The significance of Remembrance Day

A soldier of the Papua Infantry Battalion in January 1941. It was a patrol of the PIB that on July 23 1942, at Awala, first encountered the Japanese advancing from the north Papuan coast up the Kokoda Track. Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

Papua New Guinea carriers on the Kokoda Track in August 1942. Captain GH ‘Doc’ Vernon, the medical officer for the carriers on Kokoda wrote: “…the immediate prospect before them was grim, a meal that consisted only of rice and none too much of that, and a night of shivering discomfort for most as there was only enough blankets to issue on to every man.” (Vernon, quoted by Victor Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond: The Story of the 39^th Battalion, 1941-1943). Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

 Papua New Guinean stretcher bearers tending Private A Baldwin 2/33^rd Battalion, on the Kokoda Track, October 1942. Of the care of the bearers, Captain Henry ‘Blue’ Steward, Regimental Medical Officer, 2/16^th Battalion, wrote: “With four men each side of a stretcher, they took it in  turns to sleep and to watch, giving each wounded man whatever food, drink or comfort there might be. “ (HD Steward, Recollections of a Regimental Medical Officer). Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel statue at the war museum at Kokoda.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU

By MALUM NALU

Remembrance Day falls tomorrow (Friday July 23) -  a public holiday - but surprisingly few Papua New Guineans continue to know the significance of the day.

Thousands of young people do not seem to know the sacrifices of their grandfathers during World War 11 and ensuing conflicts such as the recently-ended one on Bougainville.

Remembrance Day is held on July 23 in recognition of the first engagement between PNG troops of the native Papua Infantry Battalion and Japanese troops on that day in 1942 at Awala near Kokoda.

The PIB fought in Buna, Gona, Sanananda and Kumusi in the Northern Province alongside Australian soldiers.

Tomorrow marks the 68th anniversary of the first engagement by PNG and Australian forces against the invading Japanese in WWII.

Out of the chaos and death that followed came the enduring heroism of the Kokoda Trail, and the special relationship that has bound PNG and Australia ever since.

It was on this day, in 1942, that Japanese troops landed on the northern coast of New Guinea and unexpectedly began to march over the Owen Stanley Ranges with the intent of capturing Port Moresby.

 Had they succeeded, the mainland of Australia would have come under dire threat.

Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the first engagement between the opposing troops, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.

The 21st Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Potts DSO MC, was rushed to New Guinea and within days, its 1, 500 men were closing in on the precarious Owen Stanley Ranges in an attempt to position themselves to stop the advance of the Japanese forces - now building up to over 10, 000 men.

The brigade also engaged the ill-trained but gallant militia 39th Battalion at Isurava in the foothills on the far side of the range.

 In 1942, a seldom-used track climbed from the small village of Buna on the north coast of Papua, over the Owen Stanley Ranges and on to Port Moresby.

The track was fairly easy up the slopes through Gorari and Oivi to the village of Kokoda, which stood on a small plateau 400 metres above sea level, flanked by mountains rising to over 2000 metres.

It then climbed over steep ridges and through deep valleys to Deniki, Isurava, Kagi, Ioribaiwa, Ilolo and, at Owers’ Corner, linked with a vehicle road leading from plantations in the hills above Port Moresby down to the coastal plains.

Between Kokoda and Ilolo, the track often climbed up gradients so steep that it was heartbreaking labor for burdened men to climb even a few hundred yards.

Much of the track was through dense rainforest, which enclosed the narrow passage between walls of thick bush.

At higher levels the terrain became moss and stunted trees, which were often covered in mist.

From July to November 1942, this was the setting for a bitter campaign to prevent the fall of Port Moresby.

 On January 23, 1942, the Japanese landed at Kavieng on New Ireland and at Rabaul on New Britain where they quickly overcame the Australian defenders.

On March 8, the Japanese established themselves firmly at Lae and Salamaua in Morobe.

 But the famous Battle of the Coral Sea from May 5 to 8 averted a Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby.

The American success at the Battle of Midway in June not only destroyed Japan's capacity for undertaking long range offensives but also provided the Americans with the opportunity to move from the defensive to the offensive.

The Japanese, who were regularly bombing Port Moresby with 20 to 30 bombers with fighter escort, decided on the overland attack across the Owen Stanley Ranges.

On the Kododa Trail the Australian 7th Division resisted the Japanese General Horii's overland attempt to capture Port Moresby, and the advance was halted within 30 miles of the city.

A small force of Australians known as ‘Maroubra Force’ arrived at Buna on July 21, 1942, as the first Japanese force of 15, 00 men landed at Gona, eight miles to the west.

The first engagement between the opposing troops was on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.

Kokoda is a small plateau on the north-east slopes of the Owen Stanley Range and possessed a small airstrip the retention of which, for at least as long as it would take Australia to fly in supplies and reinforcements, was of great importance.

 However, the remnants of Maroubra Force, exhausted by a month's constant fighting, were unable to achieve this.

Valiant though their effort was, even recapturing the plateau after being driven out, the Japanese need was of equal importance.

They needed a forward base at Kokoda for their drive over the ranges along the Kokoda Trail to Port Moresby and they struck before the Australians were able to muster sufficient strength.

The initiative now remained with the Japanese and Australian withdrawal began again -through Isurava, Alola, Templeton's Crossing, Myola, Efogi, Menari and Nauro until at Ioribaiwa Ridge, beyond which the Japanese could not be permitted to penetrate, a final stand was made.

From August 26 to September 16 in 1942,  Brigadier Potts's Maroubra Force, consisting of the 2/16th Battalion, together with the 2/14th, the 2/27th and the militia 39th and scattered elements of the ill-trained 53rd Battalion - outnumbered and outgunned by an estimated five to one - fought the Japanese to an eventual standstill on the ridges overlooking Port Moresby.

Two main battles were fought during that period (Isurava August 26 to 29 and Brigade ‘Butchers' Hill from September 6 to 8).

In general, the desperately tired but determined force kept themselves between the Japanese Major General Horri's South Sea Force and Port Moresby - defending, retreating and then counter-attacking in a masterly display of strategic defence.

Conditions were almost indescribable.

It rained for most of the time, the weary men endured some of the most difficult terrain in the world and they were racked by malaria and dysentery.

But they kept on fighting, making the enemy pay dearly for every yard of ground.

They bought time for those being prepared to come up from Port Moresby to relieve them.

The Australians, however, had a surprise in store for the enemy.

This was in the form of 25-pounder guns brought from Moresby to the road head at Owers’ Corner and then laboriously dragged into position at Imita Ridge, opening up on the enemy's barricades.

It was now the turn of the Japanese to suffer what the Australians had suffered in the preceding two months.

 Australian shelling smashed Japanese defences and aggressive patrols inflicted severe losses.

On the morning of September 28 the Australians were closing in and it became evident then the Japanese were withdrawing.

The chase, with the Australians the pursuers, was now on.

The Japanese, despite sickness and hunger, were still formidable and tenaciously defended all the places in their withdrawal as the Australians had in their retreat some weeks earlier.

Kokoda was entered on November 2 and this was the beginning of the end of Japanese hopes in Papua.

The campaign now entered a phase known as ‘The Battle of the Beaches’.

The Japanese were bottled up in the area from where they had begun their drive against Port Moresby some months previously - Buna and Gona.

This final campaign began on November 19, 1942, and ended on January 22, 1943, when all organised resistance by the Japanese in Papua ended.

 Lt Col Honner DSO MC, who commanded the gallant 39th in the campaign, later wrote of these men in the foreword to Peter Brune's book 'Those Rugged Bloody Heroes': "They have joined the immortals."

Of those that did not survive, he wrote: "Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free."