What's on in GPS Library: 5/6HA Research Task- Kokoda

Group 1-

The Kokoda track is a 96km trail which cuts across the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea. Research the track’s war history.

The Kokoda track was used by both Australian and Japanese in WWII during 1939-1945 in Papua New Guinea. Kokoda was the bloodiest battle of all. It is 96km long with almost vertical hills. One of the most famous places is brigade hill. Papua new guinea was divided into 3 pieces (areas). Australia landed at Port Moresby and the Japs at Basabua Buna. Australia had an army of untrained soldiers whilst the Japanese had the world’s greatest army. The first conflict between the 2 countries were 65km north-east of Port Moresby at Awala. More than 600 Aussies were killed and 1680 were wounded during the most significant battle fought by Australians in World War II. In late July 1942 as the Japanese advanced towards the village of Kokoda. They were engaged by forward elements of the Papuan infantry battalion and the Australian 39^th infantry battalion. Despite the Australians’ stubborn resistance Kokoda fell to the larger Japanese force. At Isurava , in the last days of August the 39^th and the 2^nd / 14^th battalions with support further back from the 2^nd / to the 16^th and the 53^rd battalions, were able to temporarily hold the Japanese during the intense five day action. Throughout September the Australian units withdrew down the Kokoda track, being joined by the 2^nd/27^th battalion. They made further stands against the Japanese at Eora creek, Templetons crossing, Efogi, mission ridge Isurava. Allied airmen dropped supplies and made repeated attacks on the enemy’s supply lines. During the gruelling days, the Papuan men employed as carriers played a vital role in the battle. They carried supplies forward for the troops and then as the number of troops who were wounded or felt sick increased, carried back to safety those who were unable to walk. By the 16^th of September, often more troops had come forward from port Moresby and dug into a distinctive position at Imita Ridge the Japanese were exhausted. They had been force to fight hard to cross the mountains and they had run out of many supplies. Following set backs on other battle fields against Australia and America forces, which robbed them of further reinforcements, the Japanese on the Kokoda track were ordered to with draw battle. As Australian patrols pushed forward on Imita ridge on the 28^th of September they found that the enemy had slipped away. During the next six weeks, the Japanese fell back over the mountains. They were punished by the troops of the 25^th brigade comprising the 2^nd / 26^th /2^nd /31^st and 2^nd /33^rd battalions- and the 16^th brigade.

Group 2-

Find out about the people living in the villages along the track today. Why was the village of Kokoda strategically important?

The Kokoda Track
People along the village

The KOKODA village was strategically important during World War II because the village had a run way where the enemy air craft could land to bring supplies for the enemy soldiers. Also if they captured that village they could use it as a land base.

Most of the people who live in the villages along the track are seventh day Adventists at some villages if you wash or swim in a nearby creek please observe the directions of the track leader there may be different areas for males and females. Koiari people inhabit areas between foothills of the Owen Stanley Range east of Port Morsey .Orokavia people mainly live in areas between Kokoda and beach heads.

Group 4-

What was the difference between the AIF and militia soldiers? Wht were thw militia called 'Chocos'?How did their image change after the battles of Kokoda and Isurava?

There were many differences between the AIF and the militia soldiers. Firstly the militia soldiers (also known as Chocos) were untrained and were inexperienced in the battle field. The only reason they fought in the war was because Australia’s army were occupied in Europe and were under the commands of Winston Churchill.

The militia units were so unprepared for battle, so ill-equipped and so inexperienced, that soldiers in the regular army gave them the nickname CHOCOLATE SOLDIERS because they were likely to melt in the heat of the war. Most of the militia units were everyday people working in schools etc. Their job Was to hold off the Japanese army until the Australian troops arrived.

The chocos images change because of their bravery to go to war, when they were not even trained to be soldiers. They went from ordinary men to men of valour. The people of Australia thought they were cowards until the war in Papua New Guinea where they held back the Japanese soldiers long enough for the armed forces to arrive. With the Australian troops they force back the Japanese. The small number of militiamen that came back were respected by their fellow people.

Group 5-

Find out about the 39^th Battalion. Who was Private Bruce Kingsbury? How did his actions change the course of the war?

Kokoda Reasearch - Brice Kingsbury and the 39th battalion.

39th battalion

The 39th Battalian was formed on the 21st Feburary 1916. Most of the recruits were from the state’s Western District. It became part of the 10th brigade of the 3rd Australian Division sailing from Melbourne on 27 of May. The battalion arrived in Britain on the 18th of July and started 4 months of training. It moved to France in late November and went into the trenches at the western front just in time for the onset of the terrible winter of 1916-1917.

Bruce Kingsbury

Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury VC was born in Preston just outside of Melbourne on the 8th of January 1918. The son of Phillip Blencowe Kingsbury and Florance Annie Steel. Who immigrated from the U.K prior to the end of world war 1. Bruce attended Melboune Technical Collage on a scholarship and after gradguation qualified to work in the printing industries. Instead Bruce decided to go to work in father’s real estate business, unhappy with this job and the companionship of his best mate (Alen Avery), Bruce found work on a property at Ntya situated in the Mally District of Victoria. His new job was working on a sheep station.

The PNG war

In August 1942 the 2/14th battalion moved to Port Moresby, hoping to halt the Japanese on the Kokoda trail. Kingsbury’s platoon had been holding a position for two days against countinual enemy attacks and servere loses when he made the heroic attack– he ran down the Isurava hill firing a bren gun from his hip whilst hand throwing grenades continuosly. Unfourtunately he was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper. He killed up to 30 Japanese soldiers and injuring many more. His actions gave the Australian soldiers time to recoup and return to their positions. There is a rock named Kingsbury’s rock—it is the rock he died next to.

Group 6-

Find out about other battlesites where Australians have fought during this war.

The fighting against a Japanese invasion force, was perhaps the most significant battle fought by Australians in World War II.

The Japanese landed near Gona on the north coast of Papua on 21 July 1942. In the next two months they drove the Australians and their Papuan allies back over the mountains towards Port Moresby, the Japanese objective. Port Moresby was vital to the defence of Australia. If they took Port Moresby the Japanese planned to begin a bombing offensive against north Queensland and, had they decided to invade Australia, the invasion would have been launched from Port Moresby. None of this came to pass. The Japanese approached to within 40 kilometres of their objective but the tide turned in September. Then the Australians, in a series of costly engagements, pushed the Japanese back the way they had come. By mid-November the Japanese were forced to abandon their plan to take Port Moresby. They retired to their north coast strongholds at Buna, Gona and Santana.

• The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major allied campaign in the south west pacific area during World War 2. In a series of amphibious assaults between 1^st of May and 21^st of July, the Australian I corps, under lieutenant general Leslie Morehead, attacked Japanese Forces occupying the island. Allied Naval and air forces centred on the US. 7^th fleet under admire led Thomas Kinkaid, the Australian first tactical air force and the US

· The Japanese had planned to take Port Moresby by a sea borne assault. Their invasion armada was halted and turn back after a tumultuous naval and aircraft battle in the Coral Sea in early May 1942. Thwarted in their attempts to take Port Moresby by sea, the Japanese opted to go over land from the northern coastline. In their way soothe daunting bulk of the jungle-covered Owen Stanley ranges.

But first the Japanese decided to destroy the allied forces assembling at Milne bay on the eastern tip of Papua, where American engineers, protected by Australian AIF and Militia units, were constructing an airfield. On the 25^th august 1942 Japanese troops and light tanks were landed on the northern shore of the bay.