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Why Is The Kokoda Campaign Successful

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The Kokoda campaign was a series of battles fought between the Australian and Japanese forces from July – December 1942. The battles were fought on the Kokoda Track in Papua, as the Japanese were making progress towards their goal of Port Moresby, which at the time was occupied by Australia. Port Moresby was a place of strategic importance for both sides and the consequences of the Japanese finding their campaign unsuccessful impacted on the future actions of both sides in the war.
Before the events at Kokoda the Japanese were taking an offensive position in the war, having successfully invaded many Pacific islands and making themselves a threat to many others in doing so. The Japanese found the goal of the Kokoda campaign – capturing Port …show more content…

The goal of Operation F.S. was to end communications and the sharing of supplies between Australia and the U.S. by controlling naval operations in this area. With the airstrip in Port Moresby, the Japanese would have had both the ability and power to do this. By ending these lines of communication between Australia and it’s largest supporter, the Japanese would have become a significantly larger threat to Australia. There were hopes that if Operation F.S. was successful Australia would give in to the threat and surrender to the Japanese however in the event that this did not happen the airstrip at Port Moresby would have been sufficient enough for the Japanese to begin launching aerial attacks on northern …show more content…

The airfield was likely to cause Australia harm if under the control of the opposing force. There was the threat that northern Australia could be bombed should Port Moresby be captured. Australia was also aware that losing Port Moresby could eventually be a factor that would make them cede control of their nation to the Japanese. While the continued occupation of Port Moresby alone would not stop Japan from launching Operation F.S. it was an important location for Australia to hold in order to hinder the progress of the Japanese.
After Japan was unsuccessful in the Kokoda campaign, which resulted in the Japanese army being forced out of Papua, their strategy underwent significant change. “The Japanese felt that they had overextended themselves in their advance and it was time to halt and defend their gains.” (Department of Veteran’s Affairs) The Japanese began to put more effort into defending the islands they had already captured, which were generally islands that had lots of valuable resources or were important in defending the islands that had resources. The plans to launch an attack on Australia were

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These events solidified the resolve of the Australian military, never to fight a battle on its own shores a policy that is still maintained, further the battle of Kokoda was one of the first occasions where Australia and American forces combined in a military alliance with this alliance strengthen from this point onward with Americas now being a major partner in the defence in the

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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.

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Fuchida brought up the question of “what should we have done that we did not and why did we fail?” Ironically as it may have been, it was said that the Midway Islands would post the greatest threat to American naval power in the Pacific.” Yet, somehow the American naval power won the battle in the pacific. Fuchida blamed that the plans for the operation were studied and drawn up by the Combined Fleet Headquarters and the Naval General Staff in Tokyo. Fuchida said that Admiral Yamamoto did not want his fleet commanders, whose energies were fully occupied with the conduct of the first-phase operations in so many far-flung theaters, to be bothered by other

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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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