Captain Henry 'Blue' Steward, Regimental Medical Officer, 2J16th Battalion, wrote: With four men each side of a stretcher,
they took it in turn5 to sleep and to watch, giving each wounded man whatever food, drink or
comfort there might be. [H D Steward, Recollections of a Regimental Medicol Officer, Melbourne, 1983,
P.113) AWM 0�6856
Captain Henry 'Blue' Steward, Regimental Medical Officer, 2/16th Battalion, tending a
wounded man on the Kokoda Track on 22 September '942, Steward later wrote of his
experience of war: '" if any single thing could ever mitigate the waste and futility a f war it is
the discovery men make of the heroism, sacrifice and devotion of their comrades. [Steward.
Recollections oia Regimental Medicol Officer, pp.1l6-117J AWM 01328
'3
The Salvation Army rest tent near Uberi at the lower end of the Kokoda Track i n October 1942.
Private Syd Heylen, 39th Batta lion, later recalled the rest tent: I know the nicest thing I ever
had on Kokoda ... was a cup aftea given to me by the Salvation Army. And I hated tea that never
had any milk or sugar in it; this didn't have any in it and I loved it, I wanted more. I had half a
cup, that's all they had. I never forgot that one. [Extract, Interview, Syd Heylen, 39th Battalion, Keith
Murdoch Sound Collection, AWM) AWM 017001
'4
Salvation Army Chaplain Albert Moore lighting a cigarette for Lieutenant Valentine Gardener, 2/'4th Battalion, on the Kokoda Track, in Odober '942. Chaplain Moore was given
the title 'The Simpson of the Owen Stanleys' by his Salvation Army colleagues. Moore later
wrote of his experiences: I look back on those days as among the greatest in my life. never
again do I hope to hear the sighs of relief that I heard during those days, as men, utterly
exhausted, weak, sick and wounded, would well nigh fail at our jeet. [From text, radio talk,
26 February 1945, Major Albert Moore, Radio 6KY. Perth, 'On Active Service with the Red Shield', MSSo742,
AWM] AWMO!3187
Members of the 39th Battalion. AMF. at Menari. Kokoda Track, 22 September '942, The unit,
after weeks of continuous fighting. had recently been withdrawn from action. AWM 013289
Major General Arthur Allen (right), commander, 7th Division, AIF, consulting an impending
attack with Brigadier Kenneth Eather, commander, 25th Brigade, AIF, on the Kokoda Track i n
October 1942. AWM 0:16749
dt: !
-
The Royal Australian Navy corvette. HMAS Bendigo, in Port Moresby harbour transferring
men wounded on the Kokoda Track to the hospital ship Manunda, for the voyage
to Australia. AWM 026663
A 2s·pounder gun of the 14th Field Regiment being pulled through the jungle towards Uberi,
on the Kokoda Track, in September 1942. The guns of the regiment pounded Japanese
positions on loribaiwa ridge in late September 1942. AWM 026855
p
Men of the 2/31St Battalion resting between Nauro and Menari during the advance against
the Japanese on the Kokoda Track in October 1942. AWM 027001
Men of the 16th Brigade, AIF -211st, 212nd and 2/3rd Battalions - moving up the Kokoda Track
near Nauro in October 1942. AWM 017054
J'
The 'Golden Stairs' rising towards Imita Ridge, Kokoda Track, October 1942. The caption to this
photograph in the Australian official history reads: ... each step battened at its edge by a rough
log, sometimes broken and therefore treacherous, and cradling mud and water from the
afternoon rains. [McCarthy, South· West Pacific Area - First Yeor, p.242] AWM026837
Members of the surgical team of the 2/4th Field Ambulance performing an operation
using a makesh ift operating table to set a fractured femur caused by a gunshot wound in
October '942. The soldier had spent three days being carried down the Kokoda Track by local
stretcher bearers to the field ambulance position at Uberi. AWM P04]4.ol6
p
A 8eaufighter of 30 Squadron RAAF flying close to a rocky outcrop i n the Owen Stanley Range
in late 1942. RAAF and USAAF squadrons based in Port Moresby attacked Japanese supply
bases on the north Papuan coast during the Kokoda campaign. 30 Squadron also strafed and
bombed Japanese positions along the Kokoda Track during the Australian advance of
October-November 1942. AWM OGOOOI
34
A patrol of the 2/2Sth Batta lion crossing the Brown River on their way to Menari, Kokoda
Track, in October '942. AWM 017060
A member af a n Australian signals unit at Eora Creek. Kakoda Track. AWM P02038·!46
,6
Lieutenant Colonel Allan Cameron (standing centre), commander, 3rd Battalion, AMF,
briefing some of his men before they set out on a patrol from Menari, Kokoda Track,
i n October '942, This patrol captured one of the first Japanese soldiers taken prisoner by
the Austra lians. AWM 0;17010
A party of the 2/14th Battalion arriving at the American camp at Kalikodobu on the Kemp
Welsh River, approximately 70 kilometres to the east of the beginning of the Kokoda Track,
on the Port Moresby side of the mountains. They were members of a group under Captain
S H Budler cut off on 30 August 1942 after the Battle of Isurava. To avoid capture, Budler led
them for nearly 42 days through the jungle. AWM 06g146
A 'biscuit bomber' Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft of the USAAF dropping supplies at Nauro
village for the men of the 25th Brigade, AIF, during their advance on the Kokoda Track in
October 1942. AWM 027019
19
A Japanese prisoner captured near Nauro, Kokoda Track in October 1942. This soldier suffered
starvation, like many Japanese soldiers during their withdrawal over the Kokoda Track in
October-November 1942. AWM 026824
The raising of the Australian flag over Kolcoda village in early November '942. The war diarist
of the 16th Brigade recorded the mood as on 1 November '942 the Australians came out of
the high mountains and moved towards Kolcoda: The valley was widening, the pouring,
dripping, misty ranges were being left behind. Everyone seemed to feel it; even the native
carriers returning along the track had stuck gay yellow flowers in their hair, adding an air
almost of festivity to the march. [Quoted in McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - First Year, p. 312)
AWMol3572
F
Japanese grave markers at Kokoda i n November '942. The chi ld's car belonged to a family
who fled from the village before the Japanese invasion of July 1942. AWM 013609
An Australian officer questioning a Japanese prisoner captured near Kokoda village in
November 1942. The man is holding a Japanese flag covered with the signatures of friends.
It was customary to give a departing soldier such a flag at a farewell party. AWM 013615
A burying party of Australian soldiers i n front of a mass grave of japanese soldiers in the
Oivi-Gorari area, Kokoda Track, in late November '942. It is estimated that 500 enemy
soldiers perished in this last major action on the Kokoda Track. AWM 0!3645
44
A patient on an operating table at No 3 Casualty Clearing Station, Port Moresby attended by
a doctor, nurse and anaesthetist in December '942. The soldier had suffered a bayonet
wound during the Kokoda fighting, Austral ian nurses were sent back to Papua New Guinea in November '942 as the threat of Japanese invasion receded. AWM P02038.139
Mrs Eunice Walker (left), mother of Lieutenant I W Walker, 2/7th Battalion, and Mrs Daisy
Owen, widow of lieutenant Colonel Wil l iam Owen, 39th Battalion, photographed in the
grounds of the 4th American Hospital in Melbourne on 3 June 1943- Both women had just
been presented with the American DSC (Distinguished Service Cross), visible on their lapels,
awarded posthumously to lieutenant Walker and Colonel Owen for their heroism during the
Papuan campaign of July 1942 to January 1943- Owen's award was for his leadership at the
defence of Kokoda village on 29 July '942, the action in which he was killed. lieutenant
Walker's award was for his bravery at Buna, where he was killed on 5 December '942.
AWM 051)20
Pl
The grave of Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury VC, 2114th Battalion, at Kokoda War Cemetery,
being tended by Signalman R Wil l iams in April 1944. After the war, Kingsbury's grave, along
with those of all Austra lians buried along the Kokoda Track, was transferred to Bomana War
Cemetery, Port Moresby. AWM 072431
The graves of two unknown Australian soldiers on the Kokoda Track between loribaiwa and
Nauro in October 1942. AWM 0]6819
A Papua New Guinean soldier standing arms reversed next to the memorial at Kokoda
village erected to commemorate the service of Australian soldiers along the Kokoda Track
in 1942. AWM 044287
49
Stretcher bearers in the Owen Stanleys Will iam Dargie, 1947- Oil on canvas, 143-2 x 234-4 em
AWM ARTJ6653
