In our last episode, we covered the carrier Battle of the Eastern Solomons, as the Japanese attempted
to land reinforcements on Guadalcanal, and we’ve also covered the start of the Battle of Milne Bay,
in which a numerically-inferior Japanese force managed to push back the defenders
towards the airfield at Rabi. Yet during this period, new developments were also unfolding in
the Kokoda Track. With the bulk of the South Seas Detachment finally on New Guinean soil,
the Japanese now prepared to start their main drive against Port Moresby; an offensive that
would be opposed by brave Australian soldiers in what is considered as Australia’s Thermopylae.
Join us as we cover the Battle of Isurava and the Japanese Advance on Eora Creek.
Your continued support allows us to expand our work, and we are so grateful for that! We are
always eager to create more videos for you and we think that you will enjoy our documentaries
on the post-World War II history over on the Cold War channel and our Wizards and Warriors
channel which focuses on the fantasy and sci-fi lore battle documentaries. We have also recently
started a tiktok channel and would appreciate your support on that new platform. Consider subscribing
to all three, the links are in the description and pinned comment! Thanks for being with us!
Back on August 10, the Second Battle of Kokoda ended inconclusively as the Australian soldiers of
the 39th Battalion were forced to abandon Kokoda once again and retreat towards Deniki. Just four
days later, their position at Deniki would be hard pressed by the enemy, finally forcing the
defenders to withdraw towards Isurava, where Brigadier Potts took over command of Maroubra
Force on August 23. At this point, Maroubra Force consisted of the remnants of the Papuan Battalion
and of the 39th Battalion, as well as the recently-arrived 53rd Battalion, with further
reinforcements from Potts’ 21st Brigade on their way. During the first few days of Potts’ command,
it took no time for him to realize the abysmal situation he was facing in regards to supply.
Up until now, the Australians had been operating native carrier lines across the mountains
and they had built a major supply hub at Myola, where aircraft could easily carry and deliver
the main burden of supply. Yet with the arrival of the new reinforcements, Potts required the
transport of 200 thousand pounds more of rations and ammunition, something that would require the
employment of some 2000 natives in more than 20 days. He believed only aircraft could save the
situation, for the carriers clearly could not carry the required load. In response, MacArthur
decided on August 24 to reinforce New Guinea with some 9 aircraft , yet this still required the
service of thousands of carriers for the adequate maintenance of Maroubra and Kanga Force. Moreover,
bad weather prevented the planes many times from carrying their total number of daily trips,
making the air supply operation very unreliable . This eventually forced Potts to relieve the
exhausted 39th Battalion with the 2/14th Battalion , and also to commit his forces only for defensive
operations, as offensives were impossible to carry in such conditions . Yet before the 39th could be
withdrawn, the Japanese were preparing to attack. Back on August 17, the first echelon of the South
Seas Detachment of General Horii departed Rabaul, escorted by a small cover force led by Admiral
Mikawa. That same morning, Admiral Tsukahara had conducted a powerful air raid over Port Moresby,
effectively disabling all the Allied transports that were used to air-drop supplies. Despite the
bad weather and a high swell, the convoy would successfully land Horii’s forces at Basabua the
following day; and by August 21, the bulk of the South Seas Detachment would reach Kokoda.
That same night, the first echelon of the Yazawa Detachment would land at Basabua.
These were men that had fought and defeated Australian forces in the Malayan Campaign both at
Gemas and Singapore; yet their late arrival would force Horii to hold them in reserve . Concurrent
with the Allied supply problem, Horii was also facing an ordeal of his own.
By September 2, 300 horses had been brought in, along with thousands of labourers from Formosa,
Korea and New Britain; and some 300 tonnes of supplies had been warehoused at Buna,
pending their transportation to Sonbo by truck and then by packhorse or carrier to Kokoda.
Yet Horii didn’t believe there were sufficient carriers to get his forces to Port Moresby,
and he knew he depended on supporting supplied provisions with what could be found in local
villages and abandoned enemy camps. Meanwhile, Colonel Tsukamoto’s men were
enjoying the lull in the fighting, occasionally skirmishing with patrols of the 39th Battalion,
now under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Honner. But with the arrival of Horii’s forces to
the battlefront, on the night of August 25, the South Seas Detachment finally began its
advance on Isurava. Horii planned to hold the main enemy force with a small unit at the front while
the bulk of his forces moved around to charge the enemy’s flanks and rear during the night.
At dawn on August 26, the Japanese carried a bombardment of Isurava with mortar fire,
immediately followed by Tsukamoto’s assault on the higher ridgelines in front of Isurava
under heavy rain while the 2nd Battalion of Major Horie advanced towards Abuari and
rapidly captured Kaile and Missima , easily overrunning the positions of the 53rd and
causing much confusion in the battalion. Yet Tsukamoto’s assault wasn’t faring so well,
as the cunning defenders targeted return fire on breaks in jungle cover and also held their fire
until the Japanese were at point-blank range to prevent their positions from being located.
Nonetheless, the invaders managed to penetrate the Australian frontal positions during the night,
while the rest of the 1st Battalion were slowly making their way around Isurava. The following
day, the battle progressed as Horie got to the Abuari waterfalls and started to bombard Alola
across Eora Creek, something that forced the 53rd Battalion to send two companies to stop them.
At this point, it’s not known why Major Horie refused to take the initiative and assault
Alola, as [though?] his forces were exhausted, giving the defenders the chance to establish
better defensive positions and to reinforce the 53rd with the 2/16th Battalion. Potts
actually found the fighting capabilities of the 53rd soldiers to be very poor and inadequate,
so he was happy to replace them with the 2/16th, but still he called for the reserve 2/27th
Battalion to be sent forward to reinforce him, yet the difficult situation that the Australians were
facing in Milne Bay forced Potts to fight with what he had. At the same time, the 2/14th was
finally arriving to relieve the 36th Battalion, and they would slowly do so in the next few days.
During the afternoon, Horii decided to send forward his 3rd Battalion, under the command
of Lieutenant-Colonel Kuwada Genichiro, o outflank the defenders along the creek, and it would soon
join a furious assault on Isurava, breaking through the right flank of the Australians
and engaging them in vicious hand-to-hand combat. Luckily for the defenders, courageous men from
the 39th launched two fierce counterattacks that managed to repel the invaders towards the creek,
soon stabilizing the situation for the remainder of the day. On August 28, the Japanese assaults
and the heavy rain continued, with the Australians finally managing to repel Horie from the waterfall
and with the Japanese probing the defensive positions in search of weaknesses. Another
breakthrough would be achieved by midday, but the tenacious defenders would yet again push the
invaders back and restore their lost positions. Gradually, however, the Australians were being
outflanked, and on August 29, Horii’s forces would start an all-out assault on Isurava.
His men took the ridges the Australians had held and set up a lot of mortar and machine guns atop
them to support the assault. The Australians were unable to respond to this and gradually
were pushed. Once again, the Japanese breached the frontlines and once again they were repelled,
yet the invaders continued to press the weary and exhausted defenders, enveloping them with
the succession of Japanese charges and gradually forcing them to shrink their perimeter. Although
Potts was planning to send the 2/16th Battalion to counterattack the Japanese at Isurava,
he finally had to allow his men to withdraw due to the relentless attacks of the enemy.
By dusk, and under heavy fire, the defenders began to withdraw under pouring rain towards a
rest house between Isurava and Alola. Yet again, the 39th had shown its tenacity,
and although they had suffered many casualties, they had inflicted many more on the invaders.
At the same time, frustrated by the lack of progress, Horii deployed to the west
a unit of the 41st Regiment, led by Major Koiwai Mitsuo, tasking him to envelop Alola.
Aggressively, the Japanese then closely followed the Australian withdrawal on August 30, with the
rear elements of the Australians successfully holding them off while their comrades retreated.
Major Horie also began to press at the waterfall, but the defenders held them off as well . Soon,
the retreating forces passed through Alola and Potts decided to commence Maroubra’s
final withdrawal southwards to Eora village. During the withdrawal, many Australian units would
get lost in the jungles, requiring several days to successfully rejoin the bulk of Maroubra Force,
yet many would also be captured by the savage Japanese, who would later execute them. By
nightfall, the Japanese had secured Alola and had found there large amounts of food and ammunition,
something that relieved Horii in regards to the supply problem. But in their desperation,
the starving Japanese forces rushed to Alola and proceeded to devour all the food they could find.
With the Battle of Isurava now over, both sides had suffered heavy casualties. The
Japanese lost 140 men and had 230 wounded, while the Australians lost 100 men and had 110 wounded;
and though the Japanese had won the battle, they couldn’t allow themselves
to waste five days taking Isurava if they wanted to effectively capture Port Moresby.
By the morning of August 31, the depleted 2/14th Battalion was in position about a
mile south of Alola and the 2/16th Battalion was halfway between Alola and Eora, while both
the 36th and 53rd Battalions were sent further south towards Myola to be left out of battle.
On the other side, while the Japanese troops rested after the gruesome battle,
Horii received an order from General Hyakutake to advance on the southern slopes of the Owen
Stanley Range and hold that position until the second echelon of his forces arrived.
Despite the high troop losses and the increasing supply difficulties,
Horii stubbornly decided to press on with the offensive, immediately ordering the Yazawa
Detachment to chase the enemy towards Eora Creek, with the Koiwai Unit as its spearhead.
Knowing that the invaders were coming for him, Potts decided to execute a fighting withdrawal,
leapfrogging ambushes on the track as his forces dug in and carried out fanning movements around
the Japanese before pulling back to some new positions. This was done to gain enough time
to move the wounded and sick south and out of harm’s way, as the Australians knew full well
what the enemy would do to the wounded if they got their hands on them. By September 1, the 2/14th
and 2/16th had finally reached Eora, establishing defensive positions south of the village on the
high ground overlooking Templeton’s Crossing. At this point, moving through the narrow and
slippery track became increasingly difficult. The jungle got thicker; the humidity was unbearable;
rain fell almost every day and all night; and soldiers got wet through, shivering in the night
and early morning cold. For the Japanese, each mile they gained was met with a fire exchange,
losing a few more men as the Australians continued to retreat and set up ambushes.
During the afternoon of September 1, the 2/16th valiantly resisted
the storming attacks of the enemy until midnight, while the depleted 2/14th fell back behind them
and got half-through to Templeton’s Crossing. On the next morning, the 2/16th would finally
start their retreat, allowing the enemy to enter Eora village. There, the Japanese found
only abandoned huts, as the Australians now were destroying everything that couldn’t be carried.
This, coupled with the fact that provisions became damp and putrefied in the continual rain,
further intensified Horii’s supply problem, forcing the general to order a reduction in the
daily rice ration. Soon, hunger and desperation began to take a heavy toll on Horii’s men,
their discipline getting looser as a result. In the meantime,
the 2/16th’s men fought their way to Templeton’s Crossing, continuing their
retreat further south until they relieved the 2/14th Battalion on the afternoon of September 3.
At the Gap , a dip in the Owen Stanley about 7 miles wide, the 2/16th would soon be assaulted
by the Koiwai Unit. During this attack, however, Colonel Yazawa and Major Koiwai would argue about
the best approach for the assault, losing valuable time as a torrential downpour began
and forced both sides to rest for the night. Yet the Australians would soon withdraw towards Myola,
so Koiwai would have the honor of being the first to cross the saddle of the Owen Stanley Range.
For the Japanese, it was downhill from there towards Port Moresby and their expected victory.
The next objective, however, was Myola, the main supply hub of the Australians.
As the 2/14th had already taken up defensive positions on Myola, the 2/16th would fight a
series of rearguard actions against their pursuers during September 4, finally arriving at the supply
hub on the morning of September 5. The exhausted Australian soldiers then proceeded to eat their
fill of the stores which were being destroyed to prevent their use by the enemy. Myola was a wide
and flat alpine plain full of reeds and devoid of trees, a spot that would be easily circled.
In fact, Koiwai and Yazawa were already beginning to work around the flanks of the defenders,
so, although it sickened him at the time, Potts made the correct decision to abandon Myola
and withdraw further back towards Efogi. During a violent storm, the Yazawa Detachment then finally
entered Myola, with the South Seas Detachment quickly coming in behind them. Soaked and wet,
the hungry Japanese soldiers rapidly fell upon the rations that were left behind.
It’s not known whether they had been contaminated or not by the Australians, but the troops were
ill the next morning, suffering diarrhea from overeating the captured provisions.
Although this essentially marked the end of the struggle, it was only the start of Horii’s advance
along the Kokoda Track, so we’ll continue to cover this campaign on the next episode.
This week, however, also saw some new developments in other places of the Pacific. Back in early May,
the Battle of the Coral Sea had ended in defeat and the first Japanese attempt to occupy the
Nauru and Ocean Islands was also thwarted by the presence of American carriers nearby.
But although Operation RY had failed, it had only been postponed, with a second tentative
attempt scheduled for August. On August 26, a second invasion force finally departed Truk
and started its way towards Nauru. No enemy threat would materialize during their journey,
so navy units would disembark unopposed at Nauru on August 29
and on Ocean Island one day later. With this, the Japanese would secure their grip over
these islands and their rich phosphate industry, beginning a period of occupation of three years
in which the natives would have to endure forced labour and brutal treatment . In the meantime,
Admiral Mikawa and General Hyakutake continued to analyze how to carry out Operation Ka after
the defeat at the Eastern Solomons. Acknowledging the threat that posed Henderson Field to them,
the Japanese were sending wave after wave of air raiders to bombard the airstrip and
engage the American planes, while efforts to reinforce their depleted air power in Rabaul
were being carried out as well. Mikawa also formed the R Area Air Force during this period,
consisting of 52 float planes tasked with harassing the Americans at night.
On August 28, the experienced Kawaguchi Detachment finally arrived at Rabaul, and General Kawaguchi
immediately put his experience at Borneo in the service of his superiors.
Instead of getting transported directly to Guadalcanal, Kawaguchi proposed to take his
men to the Shortland Islands and then leapfrog to Guadalcanal by bound in barges. Yet Mikawa
and Hyakutake still believed their forces could be directly transported, so they sent a battalion of
the detachment towards Guadalcanal, an operation that ended in failure as American bombers soon
fell upon the convoy and inflicted much damage to the escorting destroyers. With the destroyer
admirals now disheartened to run into Guadalcanal, Kawaguchi’s plan was approved by Hyakutake,
yet the Japanese would employ fast destroyers instead of barges to transport the men.
Worth mentioning is that on August 27, General Vandegrift also decided to carry out a second
attack against the Matanikau, sending the 1st Battalion , 5th Marines to land west
of Kokumbona and sweep down the coast to reduce the strength of the Japanese as much as possible.
Due to the slow progress of this 900-men force, the Japanese would manage to rapidly outflank the
Marines in the jungles, forcing them to withdraw the next morning, with both sides suffering
light casualties . But that is it for this week, and next episode we’ll continue to cover the
continuation of the Battle of Milne Bay and the advance of Horii’s forces on the Kokoda Track,
so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it.
Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely. Our videos would be impossible
without our kind patrons and youtube channel members, whose ranks you can join via the links
in the description to know our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our discord,
and much more. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.