Post by Sir John on Aug 23, 2012 15:59:15 GMT -5
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoda_Track_campaign
70 years ago this weekend, things looked VERY bad for Australia. The Japanese had marched almost non-stop from Tokyo to the northern coast of New Guinea in about 6 months. Darwin had been bombed repeatedly, and many far north towns also were being attacked.
Though we did not know it at the time, the Japanese High Command had looked at the possibility of invading Australia, and decided that the job needed too many troops to be taken from China to ensure success. The island was just too big! We all thought it was a battle to stop invasion.
The vast majority of Australia's AIF (about 3 divisions) was in the Middle East, and all we had was a few militia battalions and a couple of RAAF squadrons, and some Australian Navy Destroyers and Corvettes.
The 5,000+ Japanese landed on the north coast of New Guinea and headed south towards Port Moresby, crossing the 14,000' jungle covered Owen Stanley Range in the process.
The 39th Battalion, (800 men) average age just over 18, got the job of stopping them, later, with the 53rd Battalion and a New Guinea unit, they climbed the single file track to Kokoda village and began to fight a retreating battle all the way back to Isurava village, within sight of Port Moresby.
Like the US Cavalry, the desert troops of the 7th Div, 2nd AIF, arrived from North Africa, just in time to save the 'city'. It was a journey north from then on back to Tokyo.
Simultaneously, at Milne Bay, (late august to early September) the Japanese had landed about 4,000 troops and tried to capture the RAAF airstrips there, to mount a threat to Port Moresby and allied shipping. They were forced to withdraw and that was the FIRST time a defeat was inflicted on them in the Pacific war. My FIL was there.
Also simultaneously, Guadalcanal was raging, and that was finally decided in early 1943.
LEST WE FORGET!
SJ
70 years ago this weekend, things looked VERY bad for Australia. The Japanese had marched almost non-stop from Tokyo to the northern coast of New Guinea in about 6 months. Darwin had been bombed repeatedly, and many far north towns also were being attacked.
Though we did not know it at the time, the Japanese High Command had looked at the possibility of invading Australia, and decided that the job needed too many troops to be taken from China to ensure success. The island was just too big! We all thought it was a battle to stop invasion.
The vast majority of Australia's AIF (about 3 divisions) was in the Middle East, and all we had was a few militia battalions and a couple of RAAF squadrons, and some Australian Navy Destroyers and Corvettes.
The 5,000+ Japanese landed on the north coast of New Guinea and headed south towards Port Moresby, crossing the 14,000' jungle covered Owen Stanley Range in the process.
The 39th Battalion, (800 men) average age just over 18, got the job of stopping them, later, with the 53rd Battalion and a New Guinea unit, they climbed the single file track to Kokoda village and began to fight a retreating battle all the way back to Isurava village, within sight of Port Moresby.
Like the US Cavalry, the desert troops of the 7th Div, 2nd AIF, arrived from North Africa, just in time to save the 'city'. It was a journey north from then on back to Tokyo.
Simultaneously, at Milne Bay, (late august to early September) the Japanese had landed about 4,000 troops and tried to capture the RAAF airstrips there, to mount a threat to Port Moresby and allied shipping. They were forced to withdraw and that was the FIRST time a defeat was inflicted on them in the Pacific war. My FIL was there.
Also simultaneously, Guadalcanal was raging, and that was finally decided in early 1943.
LEST WE FORGET!
SJ
