Kokoda

Japanese forces had landed on the northern coast of New Guinea in March 1942. They intended to move overland and capture Port Moresby, but the battle of the Coral Sea interrupted this operation. After the battle of Midway, the US felt confident enough to try to clear this Japanese force. General Macarthur was in overall command as Australian troops moved north from Port Moresby to engage the enemy. Meanwhile, on 12 July 1942, more Japanese had landed on the northern coast and moved south. There was only one route across the 4000-m high Owen Stanley Mountains that divided Port Moresby from the north coast. It was an almost impassable mud track through jungle and over high ridges, known as the Kokoda tail. It became a desperate battleground as Japanese and Australian soldiers fought one another and struggled to survive in the jungle. Soldiers who lost the trail died and many Japanese also staved to death because of inadequate supplies of food. Fighting over the Kokoda trail lasted until the Japanese withdrew in September. Australians and US troops then attacked Gona and Buna but it was not until January 1943 that the area was cleared of Japanese.
 * OVERVIEW**

The Kokoda Track itself is a single-file track starting just outside Port Moresby on the Coral Sea and runs 60–100 kilometres through the Owen Stanley Ranges to Kokoda and the coastal lowlands beyond by the Solomon Sea. The track crosses some of the most rugged and isolated terrain in the world, reaches 2,250 metres at Mount Bellamy, and combines hot humid days with intensely cold nights, torrential rainfall and endemic tropical diseases such as malaria. The track is passable only on foot; this had extreme repercussions for logistics, the size of forces and the type of warfare that could be conducted.
 * The Kokoda Track**