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• The Kokoda Trail
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• The Pacific War 1942
• New Guinea Forces
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• The Kokoda Campaign
• Major Battles of the Kokoda Campaign
  • Landings at Buna and Gona
  • Advance on Kokoda
  • Attack on Kokoda
  • Attack on Deniki
  • Battle for Isurava
  • Myola
  • Battle for Milne Bay
  • Battle for Brigade Hill
  • Battle for Imita Ridge
  • Battle for Templeton's Crossing
  • Battle for Eora Creek
  • Recapture of Kokoda
• Commanders
• Heroes
• Diggers
• Kokoda Citations
• Kokoda Casualties
• Bomana War Cemetry
• Kokoda Campaign Bibliography
• Homefront

The First Japanese Attack

The first Japanese troops to reach the Kokoda Trail were a reconnaissance party, from the elite 15th Independent Engineer Regiment. It had been decided to sent this regiment to Papua at the end of June, and on 1 July the commander of the regiment, Colonel Yosuke Yokoyama, was ordered to land at Buna, advance to Kokoda and then reconnoitre the mountain pass and the trail to Port Moresby.

Yokoyama’s force was around 3,100 strong (1,800 Japanese infantry, 100 naval labourers and 1,200 Rabaul natives). It landed close to Buna on the night of 21-22 July. The naval force moved to Buna, while the Army picked Giruwa as its base. That night Yokoyama dispatched an advance guard of 900 men, under Lt. Col. Hatsuo Tsukamoto, with orders to advance day and night to the mountains. 

This small force was faced by an even smaller Australian force, made up of Company B of the 39th Infantry Battalion and the Papuan Infantry Battalion, at best just over 400 strong. The first clash came at Awala, on 23 July. The Australians then retreated to Wairopi, retreating across the wire rope bridge that gave the village its name on 24 July, destroying the bridge behind them. 

At 4pm on 25 July, the 39th Battalion made contact with the Japanese when the 60-strong 11th and 12th Platoons, along with some PIB soldiers and commanded by Captain Templeton, staged an ambush at the village of Gorari on 500 troops of Japan's 144th Regiment. Pursued by the Japanese the two Australian platoons then staged a fighting rearguard withdrawal down the track to the village of Oivi where both forces dug in for the night.

As soon as the Japanese landed, General MacArthur, the allied Commander-in-Chief in the south west Pacific, ordered General Basil Morris, the Australian commander at Port Moresby, to rush reinforcements to Kokoda. Unfortunately Morris only had one transport aircraft capable of landing on the small strip at Kokoda. Lieutenant-Colonel Owen, the commander of the 39th Battalion, was flown in on 24 July, and thirty men arrived in two flights on 26 July.

Several hours apart on the morning of 26 July two transport planes each landed 15 additional troops of the 39th Battalion which were sent to reinforce the two platoons at Oivi. Shortly after the first 15 reinforcements arrived the Japanese troops attacked the 75 militia and handful of local PIB troops now defending Oivi.

Despite repeated frontal and flank attacks over the next six hours the Japanese failed to break through. By 5pm the remaining 15 reinforcements had not yet arrived and Captain Templeton moved down the track to warn them that they might encounter Japanese troops between them and his position. Unknown to Templeton the Japanese had already surrounded his troops and he was killed when he ran into them. His body was never found.

Major Watson of the Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) assumed command. As the track to Kokoda was now cut off Lance Corporal Sanopa of the PIB, under cover of darkness, led the Australian and Papuan troops to Deniki by means of a creek below Oivi. At Deniki the men joined up with Lieutenant Colonel Owen's company.

On the morning of 27 July Lieutenant Colonel Owen, with the remnants of the militia companies and a handful of troops of the PIB, who had had little food or rest for the previous three days and knowing he would be facing some 500 elite Japanese marines, decided to attempt a defence of the Kokoda airstrip and hope that reinforcements would arrive in time to support him. Leaving around 40 troops at Deniki he took the remaining 77 and was deployed in Kokoda by midday on 28 July.

Owen then contacted Port Moresby by radio to request reinforcements. Shortly two Douglas transports carrying reinforcements from the 39th Battalion circled the airfield, but the American pilots refused to land for fear that the Japanese would attack while they were still on the ground and returned to Port Moresby. During the afternoon the Japanese poured machinegun fire and mortars on the Australians, Lieutenant Colonel Owen received a fatal wound and Major Watson assumed command.

The Japanese launched a full-scale assault at 2.30 a.m. on 29 July. Only after his position was completely overrun did Major Watson give the order to his troops to withdraw to Deniki. The Kokoda airstrip was captured by the Japanese who, having achieved their objective, did not pursue the Australians.

Although the defenders were poorly trained, outnumbered and under-resourced, the resistance was such that, according to captured documents, the Japanese believed they had defeated a force more than 1,200 strong when, in fact, they were facing 77 Australian troops.