Subject: Media Release VA81 - Stories of the Defence of Australia - July
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Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:43:28 +1000

Minister for Veterans' Affairs Mailing List

VA81	Friday 28 June 2002
STORIES OF THE DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA - 1942
In 1942 the people of Australia were called upon, for the first time, to
defend their own shores.  Throughout that year, supported by their allies,
Australians fought to turn the initial defeats of 1942 into the beginnings
of victory in the Pacific.  This series, issued by the Minister for
Veterans' Affairs, Danna Vale, to mark the 60th anniversary of the defence
of Australia, highlights some of the key events of those 12 momentous
months.
THE KOKODA TRACK - July-November 1942
On 21 July 1942 a Japanese invasion force landed at Gona on the north coast
of Papua.  Its objective was the capture of Port Moresby, the main
Australian base in New Guinea, by an overland strike across the Owen Stanley
Range. These mountains, as described by Australia's official historian
Dudley McCarthy, were among the most rugged on earth:
They rose turbulently into the clouds. Forests covered them densely with
seas of green. Winds moaned through them. Rains poured down upon them from
clouds which swirled round the peaks ... torrents raged through their giant
rifts and foamed among grey stones.
The only way across the Owen Stanleys was by a jungle pathway known as the
Kokoda Track. From 22 July until 16 November 1942 Australian soldiers fought
with grim determination first to keep the advancing Japanese from reaching
Port Moresby, then to push the retreating enemy troops back over the range
to their north coast strongholds at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.
In late July, as the Japanese advanced towards Kokoda village, they were
engaged by forward elements of the Papuan Infantry Battalion and the
Australian 39th Battalion.  Despite stubborn resistance, Kokoda fell and by
27 August Australian units had withdrawn over the mountains to Isurava. Here
the Japanese were temporarily held during an intense five day action
involving the 2/14th and 39th Battalions, with support from the 2/16th and
53rd Battalions. 
At Isurava on 29 August, Private Bruce Kingsbury, 2/14th Battalion, was
killed as he rushed forward with his Bren gun, driving back the enemy in a
determined counter-attack.  Kingsbury was awarded a posthumous Victoria
Cross, the first VC awarded during the New Guinea campaigns. 
Through September, as Australian units withdrew down the Kokoda Track,
further stands against the Japanese were made at Eora Creek, Templeton's
Crossing, Efogi, Mission Ridge and Ioribaiwa. During those gruelling days,
great fortitude and personal endurance was shown by the walking wounded and
by Papua New Guinean stretcher bearers and supply carriers. 
On 16 September, as his men dug in on a defensive position at Imita Ridge,
within sight of Port Moresby, Major General A S Allen, the commanding
officer of the 7th Division, AIF, informed his senior commanders that 'any
further withdrawal is out of the question'.  By this time, however, the
Japanese were exhausted and, following setbacks on other battlefields, they
were ordered to withdraw. As Australian patrols pushed forward of Imita
Ridge on 28 September, they found that the enemy had slipped away.
For the next six weeks the Japanese moved back over the mountains, closely
pushed by men of the 6th and 7th Divisions and the 3rd Militia Battalion.
Significant actions were fought at Templeton's Crossing and Eora Creek.  On
2 November Kokoda was retaken and by 18 November the Japanese had withdrawn
across the Kumusi River. The Kokoda Track campaign, in which 625 Australians
had been killed and 1,680 wounded, was over.    
Media contact:	Rachael Thompson		(02) 6277 7820	or	0417
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