Japenese Landing
On July 21 1942, the first of 14,430 troops of the Japanese South Seas Detachment from Rabaul began pouring ashore at the tiny seaside village of Buna on the north-east coast of the PNG mainland. They planned to march across the Owen Stanley Range, which formed the mountainous spine of New Guinea, using a native walking track which meandered from Buna to Port Moresby. Once the invaders had secured Moresby, Australia would be at their mercy.
The 39 th Australian Militia Battalion was rushed up that track from the Moresby end with orders to stop the invaders and to hold the only decent airstrip along the track, at the village of Kokoda, about halfway between Moresby and Buna.
The Kokoda Track, as it became known, would be the scene for some of most ferocious hand-to-hand fighting of the Pacific War. The Diggers of Kokoda would write themselves into history by initially stalling and later defeating the Japanese march on Moresby, against all the odds.
