To Kokoda

Resource Information

The work To Kokoda represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

To Kokoda

Statement of responsibility

Nicholas Anderson

Creator

• Anderson, Nicholas Axel

Contributor

• Anderson, Nicholas

Author

• Anderson, Nicholas
• Anderson, Nicholas Axel

Subject

• World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Papua New Guinea
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Japan
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Australian
• Australia, Army -- History -- World War, 1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Regimental histories -- Australia
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Japanese
• Australia, Australian Army -- History -- World War, 1939-1945
• trueKokoda Trail (Papua New Guinea) -- History

Language

eng

Summary

Annotation.

Dewey number

940.5426

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Summary expansion

When the Japanese war machine swept through South-East Asia in early 1942, it was inevitable that conflict would reach Australian territory on the island of New Guinea. The ultimate Japanese target was Port Moresby. Conquering the capital would sever communication between Australia and her American ally and allow Japanese air power to threaten Australia's northern cities. When a seaborne invasion was thwarted at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Nankai Shitai landed in Papua on 21 July and lunched an overland attack. Having captured the village of Kokoda with its vital airstrip, the Japanese headed for Port Moresby, traversing the treacherous Kokoda trail that winds across the might Owen Stanley Range. The Australian Army was ill prepared to confront the Japanese. Poorly equipped, undertrained, and unaccustomed to jungle warfare, the untested militia battalions were the first to face the battle-hardened invading forces. Later, when veteran AIF brigades were rushed forward to bolster the militia, they also fell in the path of the Japanese onslaught. But the over-extension of supply lines and disaster on Guadalcanal eventually cruelled Japanese aspirations and the Kokoda campaign became a bloody and protracted struggle as the Australian troops fought to drive the Japanese off the Owen Stanleys and out of Papua. While the front-line troops were engaged in a bitter fight for survival, a power struggle erupted at the top of the Allied command hierarchy resulting in a series of sackings, the competing ambitions of the Allied commanders clouding their judgement at a critical time. It was under these conditions, against a determined enemy and on one of the harshest battlefields on earth, that the Australian forces began to learn the crucial lessons that would be needed to break the back of the Japanese Army in New Guinea