ipl-logo

Kokoda Track Research Paper

1248 Words5 Pages

There were many reasons for the allied victory on the Kokoda Track. One of the major factors contributing to the Allied victory was their superior supply line providing soldiers with essential provisions. An American operation at Guadalcanal diverted Japanese troops away from the Kokoda Track, giving the allies an advantage. The Allies had numerical superiority during the middle to end of the New Guinea campaign allowing them to refresh exhausted troops. Finally the Allies had the assistance of the Papuans who carried supplies and cared for their wounded troops. At the beginning of the campaign the Allies were unsuccessful, however this changed as they began to gain the advantages of supplies, numerical superiority, alternate Pacific battles …show more content…

This put them at a distinct disadvantage however this changed when Australian Infantry Forces (AIF) arrived. After this the allies on Kokoda had almost double the number of the Japanese troops who had 22,000 troops. This meant the Allies had strength in numbers hence they could withdraw tired, exhausted and sick troops and replace them with fresh ones more often than the Japanese. If the Australians hadn’t been able to call on more troops than the Japanese on the Kokoda Track, they would not have been able to drive back Japanese troops and therefore win the New Guinea campaign. Australia was closer to Papua than Japan and held a large reserve of Allied troops, which meant groups of soldiers could be delivered to Papua quicker than the Japanese could. The Japanese also had to dispense huge numbers of soldier’s elsewhere as they had many fronts to protect such as China and the Dutch East Indies. Another reason for Allied numerical superiority on Kokoda was that Papua campaign was a high priority for the Allies, but initially a lower priority for the Japanese as it was just a tactical securing of Pacific which they thought would be easy to gain. 92-year-old Bede Tongs survivor of Kokoda states in an interview that "We were fighting for Australia. Our friends died for Australia,’ this displays how the Australians saw Kokoda campaign as an extremely important battle as they believed that if Japan captured Port Moresby Australia would be invaded. An example of when Allied numbers assisted on the Kokoda Track was at Buna and Gona where the Allies initially failed because their 10,000 men were no match for the equal number of Japanese entrenched defenders. However with the Allied reinforcements, field guns and tanks the Japanese could not compete and so the battle turned in the allies favour. This is just one example where Allied numerical

Show More
Related
1166 Words | 5 Pages

The Battle of Kokoda was a Japanese attempt to isolate Australia from their allies of the US so that they could not use their resources and weaponry. Kokoda was a direct result of other failed attempts by the Japanese for example, the Battle of Coral Sea. Kokoda gave the Australian military the opportunity to fight a forward defensive battle on foreign soil rather than an attempt to repel an enemy from its sovereign soil, within its victory it assisted in improving the moral of both the soldiers and its citizenry by providing a much needed victory that showed the Japanese could be defeated. Additionally, it was the first occasion where the new alliance between the Australian and American forces was tested and with this the alliance was cemented not only for world war to but continuing to present

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

For the United States to have a chance to win the battle they had to take risks. During the fighting of the battle, the Japanese were only able to sink 1 United States Cruiser which was hit by a torpedo. The United States was able to sink all 12 Japanese Cruisers. For this to happen the United States took many risks during the battle. They sent out a full air squadron to attack a Japanese ship and only a handful came back.

Read More
321 Words | 2 Pages

The Kokoda Campaign was a World War II militant initiative, consisting of a series of sequential battles fought between the Japanese and predominantly Australian Allied forces. Kokoda itself, was a small village and airfield at the foothills of the Owen Stanley Mountain Range though, the Kokoda Trail was the setting at which these conflicts transpired. The mountainous road rose over 3000 meters, extending 200 kilometers across Australian territory New Guinea, from Gona in the north, to the administrative centre of Port Moresby in the south. The official commencement of the Kokoda Campaign was on the 21 July 1942, when the Japanese forces landed on the coast near Gona.

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

The conditions and terrain in which they were fighting in were horrendous and overrun with diseases. Despite all this, the Australians were victorious; pushing the Japanese back to the north coast – and finally defeated them at Sanananda. The recruitment for Kokoda were young kids off the street, forced to be in the army with little to no training or fighting experience. To the AIF, they were known as ‘chocolate soldiers’ or ‘chocos’; because they thought they would “melt under pressure”.

Read More
987 Words | 4 Pages

In the end, the fourth division held off the Germans, meaning Australia was successful in capturing Pozières. Gaining the ground around Pozières was vital because it was the high ground. This gave the Allied force an advantage in future battles. The many battles Australia fought on the Western Front proves they deserve to be commemorated as much, if not more, than the Gallipoli

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

Within 10 weeks, Japan had dominated Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya and Rabaul. The biggest town in north of Australia was Darwin which was a key defensive position against an aggressive Japan. Darwin was going to be a base for naval and air operations against the war in south east Asia. The intention of the attack was to scare Australia to become neutral in the war.

Read More
547 Words | 3 Pages

The Kokoda Trail was a critical supply line which ran over the Owen Stanley Range and straight to the capital city of Port Moresby. Control of this on Japan’s behalf gave them a huge advantage in obtaining supplies (Alex. D, 2014). On July 21st-22nd 1942 Japan had arranged to land their troops on the northern coast of New Guinea so they could advance to Port Moresby along the Kokoda Trail (source 2). On September 24th 1924 the Japanese began a slow withdrawal and headed back down the trail towards the northern beaches. Their withdrawal was followed by an Australian advancement (Kokoda Campaign Key Dates, 2014).

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

We all know that United States won World War ll, but how did we win? World War ll was a gruesome war between the Nazi Party and the United States and many other countries. The war lasted from 1939 through 1945. United States was brought into the war when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The way that the United states won the war was because our military is strong, we had good allies, and great leaders in office and on the battlefield.

Read More
1766 Words | 8 Pages

Political leadership, military strategy, organizational capacity, fighting skills and effectiveness, technology, mass production, resources, ideology, and morale, all were essential factors that influenced the war victory. The war at sea saw mainly the US and Japan competing in the Pacific and the US and Great Britain competing against Germany in the Atlantic. The offensiveness of the Japanese Empire could be contained and defeated by the US only after the fortunate victory of Midway in 1942 and the following buildup of an overwhelming superiority of the American forces. In the Atlantic, the German U-boats inflicted embarrassing losses to the British and American Navies. Only technological improvements and effective adaptation of the tactics (naval convoy tactics and dedicated anti-submarine airplane) allowed the Allies to recover the situation, regaining control of the sea.

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

However, even with this in mind, the battle was a significant one, for both good and bad reasons, and this cannot be denied. Through the sheer number of soldiers lost, all the way to the depiction of the Australian spirit in preserving the memories of these men, it is clear that the battle served a purpose, in the

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

In order for the Americans to successfully win the war, they would have to train their military force and learn military tactics to best ambush the British. For the Americans, there were several challenges to overcome, and several decisions on how to overcome them, which ultimately decided the outcome of the war. To begin, The American Revolution was an important event for the North American continent. Although the Patriots had many weaknesses in the Revolutionary War, their alliance with French soldiers and their intense knowledge of the land led to their success.

Read More
1437 Words | 6 Pages

Also depleting air strength meant the remaining warplanes had to be hoarded to defend Japanese Home Islands. With no available means to defend Iwo Jima, Japan decided to rely on the established defensive equipment in the area and check U.S. by delaying tactics to gain time for defense of the mainland. Japanese Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned the task of defending Iwo Jima. Knowing he couldn’t win the battle, he aimed at inflicting heavy casualties on American forces to force them to reconsider invasion of Mainland Japan. His strategy was radically different from Japan’s usual strategy of beach defense to face the landings directly.

Read More
1763 Words | 8 Pages

During the Battle of Singapore the British and Allied Forces had a range of defenses in place to protect the city from Attack these defenses included a series of coastal barriers and anti-aircraft guns as well as network of trenches and pill boxes the British also had a number of troops stationed in the region including Indian and Australian soldiers as well as British troops in the 18th division however these defenses were ultimately insufficient To withstand the Japanese attack in terms of weapons and Technology the British and Allied Forces had a range of artillery machine guns and rifles at their disposal they also had a number of Tanks but these were largely ineffective in the dense jungle terrain around Singapore the British and Allied Forces also had a number of aircraft with these were quickly destroyed by the Japanese Air Force in the early stages of the battle despite these defenses the British and Allied Forces ill prepared to deal with the tactics and Strategies employed by the Japanese the Japanese use a combination of air and see attacks followed by a ground Invasion the overwhelm British defenses the Japanese also employed a range of new technologies and tactics including amphibious Landings jungle warfare in the use of bicycles to quickly move truths and supplies across the island these tactics caught by the British and Allied Forces off guard and they were unable to mount an effective defense against Japanese This battle was a major

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and the U.S.’s overall superior strategies of Nimitz and Fletcher was the true reason for why the U.S.’s seemingly impossible victory became possible. The two key themes that I will focus analysis on is the failures in the Japanese strategic planning and execution at Midway and U.S. determination and resilience to keep pushing on even after things, especially with USS carriers leading up to and during the actual war was falling apart. Symonds begins to argue his case by dissecting Japan’s plans for conquest and domination in the Pacific. He starts with looking at the Japanese failure by several of their military philosophies.

Read More
850 Words | 4 Pages

The main thing going for them was the fact that they had more troops, thus prompting them to

Read More

More about Kokoda Track Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document