The Significance Of The Kokoda Campaign

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:

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

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.