During the Second World War, Allied logistics in Papua played a crucial role in bringing the Kokoda Track campaign to a successful conclusion. "The great problem of warfare in the Pacific", General Douglas MacArthur declared, "is to move forces into contact and maintain them. Victory is dependent upon solution to the logistic problem."
Although identified early as a vital strategic outpost, Port Moresby, the most significant Papuan town, had just two airfields and basic port facilities in early 1942. An enormous amount of work was required to transform it into a major base for both air and land operations against the Japanese. This was done in the face of frequent Japanese air raids. During the course of the Kokoda Track campaign, the two original airfields were improved, and five new airfields were developed. To make them operational, the engineers had to construct more than just runways; taxiways, hardstands, facilities and access roads all had to be built. The operation of the base depended on shipping, but the port facilities were limited. To increase the capacity of the port, a causeway was built to Tatana Island, where pontoon docks were emplaced. Engineers also built roads, warehouses, and a water treatment plant. They ran the town's electricity and water supply, and quarried stone for the roads and airstrips.
The Allies were confronted with an interior covered with rainforest and tall mountains where wheeled vehicles could not operate. The Australian Army was forced to rely on air transport and native carriers, two modes of transportation that it had never used before. The techniques and technologies to deliver supplies by air were in their infancy. There were few aircraft available, and these were of a variety of different types, complicating maintenance. Air operations in New Guinea were restricted by the weather. Transport aircraft were vulnerable in the air, and required fighter escorts. They were also subject to destruction on the ground by Japanese air raids. The loss of the airstrip at Kokoda led to the adoption of air dropping. Due to a shortage of parachutes, supplies often had to be dropped without them, and loss due to breakages and unrecoverable goods was high.
Thousands of Papuans were conscripted to help the war effort. Trucks and jeeps carried stores, ammunition and rations only part of the way; pack animals and a flying fox took them a bit farther. The rest of the journey was completed on the backs of Papuan carriers, who struggled over the mountains lugging heavy loads. The environment posed the danger of endemic tropic diseases, particularly dysentery, scrub typhus and malaria. Medical units had to combat these, while caring for the sick and wounded, many of whom had to walk back to the base area along the Kokoda Track. Often the Papuan carriers had to carry the wounded on the way back, earning them the sobriquet of "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels".
Background
Geography
In 1942, Papua was a territory of Australia. Around in area, it occupied the south eastern part of the island of New Guinea. The vegetation is largely rainforest; higher altitudes are covered in moss. The climate is mostly hot and humid with high rainfall, although the higher parts are cold, particularly at night. Tropical diseases, including malaria, scrub typhus, hookworm and dysentery were endemic. The native population also suffered from tropical ulcers, yaws and vitamin deficiency diseases, mainly beri beri.
The population was about 300,000, of whom 1,800 were Europeans; there were very few Asians owing to Australia's immigration policy. The main exports were copra and natural rubber, of which it contributed about one-eighth of Australia's supply. There had been little development and the territory was largely devoid of infrastructure except around the administrative centre of Port Moresby on the southern coast, which had two airfields and basic port facilities. Port Moresby was relatively dry, with a rainfall of less than per annum, mostly as a result of the north eastern monsoon, which comes between December and April. By air, it was from the nearest Allied airbase at Townsville, although there was a small airfield on Horn Island in the Torres Strait, whereas the Japanese airfields at Lae and Salamaua were less than away.
The Kokoda Track is a foot track that runs roughly south west from Kokoda overland through the Owen Stanley Range toward Port Moresby. It was used before the war as a mail route. While there is a main track that is associated with the fighting during the campaign, there are many parallel, interlocking tracks that follow much the same general course. The track reaches a height of . The terrain rises and falls with regularity, up to . This markedly increases the distance to be traversed, although there are flat areas, particularly around Myola. The higher elevations are frequently above cloud level, resulting in fog.
Strategy In the first six months of the Pacific War Japanese forces overran the Dutch East Indies and many nearby territories. Rabaul was captured on 23 January 1942, Singapore fell on 15 February, Lae and Salamaua were occupied on 8 March, and Java surrendered on 9 March. Lieutenant General George Brett, the American commander in Australia, feared that the Japanese would invade north western Australia. The Australian Chiefs of Staff disagreed. In an appreciation drafted by Major General Sydney Rowell, then the Australian Deputy Chief of the General Staff, on 5 March they argued that the Japanese would attempt to cut Australia's communications with the United States by moving against Port Moresby, New Caledonia and Fiji. By mid-April, Allied intelligence was warning of an imminent Japanese seaborne attack on Port Moresby, which was repulsed in the Battle of the Coral Sea on 5–8 May.
General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia on 17 March, and was appointed Supreme Commander of the newly established South West Pacific Area (SWPA) on 18 April. Ultra intelligence picked up Japanese plans for an overland advance on 19 May, and on 9 June he informed the commander of Allied Land Forces, General Sir Thomas Blamey, that the evidence was mounting that the Japanese might attempt to attack Port Moresby overland from Buna via Kokoda. On 20 June, Blamey ordered Brigadier Basil Morris, the commander of the 8th Military District, in charge of all the troops in Papua and New Guinea, to prevent such an attempt. In the wake of the Battle of Midway on 4–7 June, MacArthur began planning to recapture Rabaul. On 15 July, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered the first phase of the advance, the capture of Guadalcanal, despite MacArthur's warning that inadequate aircraft, airbases and shipping resources on hand made the operation extremely risky. A first step was to secure the Buna area, where airfields could be established from whence the Japanese bases could be attacked without aircraft having to overfly the Owen Stanley Range.
Organisation The Australian Chiefs of Staff identified Port Moresby as an important outpost early in the war. A company of the 15th Infantry Battalion was sent to Port Moresby in July 1940 and in October was transferred to the 49th Infantry Battalion. In February 1941, the Chiefs of Staff decided to reinforce the garrison by sending the rest of the 49th Infantry Battalion, a Militia unit, but specially enlisted for service in the tropics.
On 8 December, warned that the Japanese might attack Rabaul and Port Moresby, the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee decided to reinforce the garrison, sending the 39th and 53rd Infantry Battalions, and other units of the 30th Infantry Brigade, and the guns of the 13th Field Regiment and the 23rd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery. In January 1942, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at Port Moresby consisted of six Hudson light bombers, four Wirraway general purpose aircraft and two Catalina flying boats. No fighters were available.
The first Japanese air raid on Port Moresby occurred on 3 February 1942, and the anti-aircraft gunners shot down their first Japanese aircraft on 28 February, during a raid in which two RAAF Catalinas were destroyed. The February 1942 raids touched off panic, disorder and looting which Morris did not have the provost resources to control. The first fighter aircraft, Kittyhawks of No. 75 Squadron RAAF under the command of Squadron Leader John Francis Jackson, reached Port Moresby on 21 March, flying by way of Horn Island because they lacked the range to fly directly from Townsville. They soon became involved in the Battle of Port Moresby, taking heavy losses, and were relieved by the Bell P-39 Airacobras of the US 35th and 36th Fighter Squadrons on 30 April. Port Moresby experienced its one-hundredth air raid on 23 January 1943.
The first unit of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to arrive, the 2/3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, disembarked on 11 April 1942, having returned to Australia from the Middle East just four weeks before. The US 101st Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) Battalion followed on 5 May, and its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph B. Fraser, took charge of Port Moresby's anti-aircraft defences. Morris's command became New Guinea Force on 15 April. By the end of June the ground forces in New Guinea consisted of 1,098 AIF, 12,273 Militia and 2,208 American troops.
On 24 June, Morris ordered the 39th Infantry Battalion (less one company) and the Papuan Infantry Battalion, as Maroubra Force, to defend Kokoda. The Japanese landed in the Buna area on 21 July. At this point, B Company of the 39th Infantry Battalion was at Kokoda, with C Company advancing along the track, departing Ilolo on 23 July. The remainder of the battalion was poised to move and most of it had arrived at Deniki by 4 August. Maroubra Force was run out of Kokoda on 29 July. MacArthur was sanguine about this, believing that the landings on Guadalcanal on 8 August would cause the Japanese to withdraw to Buna. Blamey was not so sure, and ordered the AIF 7th Division, under the command of Major General Arthur Allen, to Port Moresby to reinforce Maroubra Force.
On 12 August 1942, Rowell assumed command of New Guinea Force. Morris remained as commander of the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU), which was responsible for civil affairs in Papua and New Guinea. United States Army Services of Supply (USASOS) units in Papua were initially part of Base Section2 in Far North Queensland, but on 20 August 1942, the US Advanced Base, New Guinea, was established under the command of Colonel A. J. Matthews. At first there was no Australian equivalent. Blamey suggested that one was required. Rowell demurred, but agreed to a Port Moresby Base Sub Area commander with a small staff. He emphasised that what he wanted was not some "officer wallah type" but a "practical man with commonsense". So Blamey sent Major Charles Moses, who possessed the requested attributes, being a former officer of the 8th Division who had escaped from Singapore.
Blamey superseded Rowell in command of New Guinea Force on 23 September. MacArthur visited Blamey in Port Moresby on 4 October 1942 and the two agreed to establish a Combined Operations Service Command (COSC) to co-ordinate logistical activities. To command it, MacArthur appointed Brigadier General Dwight Johns, the deputy commander of USASOS in SWPA, an expert on airbase construction. He was given an Australian deputy, Brigadier Victor Secombe, who had directed the rehabilitation of the port of Tobruk in 1941. All Australian and American logistical units were placed under COSC, which also controlled a fleet of small craft and luggers.
Shipping