Hello and welcome to this week’s exciting World War II commemorative Podcast in the lead up to Anzac Day 2015. Today’s podcast will focus on the Kokoda Campaign, a series of battles fought in the South Pacific between Australians and the invading Japanese. It will seek to address the question, “Did the Kokoda Campaign really ‘save’ Australia?” In order to answer this overarching question, we will be discussing previous events leading up to and including the campaign; and if indeed Australia was really under threat of an invasion from the Japanese armed forces. The Kokoda Campaign was a series of battles that commenced when the Japanese armed forces landed near Gona on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea on the 21st July, 1942. The most significant …show more content…
It was followed shortly afterwards by the Battle of Midway (4th – 7th June 1942). During these sea battles, both the Allied Forces (Americans and Australians) and the Japanese suffered heavy losses to their respective naval fleets, resulting in the Japanese calling off their plans to invade and capture Port Moresby by sea. Meanwhile, in a bold initiative, John Curtin, the Prime Minister of Australia defied both Sir Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of Britain) and Mr Edward Roosevelt (President of the USA) and called 20,000 Australian troops back to Australia to help defend their homeland. However, these troops upon their return to Australia were not sent to Papua New Guinea, instead they were sent to North Queensland to defend the Australian Mainland from imminent attack from the Japanese. Therefore, there was no other option available to the Japanese for advancement south but to capture Port Moresby by land. Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, was considered a vital stronghold to the security of Australia. The Japanese planned to launch a bombing offensive from Port Moresby against North Queensland and start an invasion of …show more content…
Over the next 2 months they managed to drive the Australian Militia and their Papuan allies (often referred to as Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels because of their frizzy hair and gentle natures) back over the mountain range towards Port Moresby. However, the Australian Militia with the assistance of the Papuan allies managed to fight so valiantly that eventually they pushed the Japanese back the way they had come and by mid-November 1942, the Japanese decided to abandon their plans to capture Port Moresby. They retreated to their North Coast strongholds of Buna, Gona and Sanananda and shortly afterwards were under siege for 3 months from Australian, Papuan and American Allied Forces until 21st January 1943 when all organised Japanese resistance ceased in Papua New Guinea. There were heavy casualties on both sides. However, the Japanese retreated north and the imminent threat to the Australian Mainland was