World War II · The Pacific · July 1942 – January 1943
Kokoda, Milne Bay and Buna–Gona: The Battle for Papua, July 1942 – January 1943
Six months that saved Port Moresby: young Australian militiamen and Papuan soldiers on the Kokoda Track, the first defeat of a Japanese landing on land at Milne Bay, the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, and the brutal fight for the beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda, where Americans and Australians fought side by side.
In July 1942, two months after the Battle of the Coral Sea had turned back its invasion fleet, Japan tried to take Port Moresby another way. Its troops landed on the north coast of Papua and marched inland over the Owen Stanley Range on a mountain footpath, the Kokoda Track. For six months the fight for Papua went on, from the misty ridges of the track to the swamps of the north coast, and it ended with the destruction of almost the entire Japanese force.
Key facts
What happened
The Japanese landed near Gona on 21 July 1942 (Chapter 1). A few hundred men of the Papuan Infantry Battalion and the militia 39th Battalion fought them at Awala, Oivi and twice at Kokoda, and lost the plateau and their commanding officer (Chapter 2). At Isurava in late August the 39th and the veteran 21st Brigade held the main Japanese force for four days (Chapter 3), while at Milne Bay, at the eastern tip of the island, Australian soldiers and airmen destroyed a Japanese landing (Chapter 4).
The Australians fought a bitter withdrawal over the range through Eora Creek and Brigade Hill until the Japanese, at Ioribaiwa within sight of Port Moresby, were ordered to turn back (Chapter 5). Everything on the Australian side was carried by Papuan carriers, the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, or dropped from the air, and disease struck down more men than the enemy (Chapter 6). In October and November the 7th Division drove the Japanese back over the mountains, retook Kokoda and destroyed their rearguard at Oivi and Gorari (Chapter 7).
The Japanese then held fortified beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. The American 32nd Division and the Australian 7th Division attacked them in November and took two months to finish the job, in some of the worst conditions of the war (Chapter 8 and Chapter 9).
Why it matters
The battle for Papua saved Port Moresby and ended Japan’s advance in the South Pacific, at the same time as the fight for Guadalcanal. For Australia it was the war on its own doorstep, fought on what was then Australian territory, and Kokoda became one of the defining stories of the nation. For the United States it was the Army’s first offensive against the Japanese army, a costly education in jungle war, and the U.S. Army’s official history counts more Allied battle casualties in Papua than on Guadalcanal.
Two sides of the Pacific
Americans and Australians together
The Kokoda campaign was an Australian fight; the beachheads were fought by Australians and Americans together. The 32nd Division came from the National Guard of Michigan and Wisconsin, and two of its sergeants won the Medal of Honor at Buna on Christmas Eve 1942. This collection follows on from the Doolittle Raid and Coral Sea and runs alongside Guadalcanal.
How to use this collection
Read the nine chapters in order for the whole story, or start anywhere. Each chapter has photo galleries, interactive maps or timelines, command decisions that put you in a commander’s place, and links to its sources. Below are the two maps, the forces, a timeline, the numbers, the people, the Victoria Crosses and Medals of Honor, myths and facts, a quiz and answers to common questions. Every photograph is public domain or freely licensed and credited to its source.
The collection
9 chapters
Read in order for the full story, or start anywhere.
01May – July 1942The Road over the Mountains: Japan’s Overland Plan for Port MoresbyAfter the Coral Sea, Japan tried to take Port Moresby from behind: a landing at Gona, a footpath over the Owen Stanley Range, and a handful of Australians and Papuans in the way.
0222 July – 25 August 1942Kokoda: The 39th Battalion and the First BattlesAwala, Oivi and two fights for the Kokoda plateau: young militiamen and the Papuan Infantry Battalion against Japan’s advance guard, and the death of Lt. Col. William Owen.
0326 – 31 August 1942Isurava: Holding the Line in the Owen StanleysFour days in which the 39th Battalion and Potts’s 21st Brigade held off Horii’s main force, Bruce Kingsbury won the Victoria Cross, and the fighting withdrawal began.
0425 August – 7 September 1942Milne Bay: The First Defeat of the Japanese on LandJapanese naval troops and light tanks against Australian infantry and two RAAF Kittyhawk squadrons at the eastern tip of New Guinea, and the first Japanese landing of the war to be thrown back.
0531 August – 28 September 1942Brigade Hill to Imita Ridge: The Fighting WithdrawalEora Creek, the disaster at Brigade Hill, Ioribaiwa within sight of Port Moresby, the last stand at Imita Ridge, and the Japanese order to turn back.
06July – November 1942Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels: Carriers, Air Drops and the Supply LinePapuan carriers, the dry lakes at Myola, food dropped from the sky, disease and mud, and Damien Parer’s Oscar-winning film of the track.
0728 September – 20 November 1942Back over the Range: Eora Creek, Kokoda and Oivi–GorariThe Australian counteroffensive, generals sacked, two weeks of fighting at Templeton’s Crossing and Eora Creek, the flag over Kokoda again, and the destruction of the Japanese rearguard.
0816 November 1942 – 2 January 1943Buna and Gona: The Battle of the BeachheadsThe American 32nd Division and the Australian 7th Division against coconut-log bunkers in the swamps, Eichelberger’s order to take Buna, “Gona’s gone,” and tanks at the sea.
09December 1942 – todaySanananda and the Cost of Papua: Victory, Memory and LegacyHuggins’ Roadblock, the last Japanese stronghold, the price in lives and disease, and how Kokoda became a pilgrimage for Australians and a bond with Wisconsin and Michigan.Maps
The campaign on two maps
The first map shows all of Papua, from Port Moresby to Milne Bay and the beachheads; the second follows the Kokoda Track village by village. Select a place for details, or play the phases.
Interactive map 1 of 2 · Papua
The battle for Papua, July 1942 – January 1943
Interactive map 2 of 2 · the Kokoda Track
The Kokoda Track and the beachheads, 1942
Forces
Who fought
Australians, Papuans, Americans and Japanese. Filter by nation.
Interactive · filter
Who fought in Papua, 1942–43
Fought at Kokoda, Isurava and Gona.
Chapter 2 →Held Isurava and fought the withdrawal to Brigade Hill.
Chapter 3 →Held Imita Ridge, then led the advance and fought at Gorari and Gona.
Chapter 5 →Fought at Eora Creek, Oivi and Sanananda.
Chapter 7 →Defeated the Milne Bay landing.
Chapter 4 →Attacked the Milne Bay landing from the first morning.
Chapter 4 →Broke the Buna defenses from 18 December.
Chapter 8 →Fought the first actions against the landing force.
Chapter 2 →The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who carried the campaign.
Chapter 6 →The Red Arrow division at Buna and Sanananda.
Chapter 8 →Air drops, airlifts and attacks on Japanese supply lines.
Chapter 6 →Advanced over the range to Ioribaiwa, then withdrew.
Chapter 5 →The landing force defeated at Milne Bay.
Chapter 4 →Held fortified positions to the end.
Chapter 8 →You decide
Command decisions
Several chapters put you in a commander’s place before showing what actually happened.
Command decision · you decide
Where should the Allies stop the Japanese?
You command at Port Moresby in July 1942. The Japanese have landed on the north coast. You have a militia battalion and a few hundred Papuan soldiers; your veterans are still on their way.
Numbers
By the numbers
Every figure carries its source. Where sources disagree, the chapters say so.
Papua and Guadalcanal: Allied battle casualties
People
Soldiers, generals and witnesses
Select a name for the chapter where they appear.
Took command of the militiamen at Isurava and led them again at Gona: “Gona’s gone!”
Photo: Damien Parer · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsCharged the Japanese with a Bren gun at Isurava. Posthumous Victoria Cross.
Photo: Australian War Memorial collection · CC0 · Wikimedia CommonsFought the withdrawal from Isurava to Brigade Hill with too few men; relieved on 10 September.
Photo: Not stated on source page · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsLed the Japanese advance over the range; drowned in the Kumusi in November.
Photo: Photographer unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsDefeated the Japanese landing at Milne Bay.
Photo: Bagnall, Frank N · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsKilled attacking Japanese troops at Milne Bay on 27 August. Turnbull Field is named for him.
Photo: Not stated · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsDestroyed three Japanese gun pits at Milne Bay. Posthumous Victoria Cross.
Photo: Photographer unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsTook over in October, retook Kokoda and won at Oivi–Gorari.
Photo: Herald Newspaper. · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsFilmed Kokoda Front Line!, Australia’s first Academy Award. Killed on Peleliu, 1944.
Photo: Max Dupain · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsPhotographed leading a wounded Australian near Buna on Christmas Day 1942.
Photo: George Silk · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsSent by MacArthur to take Buna “or not come back alive.” He took it.
Photo: 1st Lieutenant Gordon A. Stevens · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsLed the Red Arrow division to Buna; relieved on 2 December.
Photo: Photographer unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsHis platoon split the Japanese line at Buna. Distinguished Service Cross and a battlefield commission.
Photo: Yank, the Army Weekly · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsDirected the campaign from Australia and then Port Moresby, and sacked the generals who displeased them.
Photo: Australian Department Of Information · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsValor
Victoria Crosses and Medals of Honor
Two Australians and two Americans received their nations’ highest award for valor in Papua; all four were killed.
Isurava, 29 August 1942. Chapter 3
Milne Bay, 4 September 1942. Chapter 4
Buna, 24 December 1942. Chapter 8
Buna, 24 December 1942. Chapter 8
Buna, 5 December 1942. Chapter 8
Gallery · 4 photographs · select to enlarge
Valor in Papua
Myth or fact
What people get wrong
Myth or fact · open each card
Six things people get wrong
Kokoda was a battle for a single village.
It was a campaign along a 96-kilometer mountain track, with a dozen battles from Kokoda to Ioribaiwa and back. See Chapter 1.
The Australians simply retreated until the Americans arrived.
They fought a deliberate withdrawal that wore the Japanese down, and the Japanese were ordered back before any Americans reached the front. See Chapter 5.
The Japanese were beaten at Ioribaiwa.
They were stopped by exhaustion, starvation and orders from Tokyo, as much as by the fighting. See Chapter 5.
The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels were all volunteers.
Many were recruited under compulsion and worked in hard conditions. Their care for the wounded was real either way. See Chapter 6.
Buna was an American battle and Kokoda an Australian one.
Kokoda was mostly Australian, but the beachheads were taken by Australians and Americans fighting together. See Chapter 8.
Papua was a sideshow to Guadalcanal.
It cost more Allied battle casualties, according to the U.S. Army history. See Chapter 9.
Gallery · 14 photographs · select to enlarge
The battle for Papua in photographs
Then and now
The track remembered
Drag the slider to compare.
Quiz
Test yourself
Nine questions. Every answer is explained in the chapters.
Score: answer a question to begin.
1. Where did the Japanese land on 21 July 1942?
Yokoyama’s advance force landed near the Gona mission. See Chapter 1.
2. Which battalion fought the first battles for Kokoda?
With the Papuan Infantry Battalion. See Chapter 2.
3. Who won the Victoria Cross at Isurava?
Kingsbury charged with a Bren gun on 29 August 1942. See Chapter 3.
4. Why is Milne Bay famous?
See Chapter 4.
5. Where did the Japanese advance on Port Moresby stop?
Then they were ordered back. See Chapter 5.
6. Who were the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels?
See Chapter 6.
7. What happened on 3 November 1942, now Kokoda Day?
See Chapter 7.
8. Which American division fought at Buna?
See Chapter 8.
9. According to the U.S. Army’s official history, how did Papua compare with Guadalcanal?
About 2,700 more. See Chapter 9.
FAQ
Questions and answers
What was the Kokoda Track campaign?
The fighting of July to November 1942 in which Australian troops, with Papuan soldiers and carriers, stopped a Japanese advance over the Owen Stanley Range toward Port Moresby and then drove it back to the north coast. See Chapter 1.
Is it the Kokoda Track or the Kokoda Trail?
Both names are used. Australian soldiers in 1942 usually said track; the official battle honour is Kokoda Trail; Papua New Guinea and most Australians today use Kokoda Track. See Chapter 1.
How long is the Kokoda Track?
About 96 kilometers (60 miles) on the ground between Owers’ Corner and Kokoda, though the ends are only about 60 kilometers apart in a straight line. Its highest point is about 2,190 meters, near Mount Bellamy. See Chapter 1.
Why did Japan try to take Port Moresby overland?
Its seaborne invasion fleet was turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, so it tried to reach the town from the north coast over the mountains. See Chapter 1.
Who were the 39th Battalion?
A militia battalion from Victoria, young part-time soldiers who fought the first battles at Kokoda and Isurava and later helped take Gona. See Chapter 2.
What happened at Isurava?
From 26 to 31 August 1942 the 39th Battalion and the 21st Brigade held off the main Japanese force for four days before withdrawing. Pte. Bruce Kingsbury won the Victoria Cross. See Chapter 3.
What was the Battle of Milne Bay?
A Japanese landing at the eastern tip of New Guinea from 25 August to 7 September 1942, defeated by Australian troops and RAAF Kittyhawks with American support. It was hailed as the first significant defeat of a Japanese force on land in the war. See Chapter 4.
How close did the Japanese get to Port Moresby?
They reached Ioribaiwa Ridge in mid-September 1942, close enough to see the town’s lights at night, before being ordered to withdraw. See Chapter 5.
Who were the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels?
The name Australian soldiers gave to the Papuan men who carried supplies and wounded on the Kokoda Track, after a 1942 poem by Sapper Bert Beros. See Chapter 6.
What is Kokoda Day?
3 November, the anniversary of the raising of the Australian flag over Kokoda in 1942 after the village was retaken. See Chapter 7.
What were the battles of Buna, Gona and Sanananda?
What American units fought in Papua?
Mainly the 32nd Infantry Division, a Michigan and Wisconsin National Guard division, with the 163rd Infantry of the 41st Division, engineers at Milne Bay and the airmen of the Fifth Air Force. See Chapter 8.
Who won the Medal of Honor in Papua?
Sgt. Kenneth Gruennert and 1st Sgt. Elmer J. Burr of the 32nd Division, both from Wisconsin, both killed near Buna on 24 December 1942. See Chapter 8.
How many men died in the Papuan campaign?
The U.S. Army history counts 3,095 Allied dead and missing and 5,451 wounded, and about 12,000 Japanese lost. Disease struck far more. See Chapter 9.
Did Kokoda Front Line! really win an Academy Award?
Yes. Damien Parer’s newsreel, first screened in September 1942, was one of the winners of the Academy Award for documentary, Australia’s first Oscar. See Chapter 6.
Can you walk the Kokoda Track today?
Yes. Thousands of people trek it each year, usually in eight to ten days with local guides and porters, passing the memorials at Isurava and Brigade Hill. See Chapter 9.
Sources
Sources and further reading
Official histories first; summaries are used only where noted.
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Anzac Portal, "Kokoda 1942" — the official Australian summary of the campaign: dates, units, battles and casualties
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Anzac Portal, "Milne Bay 1942" — the Australian government’s account of the battle
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Anzac Portal, "Australians at the Battle of the Beachheads 1942 to 1943" — Buna, Gona and Sanananda from the Australian side
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs, media backgrounder, "Battle of the Beachheads" — units, dates and casualty figures
- Australian War Memorial, "1942: Milne Bay" — the battle, the RAAF squadrons and its significance
- Australian War Memorial, "1942: The end of Kokoda" — the counteroffensive, Kokoda retaken and Oivi–Gorari
- Australian War Memorial, "Mapping Kokoda" — how the track was mapped and how its places relate
- Samuel Milner, Victory in Papua (U.S. Army in World War II, Center of Military History, 1957) — the U.S. Army official history; the source of the campaign casualty figures used here
- Milner, Victory in Papua, Chapter XIX, "The Victory" — Allied and Japanese casualties, sickness, forces committed and the comparison with Guadalcanal
- U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, "The Papua Campaign" — an American summary of the campaign and the 32nd Division
- The National WWII Museum, New Orleans — articles on the Pacific war, including the Medal of Honor recipients at Buna
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia — Damien Parer’s Kokoda Front Line! (1942), winner of an Academy Award for documentary
- PNG Remembrance Trail (Australian Government), "Battle of Mission Ridge" — Brigade Hill and the trail’s other battle sites, including Gona
- Wikipedia, "Kokoda Track campaign" — a general summary with references, used for cross-checking dates and unit names
- Wikipedia, "Battle of Buna–Gona" — a general summary with references, used for cross-checking dates and casualty estimates
- Wikipedia, "Kokoda Track" — length, highest point and villages along the route
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