Download or read book The Kokoda Campaign 1942 written by Peter Williams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-02 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fighting on the Kokoda Track in World War II is second only to Gallipoli in the Australian national consciousness. The Kokoda campaign of 1942 has taken on mythical status in Australian military history. According to the legend, Australian soldiers were vastly outnumbered by the Japanese, who suffered great losses in battle and as a result of the harsh conditions of the Kokoda Track. In this important book, Peter Williams seeks to dispel the Kokoda myth. Using extensive research and Japanese sources, he explains what really happened on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Unlike most other books written from an Australian perspective, The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and reality focuses on the strategies, tactics and battle plans of the Japanese and shows that the Australians were in fact rarely outnumbered. For the first time, this book combines narrative with careful analysis to present an undistorted picture of the events of the campaign. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the truth of the Kokoda campaign of 1942.
Download or read book The Path of Infinite Sorrow written by Craig Collie and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese.
Download or read book The Kokoda Campaign 1942 written by Peter Williams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fighting on the Kokoda Track in World War II is second only to Gallipoli in the Australian national consciousness. The Kokoda campaign of 1942 has taken on mythical status in Australian military history. According to the legend, Australian soldiers were vastly outnumbered by the Japanese, who suffered great losses in battle and as a result of the harsh conditions of the Kokoda Track. In this important book, Peter Williams seeks to dispel the Kokoda myth. Using extensive research and Japanese sources, he explains what really happened on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Unlike most other books written from an Australian perspective, The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and reality focuses on the strategies, tactics and battle plans of the Japanese and shows that the Australians were in fact rarely outnumbered. For the first time, this book combines narrative with careful analysis to present an undistorted picture of the events of the campaign. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the truth of the Kokoda campaign of 1942.
Download or read book The Battle of Milne Bay 1942 written by Nicholas Anderson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-08-05 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1942 the formidable Japanese military had conquered swathes of territory across south-east Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Despite its defeat at the Battle of Midway, Japan remained a potent enemy committed to the creation of a defensive arc to shield its captured possessions in the Pacific. The capture of Port Moresby would cement the southern border of this defensive arc and sever the vital lines of communication between Australia and the United States. It was the Japanese plan to seize Moresby that would set the course for the Battle of Milne Bay. Situated on the eastern tip of New Guinea, Milne Bay was a wretched hell-hole: swamp-riddled, a haven for malaria and cursed with torrential rain. It was here that General Douglas MacArthur ordered the secret construction of an Allied base with airfields to protect the maritime approach to Port Moresby. But the Japanese soon discovered the base at Milne Bay and despatched a task force to destroy its garrison and occupy the base. All that stood between the Japanese and their prize was a brigade of regular Australian soldiers untrained in tropical warfare and a brigade of Australian militia with no combat experience whatsoever. While the Kokoda campaign is etched in public memory, its sister battle at Milne Bay has long been neglected. However the bitter fighting over this isolated harbour played an equally important role in protecting Port Moresby and made a valuable contribution to shifting Allied fortunes in the Pacific War.
Download or read book The Kokoda Campaign 1942 written by Peter Damian Williams and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using extensive research and Japanese sources, Peter Williams seeks to explain what really happened during the Kokoda Campaign of 1942.
Download or read book Kokoda written by Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This secondary school resource has been developed to mark the 70th anniversary of the battles along the Kokoda Trail. This resource contains 12 units of teaching and learning activities, DVD and CD-Rom providing additional information for some units. Using this resource, students can learn about the significance and strategic importance of Kokoda, the different peoples involved in the war, the fighting and living conditions, casualties, the personal experience of Australian and Japanese soldiers, General Blamey's "Rabbit Speech" and modern-day commemorations and pilgrimages to the site.
Download or read book Kokoda written by Karl James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kokoda: Beyond the Legend provides readers with a complete understanding of this major turning point in the Second World War.
Download or read book The Kokoda Campaign 1942 written by Peter Williams and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using extensive research and Japanese sources, Peter Williams seeks to explain what really happened during the Kokoda Campaign of 1942.
Download or read book Kokoda TV TIE IN written by Paul Ham and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for a major two-part ABC documentary, KOKODA is set to win over a whole new audience 'Never in my life ... had I seen soldiers who looked so shocked and so tired and so utterly weary as those men' Brigadier John Rogers, Australia's Director of Military Intelligence, 1942Now a major two-part ABC documentary series produced with Screen Australia's Making History, Paul Ham's KOKODA is the bestselling history of the crucial battles in Papua New Guinea that saved Australia from the threat of Japanese attack.In this acclaimed account, Ham describes both sides of the appalling struggle along the Kokoda track in 1942 when a few badly trained Australian troops confronted the Imperial Japanese Army in the worst terrain imaginable.Few of us know the true story behind that legend; few know the guts inside the myth. Kokoda was a war without mercy; a predatory war, where men hunted down men like wild animals. No army had fought in such conditions; no Allied general believed it possible.Yet Kokoda was a vital struggle; undoubtedly a turning point in the Pacific War. Had the Japanese captured Port Moresby, Australia would surely have been bombed and cut off as the only base in the South West Pacific for the Allied counter-offensive.the diggers were fighting for their very country's survival as the last free nation in Asia.Paul Ham is the author of VIEtNAM: tHE AUStRALIAN WAR and the Australia correspondent for the LONDON SUNDAY tIMES. He co-wrote, co-produced and appears in the ABC's two-part documentary based on this book, which, for the first time, took a camera crew along the full length of the KOKODA tRACK.
Download or read book Kokoda Track written by Peter Macinnis and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1942, a large and well-trained Japanese force landed at Buna, on the north coast of Papua, planning to capture Port Moresby by going over the Kokoda Track. This is the extraordinary story of a small force defeating a much larger one. Across eight weeks from 20 August 1942, the 550 men of the 39th Militia Battalion slowed, and with help, eventually stopped, the advance of 6000 experienced Japanese troops of the Nankai Shitai division across the massive Owen Stanley range. The Kokoda campaign was complex because there were so many conflicting interests involved. My first writing got bogged down in the stupidity and malice of General Thomas Blamey. Because he was a self-seeker, Blamey toed the line of an infamous American poltroon, General Douglas MacArthur. Further down the chain, competent generals and competent soldiering undid the harm that the top generals attempted. Suffice it to say that I talked to one of Blamey's staff (my uncle), and I read what others had to say, and I know who I admire in this story. It is my considered opinion as one who was, for a couple of years as a mamangement consultant, dealing largely with fraud, that nothing happening to them would worry me one iota. Their stupidity and vanity killed people, and my first draft became a brief for the prosecution of this ghastly pair. I dumped it and started again. I used the same notes, but I started again from scratch. At the end, I went back and lifted one paragraph from the first version. War is a risky get-rich-quick scheme, where the people who plan to get rich quickly have no plans to take any of the risks. Now we will ignore the evil clowns Kokoda is the story of the right people happened to be in the right place at the right time for no good reason. They were sent to defend an entirely unimportant piece of ground, the airstrip at Kokoda, but they ended up fighting a dogged rearguard action as they moved slowly along the Kokoda Track, most of the time with inadequate support and equipment, holding off a far larger Japanese force, until reinforcements could reach them. 101 days after the first fighting began when an Australian patrol chanced on the Japanese invasion force, the Australians walked back into Kokoda. I have never walked the track, and at my age I probably won't, but when I was the same age as some of the militia in the 39th and 53rd battalions, I was working at the head of the track in Papua. It was in peace-time, and I still remember the culture shock of being in that environment. The Kokoda Track was originally referred to as "the Owen Stanley track", and it was only when that super-egotist MacArthur tried to grab all the credit that it became called by that clumsy Americanism "Kokoda Trail". You see, MacArthur tried to control all the press releases, and the journalists who hadn't been there took the lead that had been set by Yank PR men, cowering in a bunker in Melbourne. The Kokoda campaign was the first Allied success against the Japanese, though Milne Bay happened in the same time-frame. The victory was achieved by fighting a withering war of attrition, stretching the Japanese supply lines and holding them until reinforcements could be brought up. The 101 days of the subtitle is the time from first engagement to the Australian troops rolling back into Kokoda, a village of no strategic importance which captivated the tiny minds of the brass in Australia.
Download or read book The Kokoda Track written by Sylvia Clark and published by . This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The darkest hour in Australian history came in 1942, when the Japanese Army invaded New Guinea -- and only a handful of inexperienced soldiers stood in the way. "The Kokoda Track" is the courageous story of these young men and the campaign that drove off the Japanese troops -- the first victory against Japan in WWII. Full of colorful illustrations, original photographs, and personal accounts, this book gives readers young and old an idea of what life was like on the track.
Download or read book Kokoda written by Karl James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Courage. Endurance. Mateship. Sacrifice. These values, engraved in stone at the Isurava war memorial, have become synonymous with the Australian experience during the Kokoda campaign of 1942. The story of Kokoda and of the fighting in Papua has been told and retold in books, films and documentaries, but these popular narratives rarely explore beyond this one campaign. Kokoda: Beyond the Legend critically assesses not only the campaigns in Papua and their context in the wider lengthy Pacific war, but also the actions of senior Australian, American and Japanese military leaders. Moving beyond the legend, this book addresses the central question of why Kokoda holds such a significant place in Australian military history. In this book, Karl James brings together eminent military scholars to reassess the principal battles from both Allied and Japanese perspectives, providing readers with a more complete understanding of one of the major turning points in the Second World War.
Download or read book Blood and Iron written by Lex McAulay and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 1992 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the campaign for the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea during WWII. Written by a well-known military historian whose previous works include TThe Battle of the Bismarck Sea' and TThe Fighting First'. Paperback edition of a book first published in 1991.
Download or read book Crisis of Command written by David Murray Horner and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japan s Pacific War written by Peter Williams and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I had no qualms fighting the Australians, just as I have killed without remorse any of the Emperor’s enemies: the British, the Americans and the Dutch’, so admits Takahiro Sato in this ground-breaking oral history of Japan’s Pacific War. Thanks to years of research and over 100 interviews with veterans, the Author has compiled a fascinating collection of personal accounts by former Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen. Their candid views are often provocative and shocking. There are admissions of brutality, the killing of prisoners and cannibalism. Stark descriptions of appalling conditions and bitter fighting blend with descriptions of family life. Their views on the prowess of the enemy differ with some like air ace Kazuo Tsunoda who believed the Australians ‘worthy’. Some remain unrepentant while others such as Hideo Abe are ashamed of his part in Japan’s war of aggression. The result is a revealing insight into the minds of a ruthless and formidable enemy which provides the reader with a fresh perspective on the Second World War.
Download or read book The Battle for Isurava written by David W. Cameron and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-02 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within 24 hours of the Japanese invasion of northern New Guinea at Gona in July 1942, the Australian militiamen of 'B' Company, 39th Battalion, spent four weeks fighting a delaying action against a crack Japanese force outnumbered by three to one. By mid-August, the rest of the battalion had arrived, and these men took up a position at Isurava, in the heart of the cloud covered mountains and jungles of the Owen Stanley Range. At Isurava, this small militia force of the 39th Battalion now numbering around 300 men was determined to make a stand against a crack Japanese force of the 144th Regiment and supporting elements, numbering at least 1500. Then on the day the Japanese launched their attack, to the great relief of these militiamen, reinforcements from the 2nd AIF who had fought with great distinction in the Middle East began to arrive in the afternoon having spent days struggling up the track from Port Moresby. Even so, the Australians were still outnumbered, as the Japanese also received reinforcements, and unlike the Japanese, the Australians had no supporting artillery or medium machineguns. The battle for Isurava would be the defining battle of the Kokoda Campaign and has rightfully been described as Australia's Thermopylae. It was here that Australia's first Victoria Cross in the Pacific war was awarded when the Japanese conducted several ferocious attacks against the Australian perimetre. Private Bruce Kingsbury led an Australian counterattack, rushing forward sweeping the Japanese positions with his Bren gun, saving he situation when all seemed lost -- he was killed leading the charge. Another two men were also nominated for the VC during the fighting at Isurava. The outnumbered and poorly equipped Australians managed to hold back the Japanese advance for almost a week; only then did these battle scared and weary men begin a month long fighting withdraw towards Ioribaiwa Ridge just north of Port Morsby. However, their sacrifice provided time for the Australian 25th Brigade to be brought forward -- finally forcing the Japanese to withdrawal just as they glimpsed the lights of Port Morseby.
Download or read book The Lost Battlefield of Kokoda written by Brian Freeman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian Freeman knows the Kokoda Trail better than almost any other living Australian. The former Specialist Forces soldier has set records running the length of it and led dozens of treks along it for his adventure travel company. But in more than a decade of involvement with the trail, even he never suspected the secret held by the villagers of Alola, a tiny community perched high in some of the trail's most difficult terrain.Since 1942 the villagers had passed down a secret from generation to generation – the location of a lost battlefield, where advancing Australian forces and retreating Japanese soldiers had fought in the Second World War. It was one of the bloodiest engagements of the campaign, yet inaccurate references in maps drawn after the fighting meant that when the tide of war moved on, the battlefield was forgotten and quickly reclaimed by the jungle.After years of friendship, in which Brian earned the villagers' trust, they decided to let him in on the secret, knowing that such a revelation required a trustworthy person to help them manage the intense interest they suspected would follow. Their decision was vindicated as Brian authenticated and mapped the battlefield with professional archaeologists and helped set up a trust to act as guardian for the special site.Part fascinating military history, part gripping archaeological mystery, part exciting adventure, The Lost Battlefield of Kokoda is the story of the trail and that long-ago battle – how it was fought, then lost and found.
