The Kokoda Campaign
World War 2 History of the Kokoda Trail
Kokoda 2 & End of the Battle

Part 7 of 8

KOKODA  2

On 2 November, a patrol from the 2/31st Battalion entered Kokoda and found it to be abandoned. On 3 November, Major General George Vasey, commander, 7th Division, hoisted the Australian flag once again over Kokoda. Soon the airstrip was open, supplies could be flown in and wounded men could be evacuated quickly. The significance of Kokoda, wrote the official historian:

... Lay only in its name which would identify in history the evil track which passed across the Papuan mountains from the sea to the sea.

OIVI and GOIARI

One last hurdle faced the Australians along the Kokoda Track - the Japanese defences between the settlements of Oivi and Goiari. Here bitter fighting against well-developed positions again held up the advance. By 9-10 November the Australian battalions had encircled the area and the Japanese defenders were trapped. On 11 November, the Japanese finally broke and tried to make their way through the jungle to the Kumusi River.

Some managed to cross in two boats while others, including General Horii himself, attempted to raft down the river to the coast. Many were drowned, including Horii, and others were shot by snipers from Papuan Infantry Battalion patrols.

On 13 November, Australian patrols reached the Kumusi where the famous Wairopi Bridge lay in ruins. The 2/5th Field Company Engineers repaired a wrecked Japanese boat and, attaching it to a block and tackle, ferried a company of the 2/33rd Battalion to the far bank, where a small bridgehead was established. Allied aircraft dropped steel rope and tools and the engineers soon rigged up two flying foxes and two small suspension bridges, made from rope and logs. By 17 November, the battalions of the 16th and 25th Brigades were across the river.

THE END OF THE BATTLE OF KOKODA

With the Australian crossing of the Kumusi River, the Battle of the Kokoda Track came to an end.

THE BATTLE OF THE BEACH HEADS

The Japanese withdrew to the invasion points and Australian and American soldiers now faced a terrible struggle to capture the enemy strongholds on the north coast at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. Only with the fall of Sanananda, in late January 1943, was the Japanese threat to Papua over. With this defeat ended the threat that Japanese aircraft flying from locations such as Port Moresby might have posed to civilian and military targets along the Queensland and Northern Territory coasts.

<Previous  Next>

KOKODA SPIRIT
ONLINE STORE
Kokoda Coffee

Site Map