Pacific · Australia vs Japan
Kokoda Track Campaign
21 July 1942 – 16 November 1942
Japanese troops landed on the north coast of Papua and pushed over the Owen Stanley Range along the Kokoda Track toward Port Moresby. Australian militia and then AIF battalions fought a delaying withdrawal to within sight of the coast before the Japanese, starved of supplies, were ordered back. The Australians retook Kokoda in November and pursued the Japanese to the coast.
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Day by day
— The landing at Gona
The advance guard of Horii's South Seas Detachment, some 1,500 men of the 144th Regiment under Yokoyama, lands at Gona on the evening of 21 July and marches inland the same night. Facing it on the far side of the range is one company of the 39th Battalion, a militia unit, and the Papuan Infantry Battalion.
— Kokoda falls
The 39th Battalion holds Kokoda village and its airstrip for a night against the Japanese advance; its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Owen, is shot through the head at 02:30 on 29 July and the company withdraws to Deniki. A counter-attack retakes the village on 8 August and loses it again two days later.
— Isurava
Horii lands the rest of the detachment and attacks Isurava on 26 August with about 6,000 men against the 39th and the newly arrived 2/14th Battalion. The Australians hold for four days on a spur above Eora Creek; Private Bruce Kingsbury wins the Victoria Cross on the 29th. On the 30th they break contact and begin the withdrawal down the track.
— Ioribaiwa
After Brigade Hill on 8 September the Australians fall back through Ioribaiwa to Imita Ridge, the last ridge before the coastal plain, with the fresh 25th Brigade holding it. The Japanese on Ioribaiwa can see the lights of Port Moresby, 50 kilometres away, but are eating grass and roots: the track has beaten their supply columns.
— Kokoda retaken
Horii was ordered back on 24 September, after Guadalcanal took priority, and the 25th and 16th Brigades followed him up the track, fighting through the rearguards at Templeton's Crossing and Eora Creek from 12 to 28 October. Kokoda is reoccupied without a shot on 2 November and the airstrip is open to supply aircraft the next day.
— Oivi and Gorari
The Japanese stand on the ridges at Oivi from 4 November while the 25th Brigade works round the flank to Gorari behind them. On 11 November the position collapses and the survivors flee to the Kumusi, where the Wairopi bridge is down. Vasey's men reach the river on the 13th and cross it on the 16th, and the campaign becomes the fight for the beachheads.
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