Kokoda Historical in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Tour agent

Kokoda Historical

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 405 007 700

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20.01.2022 WWII Veteran Reg Chard Image credit NSW Government

20.01.2022 A very Happy Birthday to Alan 'Kanga' Moore who served in the 39th Battalion, first going into action at Gona and then with the 2/6 Battalion in the later New Guinea Campaigns. Kanga is 100 today, we wish him the very best of days. He is a remarkable Australian from a magnificent generation.

19.01.2022 Today another panel was unveiled on the Remembrance Walkway at the Sub branch. The WWII panel was unveiled by Thirlmere legend Fred Denny who also features on the panel. Thank you to all who have served our Nation in times of conflict and peace. Lest We forget.

18.01.2022 On this day in history- 16 November 1942, the Battle of Buna-Gona begun following the successful conclusion of the Kokoda Track Campaign. Buna, a village on the coastal plain of northern Papua, was the main base for the Japanese advance along the Kokoda Trail. American troops of the 32nd Division initially closed on Buna in November 1942. The 18th Australian Brigade, commanded by Brigadier George Wootten, and a squadron of tanks from the 2/6th Australian Armoured Regiment wer...e moved up from Milne Bay in mid-December to reinforce the Americans. The 18th Brigade's first attack was launched in the airfield area by the 2/9th and 2/10th Battalions on the morning of 18 December. Victory at Buna only came with a pause in operations to allow proper planning, the reinforcement of the tanks, and the replacement of the tired and depleted 2/10th by the fresh 2/12th Battalion. The battle for Buna cost the Allied forces 2,870 casualties; the 18th Brigade lost 863, including 306 killed. Close to 1,400 Japanese dead were counted. Read more here: https://kokodahistorical.com.au/hi/battle-of-the-beachheads

17.01.2022 Well done Kanga, credit to John Redmond for organising. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YW_BMe0Op_Y

17.01.2022 Ruth trekked with us on our Anzac 2015 trek. Very sad to hear this news. Ruth's open letter is well worth reading. Our time on this plabet js short and it is worth us all reflecting on what is important and what is trivial in life. Godspeed.

16.01.2022 When Blamey visited the 21st Brigade at Koitaki they expected to receive praise for holding back the Japanese. Later in the war Blamey was also criticised for n...ot standing up for his subordinates and, on a personal level, for his drinking and womanising. He was however, popular with General Macarthur and was promoted to field marshal on 8 June 1950. He died a year later, on 27 May 1951. See more

16.01.2022 Check out the latest episode of Kokoda Kast. This week, David's guest is the author of the best selling book, Jungle Warriors, Adrian Threlfall. The two discuss Australian soldiers moving from First World War tactics and fighting in the desert to being introduced to jungle fighting. Were the Australians as prepared as the Japanese? Where did we first fight in the jungle?. Learn how Australian troops adapted to the new type of fighting. Out tomorrow and available on ITunes ...https://podcasts.apple.com//true-blue-history/id1508857453 Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/true-blue-history-podcast Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0YS0ZqW624g6guM03JKwEI YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChz59lMHgGPdc6n-T5SYk-w Check out our YouTube channel TrueBlueHistory and subscribe, and leave a review for the podcast on Apple podcast app

16.01.2022 This day in history-The Battle of Sattelberg took place between 17 and 25 November 1943, during the Huon Peninsula campaign of the Second World War. Involving forces from Australia, the United States and Japan, the fighting centred on the Sattelberg mission station which was situated atop a hill about 900 metres (3,000 ft) above sea level, approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) inland from Finschhafen, New Guinea. Following the Australian landing at Scarlet Beach, a large force... of Japanese had retreated inland towards Sattelberg. Holding the high ground, the Japanese subsequently threatened the Australian lines of communication as they proceeded to advance south towards Finschhafen, and in order to neutralise this threat, the Australian 26th Brigade was tasked with capturing the mission. Over the course of 10 days they advanced west from Jivevaneng up the southern approaches to the mission, reducing the Japanese position with armour, artillery and air support, before the Japanese finally abandoned Sattelberg and withdrew north to Wareo, having suffered heavy casualties and running low on supplies.

13.01.2022 This day in history- On 2 November 1942, a small Australian patrol led by Lieutenant Alexander Black of the 2/31st Battalion cautiously entered Kokoda. Expecting to encounter the Japanese, Black’s patrol found the village abandoned, the enemy having withdrawn to the Oivi Pass several days earlier. Seizing Kokoda village was important because it contained the only serviceable airfield between Port Moresby and the Japanese base at Buna on the north coast of Papua. Yet to the su...rprise of the Australians, they found the airfield had fallen into disrepair and had not been used by the enemy. Working parties were immediately detailed to clear it and prepare the strip for aircraft landings to allow much-needed supplies, ammunition and comforts to be flown in. The Kokoda campaign cost the Australians more than 450 lives, while several thousand were wounded and suffered from sickness and disease. The Japanese thrust southwards was curtailed by their own difficulties in resupplying their troops, combined with the fading fortunes of their forces on Guadalcanal. For the Allies, protecting Port Moresby ensured that the lines of communication between Australia and the United States remained open, and Australia’s northern cities were protected from the threat of aerial attack that might have occurred had the Japanese captured the Papuan capital. On the afternoon of 3 November, Major General George Vasey, commander of the Australian forces on the Kokoda Trail, led a flag-raising ceremony on the Kokoda plateau. A brand new nylon-weave Australian flag had been air-dropped by an American fighter pilot earlier that morning specifically for the purpose. The occasion was described by Lieutenant Herbert ‘Bert’ Kienzle as sombre: ‘there was no band, no cheering, just hundreds of weary Australians standing silently to attention in the rain’.

13.01.2022 This day in history-24 November 1943. For most conspicuous courage, outstanding leadership and devotion to duty during the final assault on Sattelberg in November, 1943. On 24th November, 1943, a company of an Australian Infantry Battalion was ordered to outflank a strong enemy position sited on a precipitous cliff-face and then to attack a feature 150 yards from the township of Sattelberg. Sergeant Derrick was in command of his platoon of the company. Due to the nature of t...he country, the only possible approach to the town lay through an open kunai patch situated directly beneath the top of the cliffs. Over a period of two hours many attempts were made by our troops to clamber up the slopes to their objective, but on each occasion the enemy prevented success with intense machine-gun fire and grenades. South Australian Sergeant Tom "Diver" Derrick DCM virtually single-handedly seized the summit on which Sattelberg mission was located, enabling the 2/48th Battalion to capture the dominating feature, an important objective of the Huon Peninsula campaign in New Guinea. Tom Derrick was born in Medindie in Adelaide to David and Ada Derrick. The Derricks were quite poor and Tom often walked barefoot to attend primary school. He left school at 14, by which time he had developed a keen interest in sports. During the depression he survived via various odd jobs, including fixing bicycles, selling newspapers and working in a bakery. In 1931 he travelled to Berri, on the Murray River, looking for work which he eventually found in a vineyard at Winkie. He remained there for the next nine years. Tom joined the 2/48th Battalion of the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940. He fought during the Siege of Tobruk, and as a corporal was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal during the Second Battle of El Alamein for knocking out three German machine gun posts, destroying two tanks, and capturing one hundred prisoners. Promoted to sergeant, he fought at Lae in New Guinea before being awarded the Victoria Cross for scaling a cliff face and silencing seven Japanese machine gun posts, then leading a final assault on a heavily-defended Japanese position at Sattelberg on 24 November 1943. After attending officer training and being promoted to lieutenant, he was killed on Tarakan Island in May 1945. He left behind his wife Beryl whom he had married just before enlisting. Lest We Forget

08.01.2022 This day in history- 4 November 1942 After the recapture of Kokoda on 2 November, 7th Australian Division, under the command of General George Vasey, turned east towards the sea. The 7th Division committed 3700 men at Oivi-Gorari. Its two brigades, with seven infantry battalions in all, had been weakened by earlier fighting in the mountains and were reduced to two thirds strength. Out of the mountains, and amidst the heat of the more open low land countryside, the advance wa...s slow. Nevertheless, the Australians pushed forward along the narrower northsouth track that ran between Kokoda and Sanananda, until they were halted along the high ground around Oivi by a strongly entrenched Japanese force. In the fighting that ensued, the two Australian brigades Lloyd's 16th and Eather's 25th consisting of 3,700 men, engaged the remnants of the Japanese 41st Infantry Regiment, under Colonel Kiyomi Yazawa, and 144th Infantry Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Tsukamoto Hiroshi. Together these regiments formed the South Seas Detachment (Nankai Shintai), a 2,800-strong formation under the command of General Tomitaro Horii,[supported by 15 mountain guns from the 55th Mountain Artillery Regiment and 30 heavy machine guns. Camouflaged and strengthened with palm logs, with interlocking fields of fire and snipers in rubber and palm trees, the positions were well established, having been constructed over several weeks and the Japanese defenders were determined to make a stand. The Australians, who had lacked artillery for most of the campaign, were buoyed by the plentiful supply of mortar rounds due to the proximity of the landing strip at Kokoda.