Kokoda Track Campaign (1942): Australia's Fight in New Guinea

The Kokoda Track campaign was fought between July and November 1942 in the Territory of Papua, then administered by Australia. Japanese forces landed on the north coast and advanced along the Kokoda Track, a narrow foot route over the rugged Owen Stanley Range, aiming to capture Port Moresby. Outnumbered Australian troops fought a long withdrawal, halted the advance about 40 kilometres from the town, and then pushed the Japanese back, in a campaign that holds a central place in Australian memory of the Second World War.

Background

After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Japanese forces seized Rabaul on New Britain and bases on the north coast of New Guinea. Port Moresby, the main Allied base on the south coast of Papua, became a key objective. From there Japanese aircraft could strike northern Australia and the Coral Sea.

Japan’s first attempt to take Port Moresby by sea was turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and the losses at Midway in June ruled out another large naval operation. The Japanese army therefore planned an overland approach. The South Seas Force under Major General Tomitarō Horii was to land near Buna and Gona and cross the mountains by the Kokoda Track.

The track was a footpath used by local people and gold miners, about 96 kilometres overland from Owers’ Corner, near Port Moresby, to the village of Kokoda, with a small airstrip, on the northern side. It crossed steep ridges rising to over 2,000 metres, fast rivers and dense rainforest. Heavy rain, mud, cold nights at altitude, malaria and dysentery made it one of the hardest battlefields of the war.

The Japanese advance

Japanese troops landed near Gona on the night of 21–22 July 1942 and moved inland. The only defenders were Maroubra Force, made up largely of the 39th Battalion, a militia unit of young and partly trained soldiers, and the Papuan Infantry Battalion. They fought the first actions near Awala and at Wairopi, then fell back to Kokoda. On 29 July the airstrip and village were lost, and the battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Owen, was killed. Australians briefly retook Kokoda on 8 August before being driven out again.

In mid-August the main Japanese force, several thousand strong, began to push up the track. At Isurava, from 26 to 31 August, the 39th Battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, and the newly arrived 2/14th and 2/16th Battalions of the experienced 21st Brigade under Brigadier Arnold Potts held off repeated attacks before withdrawing. Private Bruce Kingsbury of the 2/14th Battalion was killed during a counterattack on 29 August and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the first for an action on Australian territory.

The Australians then conducted a fighting withdrawal through Eora Creek and Templeton’s Crossing to Efogi. At Brigade Hill, also called Mission Ridge, from 6 to 9 September, the Japanese outflanked the brigade, causing heavy losses. The 25th Brigade under Brigadier Kenneth Eather came forward, and after fighting at Ioribaiwa in mid-September the Australians withdrew to Imita Ridge, the last high ground before Port Moresby.

The turning point

The Japanese reached Ioribaiwa, about 40 kilometres from Port Moresby, but went no further. Their supply line, carried on the backs of soldiers and porters over the mountains, had almost collapsed, and many of Horii’s troops were starving and sick. At the same time the struggle for Guadalcanal and the Japanese defeat at Milne Bay at the eastern tip of Papua changed the high command’s priorities. In late September Horii’s force was ordered to withdraw to the north coast and hold the beachheads there.

The Australian advance

From late September the Australian 25th and 16th Brigades followed the Japanese back over the range, supplied in part by aircraft dropping food and ammunition at Myola and elsewhere. The Japanese fought fierce rearguard actions, especially at Templeton’s Crossing and Eora Creek in October. Kokoda was reoccupied without a fight on 2 November 1942, allowing supplies and reinforcements to be flown in.

At Oivi and Gorari, from 4 to 11 November, the Australians outflanked and largely destroyed the Japanese force. Horii drowned while crossing the Kumusi River or the sea nearby in late November. The surviving Japanese retreated to their beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda, where Australian and American troops fought a further costly battle that lasted until January 1943.

Key people

• Arnold Potts (1896–1968): commanded the 21st Brigade during the withdrawal and was controversially removed in October 1942.
• Ralph Honner (1904–1994): commanded the 39th Battalion at Isurava.
• Tomitarō Horii (1890–1942): commander of the Japanese South Seas Force, who died during the retreat.
• Sydney Rowell (1894–1975): commanded New Guinea Force until he was relieved by General Thomas Blamey in late September.
• Thomas Blamey (1884–1951): commander of Allied Land Forces in the South-West Pacific Area, whose criticism of the troops in a speech to the 21st Brigade at Koitaki in November 1942 caused lasting resentment.

Papuan carriers played an indispensable role, bringing up supplies and carrying wounded men down the track on stretchers. The cameraman Damien Parer’s newsreel Kokoda Front Line! won an Academy Award in 1943 and brought images of the fighting to audiences at home.

Casualties

Commonly cited figures put Australian battle casualties at about 625 killed and over 1,000 wounded, with more than 4,000 others evacuated sick, many with malaria. Japanese losses are harder to establish; estimates suggest that a large part of the several thousand men who crossed the mountains died in battle or from starvation and disease. Papuan carriers and villagers also suffered, though their losses were poorly recorded.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Kokoda saved Australia from a Japanese invasion. Fact: Japanese military leaders had considered and rejected an invasion of Australia in early 1942, judging that it would need far more troops and shipping than they could spare. The aim of the Kokoda advance was Port Moresby, whose capture would have exposed northern Australia to air attack and cut sea routes, so the campaign was still vital to Australia’s defence.
• Myth: the 39th Battalion fought alone. Fact: the militia battalion’s stand in July and August was crucial, but it was supported by the Papuan Infantry Battalion and then by the experienced AIF battalions of the 21st, 25th and 16th Brigades, as well as by air supply and thousands of Papuan carriers.
• Myth: the Japanese could see the lights of Port Moresby. Fact: this claim often appears in popular accounts, but it is doubtful; Ioribaiwa was still separated from the town by further ridges and many kilometres of jungle.
• Myth: Kokoda was won by Australians alone. Fact: American aircraft and air transport were important to supply, and American troops joined the later fighting at the beachheads of Buna and Sanananda.

Timeline

• 1942, 21–22 July: Japanese forces land near Gona on the north coast of Papua.
• 1942, 29 July: Kokoda is captured; Lieutenant Colonel Owen is killed.
• 1942, 26–31 August: The Battle of Isurava.
• 1942, 6–9 September: The Battle of Brigade Hill (Mission Ridge).
• 1942, mid-September: The Japanese reach Ioribaiwa; Australians withdraw to Imita Ridge.
• 1942, late September: Horii’s force begins its withdrawal.
• 1942, October: Heavy fighting at Templeton’s Crossing and Eora Creek.
• 1942, 2 November: Australians reoccupy Kokoda.
• 1942, 4–11 November: The Battle of Oivi–Gorari.

Why it matters

The Kokoda campaign ended the only Japanese land threat to Port Moresby and helped secure the Allied base from which later offensives in New Guinea were launched. For Australia it became a defining story of endurance and mateship, comparable in national memory to Gallipoli. Each year thousands of Australians walk the track to remember those who fought there.