Remembering the war in New Guinea
Kokoda, 1942: Australian counter-attack (Photographs)
Module name: Campaign history (All groups perspective)
This page was contributed by Mr Damien Fenton (Australian War Memorial)

AWM 026851 (Australian War Memorial) Australian 25-pounder guns of the 14th Field Regiment being dragged through the jungle near Uberi on the Kokoda Track, late September 1942. These guns bombarded Japanese positions around Ioribaiwa in support of the 25th Brigade’s successful attack on the village on 28 September. These actions marked the beginning of the Australian counter-offensive.
AWM 027055 (Australian War Memorial) Troops of the 16th Brigade moving up the Kokoda Track to relieve the 25th Brigade, late October 1942. As part of the veteran 7th Division, AIF, the men of the 16th Brigade had already spent two years fighting the Italians, Germans and Vichy French in the Middle East. Nevertheless their introduction to jungle warfare was a harsh one: the stubborn Japanese defenders of Eora Creek defied the 16th Brigade’s attacks for more than a week.
AWM 026821 (Australian War Memorial) The “Golden Stairs” on the Kokoda Track between Uberi and Imita Ridge. These stairs marked the beginning of the steepest parts of the track. For those Australian troops moving along it for the first time these stairs gave them the first real indication of the degree of physical hardship they were about to undergo.
AWM 027019 (Australian War Memorial) A C-47 Dakota transport plane of the United States Army Air Force drops food supplies on a clearing near Nauro village in support of the 25th Brigade’s advance towards Myola, October 1942.
AWM 026826 (Australian War Memorial) A weak and malnourished Japanese straggler captured near Nauro being attended to by Australian medical personnel, October 1942. The Japanese retreat was a nightmarish ordeal for those who took part in it. Hundreds of the sick, wounded, or those simply too weak to carry on, were left behind to die. Very few allowed themselves to be taken prisoner and most died by their own hand or perished in the jungle.
AWM 013621 (Australian War Memorial) Australian walking-wounded head back towards a dressing station during the fighting around Oivi–Gorari, November 1942. This was the last Japanese stronghold left on the Kokoda Track and its destruction opened the way to Buna and signalled the end of the Kokoda campaign.
AWM 013645 (Australian War Memorial) An Australian burial party poses over the common grave of 11 Japanese soldiers (marked by the latter’s helmets), Oivi–Gorari, November 1942. Japanese casualties in this last desperate stage of the campaign were horrendous. They included General HORII himself who drowned while trying to escape to the coast in the aftermath of the collapse of organised Japanese resistance.
AWM P02424.082 (Australian War Memorial) An Australian casualty (partially obscured by those gathered around his stretcher) is prepared for air evacuation to Port Moresby from Kokoda airstrip, November 1942. Due to technical difficulties associated with the high altitude of the mountains, air evacuations like this one did not take place until specialised aircraft, such as the Stinson L-1 Vigilant ambulance plane pictured here, were brought in from the United States.
AWM 013595 (Australian War Memorial) The Papuan carriers who supported the 16th and 25th Brigades’ advance assembled at Kokoda where they are being formally congratulated for their efforts by Maroubra Force’s new commander, Major General George Vasey, November 1942. A number of the carriers were awarded loyal service medals at this ceremony and deservedly so, for without their services it would have been impossible to maintain a force as large as two brigades on the Kokoda Track at the same time.
AWM 027393 (Australian War Memorial) American soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 128th Regiment, 32nd US Infantry Division, disembark from a Dakota at Wanigela, 14 October 1942. Nine days earlier the Australian 2/10th Battalion had been flown in to secure the airstrip. This airlift, the first of its kind in the Pacific War, was designed to create a base on the north Papuan coast from which to threaten Buna in conjunction with the Australian counter-attack at Kokoda.
AWM ART21318 (Australian War Memorial) William Dargie, Infantry in trucks moving up to Ower's Corner, on the Moresby-Kokoda Track, 1942, carbon pencil, 54.6 x 68.9 cm, Australian War Memorial ART21318.
AWM ART24074 (Australian War Memorial) George Browning, Kokoda Trail, 1945, oil on canvas on hardboard, 61 x 45.4 cm, Australian War Memorial ART24074.
AWM ART23677 (Australian War Memorial) Richard Ashton, AIF engineers making a road, Kokoda, 1942, oil on canvas on cardboard, 45.7 x 40.6 cm, Australian War Memorial, ART23677.