The Kokoda Track campaign or Kokoda Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought from July to November 1942 between Japanese and Allied—primarily Australian—forces in what was then the Australian territory of Papua.
The Kokoda Track itself is a single-file track starting just outside Port Moresby on the Coral Sea and (depending on definition) runs 60–100 kilometres through the Owen Stanley Ranges to Kokoda and the coastal lowlands beyond by the Solomon Sea.
The track crosses some of the most rugged and isolated terrain in the world, reaches 2,250 metres (7,400 ft) at Mount Bellamy, and combines hot humid days with intensely cold nights, torrential rainfall and endemic tropical diseases such as malaria. The track is passable only on foot; this had extreme repercussions for logistics, the size of forces and the type of warfare that could be conducted.
Prelude to the battle
As part of their general strategy in the Pacific, the Japanese sought to capture Port Moresby. The port might have given them a base from which they could strike at most of north-eastern Australia, and control of a major route between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but evidence of a plan to invade the continent is slim.
The first attempt to capture Port Moresby by seaborne amphibious invasion was thwarted by the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. A month later, most of the Japanese carrier fleet was destroyed in the Battle of Midway, further reducing the possibility of major amphibious operations in the south Pacific. The Japanese now resolved to mount an overland assault across the Owen Stanley Range to capture Port Moresby, which might have succeeded against virtually no resistance, had it been mounted in February.
Looking for ways to counter the Japanese advance into the South Pacific, the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur, decided to build up Allied forces in New Guinea as a prelude to an offensive against the main Japanese base at Rabaul.
Aware that an enemy landing at Buna could threaten Kokoda and then Port Moresby, MacArthur asked his commander of Allied Land Forces, General Sir Thomas Blamey for details of how he proposed to defend Buna and Kokoda. In turn, Blamey ordered Major General Basil Morris, the commander of New Guinea Force, to secure the area and prepare to oppose an enemy advance.
Morris created a force to defend Kokoda called Maroubra Force, and he ordered the 100-strong B Company of the Australian 39th Battalion to travel overland along the track to the village of Kokoda. Once there, B Company was to secure the airstrip at Kokoda, in preparation for an Allied build-up along the Papuan north coast. The unit was ordered to leave on 26 June but did not depart until 7 July. The rest of the 39th Battalion stayed on the near side of the Owen Stanley range, improving communications. As the militia company was securing its positions, news reached them of Japanese landings on the north coast of New Guinea.
Japanese landings and initial assault
The Japanese, having already captured much of the northern part of New Guinea earlier that year, landed on the northeast coast of Papua on 21 July 1942, and established beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.
The first Australian Army unit to make contact with the Japanese on mainland New Guinea was a platoon from the Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB), made up of indigenous soldiers, under an Australian officer, Lieutenant John Chalk.
On 22 July, Chalk reported the arrival of the Japanese by sending a runner to his immediate superior. He received a handwritten note later that day, stating simply: "You will engage the enemy." That night, Chalk and his 40-strong unit ambushed Japanese forces from a hill overlooking the Gona–Sangara road, before retreating into the jungle.
Japanese attempts to build up the force at Buna also had to get past the Allied air forces. One transport got through on 25 July, but another on 29 July was sunk, although most of the troops got ashore. A third was forced to return to Rabaul. Another convoy had to turn back on 31 July. However, bad weather and Japanese A6M Zero fighters allowed a convoy under Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa to get through on 14 August and land some 3,000 Japanese, Korean and Formosan troops of the 14th and 15th Naval Construction Units.
On 17 August, the 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, and elements of the 144th Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hatsuo Tsukamoto, 55th Mountain Artillery, 47th Anti Aircraft Artillery and 55th Cavalry arrived under the overall command of engineer Colonel Yosuke Yokoyama. On 21 August, two battalions of the 41st Regiment arrived.
Colonel Yokoyama ordered Colonel Tsukamoto to seize the airstrip at Kokoda, and to conduct a reconnaissance-in-force along the Kokoda Track. Encountering the Australian troops deployed near Kokoda, Tsukamoto deployed his infantry and marines for an attack, and quickly moved inland.
First Battle of Kokoda
At 4pm on 25 July 1942, the 39th Battalion made its first contact with the Japanese when the 60-strong 11th and 12th Platoons, along with some PIB soldiers and commanded by Captain Templeton, staged an ambush at the village of Gorari on 500 troops of Japan's 144th Regiment. Pursued by the Japanese the two Australian platoons then staged a fighting rearguard withdrawal down the track to the village of Oivi where both forces dug in for the night.
Several hours apart on the morning of 26 July two transport planes each landed 15 additional troops of the 39th Battalion which were sent to reinforce the two platoons at Oivi. Shortly after the first 15 reinforcements arrived the Japanese troops attacked the 75 militia and handful of local PIB troops now defending Oivi.
Despite repeated frontal and flank attacks over the next six hours the Japanese failed to break through. By 5pm the remaining 15 reinforcements had not yet arrived and Captain Templeton moved down the track to warn them that they might encounter Japanese troops between them and his position. Unknown to Templeton the Japanese had already surrounded his troops and he was killed when he ran into them.
Major W.T. Watson of the Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) assumed command. As the track to Kokoda was now cut off, Lance Corporal Sanopa of the PIB led the Australian and Papuan troops, under the cover of darkness, to Deniki by means of a creek below Oivi. At Deniki the men joined up with Lieutenant Colonel William Owen's company.
On the morning of 27 July, Lieutenant Colonel Owen, with the remnants of the militia companies and a handful of troops of the PIB, who had had little food or rest for the previous three days and knowing he would be facing some 500 elite Japanese marines, decided to attempt a defence of the Kokoda airstrip and hope that reinforcements would arrive in time to support him. Leaving around 40 troops at Deniki he took the remaining 77 and was deployed in Kokoda by midday on 28 July.
Owen then contacted Port Moresby by radio to request reinforcements. Shortly two Douglas transports carrying reinforcements from the 39th Battalion circled the airfield, but the American pilots refused to land for fear that the Japanese would attack while they were still on the ground and returned to Port Moresby. During the afternoon the Japanese poured machinegun fire and mortars on the Australians, Lieutenant Colonel Owen received a fatal wound and Major Watson assumed command.
The Japanese launched a full-scale assault at 2.30 a.m. on 29 July. Only after his position was completely overrun did Major Watson give the order to his troops to withdraw to Deniki. The Kokoda airstrip was captured by the Japanese who, having achieved their objective, did not pursue the Australians.
Although the defenders were poorly trained, outnumbered and under-resourced, the resistance was such that, according to captured documents, the Japanese believed they had defeated a force more than 1,200 strong when, in fact, they were facing 77 Australian troops.
Next to establishing the strength of the defending forces, and with the strategically vital supply base and airstrip at Kokoda within his grasp, Tsukamoto deemed the track to be practicable for a full-scale overland assault against Port Moresby. The Imperial Japanese Army's 10,000-strong South Seas Force, commanded by Major-General Tomitaro Horii, based at Rabaul, was tasked with the capture of Port Moresby.
Australian reinforcements
The loss of the airstrip at Kokoda forced the Australian commanders to send the other companies of the 39th Infantry Battalion plus the rest of the Militia's 30th Infantry Brigade—the 49th and 53rd Infantry Battalions—over the Track, rather than reinforcing Kokoda by air. Only two transport aircraft were available at Port Moresby with each capable of carrying reinforcments of only twenty soldiers on each trip. These reinforcments would be untrained militia only. This information was withheld from Major Cameron who was ordered to retake th
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