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Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway

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24.01.2022 Melbourne-born Bruce Kingsbury enlisted in the AIF during May 1940 and was posted to the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion before joining the 2/14th Infantry Battalion (21st Brigade, 7th Division). Embarking with his unit in October 1940, he served in Egypt, Syria and Palestine until, in August 1942, the 2/14th was posted to Port Moresby, New Guinea. The 2/14th was ordered to hold positions on the main line of the Japanese advance at Isurava on the track about 13km past Kokoda. On 29 A...ugust they were subjected to such heavy enemy attack that the Battalion and its headquarters were under serious threat. Private Kingsbury, volunteering for a counter attack, rushed forward firing a Bren gun and under extreme machine-gun fire succeeded in inflicting a very large number of casualties on the enemy. Showing a complete disregard for his own safety he continued forward and finally was shot dead by a sniper’s bullet. This single-handed furious attack made possible the recapture of a position which undoubtedly save Battalion headquarters. Buried in the Kokoda War Cemetery, Private Kingsbury was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

24.01.2022 The Battle of Milne Bay began on 25 August and ran until 7 September. Milne Bay, on the south-eastern tip of Papua had been selected for development as an Allied base. Japanese intelligence had significantly underestimated the number of Allies defending the airstrips at Milne Bay. Up to 750 Japanese died. Allied deaths included 167 Australians and 14 Americans. Milne Bay is remembered as the first defeat of the Japanese on land during the Pacific War. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

23.01.2022 In 1997, the Governor-General of Australia Sir William Deane, formally declared 11 November to be Remembrance Day. He urged all Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11am on 11 November each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all conflicts. The red Flanders poppy became a symbol of the terrible conflict, the blood shed in the fields of the France and Belgium, and, in turn, Remembrance Day. Poppies were some of the first plants to spring up in these ravaged battlefields and these symbols of hope and remembrance were first sold for Armistice Day in Australia in 1921. One million silk poppies, made in French orphanages, were imported especially. (Source: AWM).

22.01.2022 Thousands of Australians, New Guineans, Americans and Japanese fought and died in the Wau-Salamaua campaign. Salamaua was captured after a push by the Australian 15th, 17th and 29th Infantry Brigades and the American 162nd Infantry Regiment. (Source: anzacportal.dva.gov.au).

22.01.2022 The Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) grew out of the volunteer Red Cross and St John Ambulance Voluntary Aid Detachments (known as the VADs). From December 1942 nearly 8,500 AAMWS served as nurses, nursing aides, and technicians tending sick and wounded soldiers in the Middle East, New Guinea, and Australia. The AAMWS served alongside army nursing sisters in hospitals.

20.01.2022 The Allies faced a determined enemy around Sanananda. It formed the centre of the main Japanese defensive position in the final battles of the Papuan campaign. The Japanese commander concentrated most of his force in this area and took personal command here. Enemy positions astride the track were protected by deep camouflaged bunkers made of logs and placed in depth behind each other.

20.01.2022 Thousands of Japanese troops landed at Rabaul, on the north-eastern tip of the island of New Britain. A force of around 1400 Australians was stationed there most were to die, either in the immediate battle, in captivity, or in attempting to escape across the Solomon Sea to New Guinea.

20.01.2022 Gorari was approximately 6.5km east of the village of Oivi, the next village along the trail from Kokoda. The Battle of Gorari had begun on 5th November when the 2/2nd and 2/3rd Battalions were stopped by a strong Japanese defensive position at Oivi. The battle was the last major engagement on the Kokoda Trail and demonstrated a growing tactical confidence from Australian commanders. They were learning to outflank and encircle defensive positions through the jungle, rather than confront them head-on. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

19.01.2022 This afternoon we commemorated the 75th anniversary of VP by holding a brief wreath laying ceremony with a restricted number of guests and officials due to coronavirus regulations. Guest speaker, Colonel Professor Robert Lusby AM, chairman of the National Centre for Veterans' Healthcare, spoke of the terrible experiences that befell Australian troops during the New Guinea campaign. A special tribute was paid to two Kokoda veterans attending today, Lloyd Birdsall and Reg Chard. Among those also laying wreaths at the Centrepiece were KTMW Chair Jennifer Collins, Federal MP Dr Fiona Martin, NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay and City of Canada Bay Mayor Angelo Tsirekas.

17.01.2022 Here are some photos from this morning's wonderful Anzac commemorative service at the KTMW. We were thrilled to welcome the War Widows who held their annual ceremony of planting crosses in a Field of Remembrance. Also welcome was the participation in the service and wreath laying by pupils from schools including Strathfield North PS, Rosebank College, Abbotsford PS and Mortlake PS. Our guest speaker was Renee Wilson, War Widows CEO and wife of Gary Wilson, who was terribly injured in the 2010 Black Hawk helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

17.01.2022 The Japanese dug in around Gona, Sanananda and Buna and the Australians and Americans attacked them there., starting the Battle of Buna-Gona. In early December the Australians captured the northernmost outwork of the defences at Gona. The Americans were unsuccessful at Buna until Australian reinforcements arrived there in late December. By 21 January all organised Japanese resistance in Papua had ceased. (Source: Anzac Portal).

16.01.2022 "At Ioribaiwa we were on a forward slope and the mountain gun was picking us off one by one. Fellows who had got through the whole thing unscathed were shot dead. That upset me".

16.01.2022 "A corporal of the 2/16th told me afterwards that it was enough to make a man weep to see those poor skinny bastards hobble in on their bleeding feet. They were greeted with the news that the 39th and the 2/14th were fighting for their lives. Without a word, or a thought for the food their stomachs craved, they turned and hurried off to Isurava as fast as their crippled feet could carry them." - Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, 39th Battalion

15.01.2022 A simple wreath laying service was held at the centrepiece of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway this morning to observe Remembrance Day, 11 November 2020.

15.01.2022 The NSW Branch of the War Widows Guild is holding its annual general meeting at the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway today. Members of the executive are based in the Ralph Honner Education Centre with other members dialling in from their homes. A wreath was laid at the centrepiece before the meeting was opened.

14.01.2022 Of the 2,800 Japanese who landed around Milne Bay, only 1,318 re-embarked. It was estimated that up to 750 lay dead and the majority of the remainder were killed trying to escape overland to the Japanese base at Buna. Allied deaths included 167 Australians and 14 Americans. Milne Bay is remembered as the first defeat of the Japanese on land during the Pacific War. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

13.01.2022 "On Efogi, Dennis Wills was shot beside me. We were shoulder to shoulder and he was killed. But that’s the luck of the game the bad luck, whichever.

13.01.2022 "We only moved a few yards and we were challenged! It was old Jim Cowey (52 years of age, First World War 46th Battalion) the coolest, bravest man I have ever known. There he was, in the kneeling position Jim’s motto was you were a digger he had to get you out. The rest of the company had gone, but he’d stayed to get us out because he knew we’d be left behind." - Corporal John Donald McKay, 39th Battalion

13.01.2022 The Australians' arrival boosted the number of Allied troops in the Milne Bay area to more than 8,800. The battle of Milne Bay started on 25 August and resulted in the first defeat of a Japanese land force in World War Two. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

13.01.2022 This was the furthest point South achieved by Japanese land forces. The following day, commander of Milne Force, Australian Major General Cyril Clowes, seized the opportunity to counterattack and ordered the 2/12th Battalion to pursue the retreating Japanese. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

13.01.2022 We are all set up and look forward to welcoming you to our Anzac service tomorrow, Saturday 24 April, at 10:30am. Everyone is welcome. The Anzac address will be delivered by Renee Wilson, general manager of War Widows NSW.

13.01.2022 Thomas Blamey, born near Wagga Wagga on 24 January 1884, became the first Australian army officer to reach the rank of field marshal. He was in England when WWI began and joined the 1st Australian Division in Egypt. He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and, on the Western Front, was appointed Chief of Staff and served as General Staff Officer 1 in the 1st Division until June 1918. Shortly after the start of WWII, Blamey was given command of the 6th Division, and the follow...ing year he became commander of the Australian Corps. In December 1941 he reached the rank of General. Blamey had a controversial career professionally and personally, but was promoted to field marshal on 8 June 1950. He died on 27 May 1951. Blamey conducted a series of successful offensives in New Guinea in 1943 but was criticised late in the war when Australians were involved in operations against long-bypassed Japanese units in New Guinea and Borneo. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

12.01.2022 We went up to Ioribaiwa and sat there for two or three days. And every shot (from the Japanese mountain gun) somebody got killed. Siddy Johnston was the worst hit. He was band sergeant shouldn’t have been there at all."

11.01.2022 By Christmas 1943, the Australians were nearing the end of the Markham and Ramu Valleys campaign, having reached Shaggy Ridge. It took weeks of attacks on the Japanese to take the Ridge. This was the first time a complete Australian infantry division had been brought into action entirely by air. Major General George Vasey, commander of the 7th Division, changed the original plan, deciding that instead of marching overland through remote country to the Markham Valley, the division’s main body, the 25th Brigade, would be transported by air from Port Moresby.

10.01.2022 "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941a date which will live in infamythe United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." - United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. - Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Over 2,000 Americans were killed in the attack with many more wounded. The following day the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan, changing the course of World War Two and significantly increasing Australia's involvement in the conflict.

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10.01.2022 On 4 October 1943 the Army News, published in the North Territory, reported that, "The 9th Australian Division -"Rats of Tobruk" and veterans of El Alamein, have captured Finschhafen, last Japanese base in the Huon Peninsula of New Guinea. All organised resistance has ceased."

09.01.2022 To begin with, twelve nurses were chosen in Melbourne and twelve in Sydney. The number in the service never exceeded 60. Annie Ina Laidlaw helped to select qualified nurses suitable for recruitment as RANNS officers. Laidlaw devoted her life to nursing and served in both world wars. During the Second World War, she was chosen to head up the RANNS and was also in charge of the Flinders Naval Depot hospital in Victoria. (Source: NLA; Australian Navy).

09.01.2022 Gona was the site of a Church of England mission which served nearby villages on the north coast of Papua. The 25th Brigade led by Brigadier Eather and including the 3rd Militia Battalion had reached Gona on 19 November.

09.01.2022 It took half a year to complete the advance from Wau to Salamaua. With a push by the Australian 15th, 17th and 29th Infantry Brigades and the American 162nd Infantry Regiment, Salamaua was captured on 11 September 1943. (Source: anzacportal.dva.gov.au. Image: Mitchell Library).

08.01.2022 "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."

08.01.2022 "Physically the pathetically young warriors of the 39th were in poor shape. Worn out by strenuous fighting and exhausting movement, and weakened by lack of food and sleep and shelter, many of them had literally come to a standstill. Torrential rains feel all through the afternoon and night, cascading into the cheerless weapon-pits and soaking the clothes they wore the only ones they had." - Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, 39th Battalion

06.01.2022 Approaching the 20 year anniversary of the Sydney Olympic Games, and on the morning of 14 September 2000 we held a dawn service at the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway before four veterans ran that day's initial legs of the Olympic Torch Relay. Doves were released by 96-year-old Norm Pope, a former army captain who served in the Middle East and New Guinea, who had served for the previous 17 years as a volunteer at Concord Hospital, and who was named NSW Senior Citizen of the Yea...r in 1998. RSL State President and KTMW chairman Rusty Priest lit the first torch from the traditional miner's lamp at the centrepiece of the Memorial Walkway. The torch was then carried down the first 100 metres by Don Oughtred, who had spent 13 weeks fighting with the 3rd Battalion on the Kokoda Track in 1942 and later in the Aitape to Wewak campaign of 1944. Ron Cashman, Korean War veteran with the 3rd Battalion RAR, ran the second leg, handing over to Eddie Wright, a veteran of the Korean War, Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation. The fourth leg was run by John Neenan, who commanded the 87th Transport Platoon in Vietnam in 1966.

06.01.2022 As a reaction to the Japanese landing at Lae, full mobilisation was ordered in Australia. The threat of Japanese invasion had become more likely as they began to get closer to Australia.

06.01.2022 Popondetta, on the kunai plains north of the Owen Stanley Range, became a major Allied base for the attack on the Japanese-held beachheads in Papua. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

05.01.2022 A reminder that everyone is welcome to attend the Anzac commemorative service at the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway this Saturday - 24 April at 10.30 am. The Anzac address will be delivered by Renee Wilson, general manager of War Widows NSW. Renee has built a career in public service, leading significant projects and legal matters focused on delivering positive and strategic change within state and federal government agencies, including several years at DVA. Renee is the spou...se of an Afghanistan veteran who was severely wounded in a helicopter crash during operations in 2010. This coming Saturday - 24 April, 10.30 am Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway!

05.01.2022 "When the Japanese arrived there was no hope of holding them back", Sister Berenice told journalist John Gatfield. "No hope whatever, and the army knew that. And they pleaded and pleaded, but were told, 'No danger, there’s no danger.' They said: 'Either send help or evacuate us', but they did neither. The majority of Japanese guards were just little boys. They had no idea of where they were or what they were doing. All they had was their army outfit, a spade hanging here, a...nd a bayonet. They always had bayonets and they’d come around to us and say, 'Blood of Australian soldier', and throw it up in our faces, but we’d just laugh at them and say, 'It’s only tomato sauce', but we didn’t know, it could have been true. For the first two weeks or more we were terrified, absolutely terrified. We didn’t know what would happen to us. Until the Bishop got on top. He got a guarantee that no Sister would ever be touched we were safe. He definitely did save our lives. Over and over again he did that. After we were moved into the compound with native huts and barbed wire, we saw Captain Gray tied up to a coconut tree. They tormented him and did all sorts of things. They were trying to get information out of him and he’d only been there a week and knew nothing. They tormented him for days and days and there was not a thing we could do we just had to watch it."

03.01.2022 The Australian Women's Army Service went to Lae, New Guinea, and served in the forward area for the first time. Members of the Australian Army Nursing Service and the Australian Army Medical Women's Service were already serving in New Guinea. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

03.01.2022 The Battle of Madang was fought between February and April 1944. The occupation of Madang effectively brought an end to the Huon Peninsula and Ramu Valley campaigns. (Source: Australian War Memorial).

02.01.2022 Sattelberg is on the east coast of Papua New Guinea, not far from Finschhafen. The fighting at Sattelberg was part of the Huon Peninsula campaign.

02.01.2022 Ioribaiwa Ridge was for 40 or 50 kilometres away from Port Moresby. Actions at Ioribaiwa marked the end of the Japanese surge southwards.

02.01.2022 Richard Kelliher migrated to Queensland from Ireland and was working as a labourer when he joined the AIF in February 1941. Originally with the 2/12th battalion he was posted to the 2/25th Infantry Battalion (25th Brigade, 7th Division) in October 1941 and joined the unit in Syria. It was while serving with his battalion in New Guinea in 1943 that Private Kelliher was cited for his outstanding deeds of bravery and devotion to duty. In a final daring action he moved forward under heavy fire to rescue his wounded section leader. The strong enemy position was conceded to his Company as a result of Kelliher’s amazing display. The VC winner saw further action in New Guinea and Borneo and died of a stroke in Melbourne in 1963.

02.01.2022 On the same day as the United States declared war on Japan, the Japanese forces were landing on the north-east coast of Malaya. It took just 70 days for the Japanese to crush the British Empire forces in Malaya and Singapore. In the final days of December 1941, the newly appointed Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, said: 'Without any inhibitions of any kind, I made it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship wi...th the United Kingdom.' Curtain's comments were somewhat controversial. His suggestion that Australia should play a role with the United States in determining Pacific strategy upset British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill as well as the American President, Franklin Roosevelt. Many Australian conservatives were also concerned. Once the Philippines fell to the Japanese, Roosevelt decided that Australia would become the main base for the U.S. in the south-west Pacific. Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur, former US commander in the Philippines, to travel to Melbourne to take command of the Allied forces in the area. (Source: Anzac Portal).

01.01.2022 After enlisting in 1939 John French saw action in Libya with the 2/9th Infantry Battalion (18th Brigade, 7th Division) taking part in the operations at Giarabub, the siege of Tobruk and the garrisoning of Syria. In August 1942 the 2/9th was posted to New Guinea. That month 2000 Japanese had landed in the Milne Bay area. After French's actions on 4 September, his section moved forward later, discovering that all members of the enemy gun crews had been killed. Corporal French had died in front of the third gun pit. This outstandingly courageous soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for selflessly saving the men under his command from suffering heavy casualties and so enabling a successful attack on the enemy.

01.01.2022 "The men were slimed from head to foot, for weeks unshaven, their skin bloodless under their filth. Lines of exhausted carriers were squatting on the fringes of this congregation eating muddy rice off muddy banana leaves, their woolly hair was plastered with rain and muck. Their eyes rolling and bloodshot with the strain of long carrying. Some of them were still panting"