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The Significance Of The Kokoda Campaign

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Pacific, which resulted in approximately 26,000,000 casualties. A major battle of the Pacific war was the Kokoda track campaign. Kokoda involved a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 between the Japanese troops and the Allied forces including the Australians and Americans. The battles were fought on the mountainous Kokoda track along the Owen Stanley Range which is in the southeast of Papua New Guinea. The Japanese troops objective in the Kokoda campaign was to capture Port Moresby, in order to allow an expansion of Japanese people to Australia. The Anzac Spirit is a concept that suggests that Australian and New Zealand soldiers’ possess shared characteristics they exemplify on the battlefield. These qualities include: …show more content…

During the Kokoda campaign many young Australians put their lives on the line every day to protect Australia, determined to win for their families, friends and all citizens living in their home country. The soldiers displayed amazing determination along the Kokoda trail, they never stopped fighting, always charging on for the nation even when the conditions along the track were some of the most terrible throughout the war. The Kokoda trail crosses some of the most rugged, harsh terrain in the world with hot and humid days with intensively cold nights. Some of the hazards of the track are slipping into the ravines, exhaustion and dehydration from traveling along it and diseases such as malaria and Dengue Fever from the mosquitoes that live in the jungle along the …show more content…

Each individual soldier demonstrated exception courage when fighting the Japanese, truly displaying that the Anzac Spirit was very much alive within the Australian troops at Kokoda. The Australian troops at Kokoda fought courageously for the freedom of their country. Everyday they confronted obstacles and experienced frightening situations but they did not budge, everything they did was courageous fighting the Japanese to saving their own men. Brigadier A.W. Potts was a man whose fortitude, courage and inspirational ability to Australian troops inspired many others to save Port Moresby from being taken by the Japanese. An incoming battle from the north of the track was minutes from attacking the site Brigadier was stationed at. In the minutes before the attack Brigadier told the soldiers with him that he had to take his boot off, the other soldiers bracing for the Japanese attack strictly disagreed with the idea but Brigadier took off his left boot and sock anyway. Brigadier had contracted Trench foot. Trench foot is a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions, which causes the flesh to peel off the foot. After inspecting the damage to his foot, he put his boot on and began preparing for the Japanese attack. Brigadier showed courage as he continued to fight even with an injury while many others would have given up.

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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

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War at Sea occurred in September 1914. Royal Australian Army (RAN) sent its only battlecruiser with the Australian Naval and Military Force to capture German New Guinea. Transport ships carrying supplies and soldiers were escorted by the RAN. The RAN drove the Germans out of the Pacific. It served in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean and the North Sea.

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The Kokoda campaign was caused by conflicts, such as the possible invasion of Australia and the blocking of shipping from Australia to the allies, and cooperation, such as between Australia and the US Navy. The Kokoda campaign was started to capture Port Moresby which is extremely close to Australia. This causes examples of conflicts

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The nature of warfare of the Kokoda Campaign impacted the Australian troops on the track. The Kokoda track climbs from the hills north of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. The conditions of the Kokoda track highly affected the troops techniques to succeed during the war, as the fighting conditions were unlike anything that the Australian troops had ever experienced. In addition to this Australian service men had never been issued into the jungle before. Therefore making the Australian soldiers strangers to the jungle.

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All though both campaigns were vital to the victory of World War 2, I believe that the Kokoda campaign was the most significant to the history of Australia. Not only was the defense of the Kokoda trail vital to the success of the war, it was vital to the safety of Australia. If the Japanese succeeded in their advances, friendly military bases located in the Northern territory were at extreme risk of being targeted by air assaults. The victory in defending the Kokoda trail ultimately led to Australia being more secure, it also led to a successful counter-offensive against the Japanese that would not have been possible with the military bases in the Northern Territory at risk of being bombed. This campaign also highlights the fact that Australia

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To what extent was the battle for Kokoda a disaster for Australian soldiers? To some extent the battle for Kokoda was a disaster for Australian soldiers. The initial recruitment sent to Kokoda were young, “dragooned” kids off the street with no training. They were extremely undersupplied and outnumbered by the Japanese.

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This was so important for the Pacific war as it marked the first time that the Japanese had been stopped in their advance across the pacific and stopped the Japanese from capturing Port Moresby. If the Japanese were able to successfully capture Port Moresby, then it would have put Australia at risk as the Japanese could have then invaded or attacked Australia. The Kokoda campaign is also significant for its use of military tactics that As significant as the Kokoda campaign was for the Pacific War, there was also many other campaigns and battles that were also extremely significant such as the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Siege of Tobruk, the Battle of Milne Bay, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, and the Battle of Guadalcanal all of which were only a few of the many important battles that helped the success and safety of Australia and were vital to the allies attempt to overtake the axis powers. While, these battles the Australians were involved with were extremely helpful and vital to the Australians success in the war but the Kokoda campaign was significant in its own way for its use of military tactics such as jungle warfare and fire and movement where one of the group makes their way toward the enemy while another fires, to keep the enemy distracted and it saved Australia from being

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To what extent was the Battle for Kokoda a Disaster? To a small extent the Battle of Kokoda was a disaster. While there were some disastrous aspects of the campaign, the overall success of the campaign shows that it was not a disaster, but a victory. During the first part of the campaign, admittedly, the Australians made some mistakes, but some mistakes don’t equal a disaster, especially once the odds turned in their favour in the second part of their campaign.

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