TY  - BOOK
AU  - Anderson,Nicholas Axel
AU  - Anderson,Nicholas
ED  - Australia.
TI  - To Kokoda
T2  - Australian Army Campaigns series
SN  - 9781922132956 :
AV  - D767.95 
U1  - 940.542651 23
PY  - 2014///
CY  - Sydney
PB  - Big Sky Publishing
KW  - Australia
KW  - Army
KW  - History
KW  - World War, 1939-1945
KW  - Australian Army
KW  - fast
KW  - World War (1939-1945)
KW  - Campaigns
KW  - Papua New Guinea
KW  - Military campaigns
KW  - Military participation
KW  - Australian
KW  - Japanese
KW  - Regimental histories
KW  - Japan
KW  - Participation, Australian
KW  - Participation, Japanese
KW  - Kokoda Trail
KW  - Kokoda Trail (Papua New Guinea)
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index; Prelude -- Landings -- First battle for Kokoda -- Second battle for Kokoda -- Deniki -- Battle of Isurava-Abuari: the first phase -- Battle of Isurava-Abuari: the second phase -- Fighting withdrawal -- Battle of Brigade Hill -- Battle of Ioribaiwa -- Imita Ridge -- Cautious advance -- To Templeton's Crossing -- Battle of Templeton's Crossing -- Battle of Eora Creek: the first two days -- Battle of Eora Creek continues -- Kokoda recaptured -- Command crisis -- Conclusion; Adult
N2  - 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
ER  -