The main burden of the fight to force the Japanese to retreat over the Owen Stanley Ranges was left to the Australian Army.

If the Japanese successfully crossed the mountain range and had successfully invaded Port Moresby they were only a very short distance away from Australia. The Allied Forces had to defeat them before this could happen. This job was placed in the hands of the Australian Army, and the story of the Kokoda Track was now in action.

The Japanese had decided to invade Port Moresby with a fleet of ships, as Port Moresby if captured made Australia significantly easy to invade. This invasion was turned back by the Battle of the Coral Sea. As the Japanese first invasion of Port Moresby did not go through, the Japanese sent a fleet of 1,800 men to the Buna-Gona area on July 21, 1942, to determine whether or not the Kokoda Track was of any value to attack Port Moresby.

Major-General Tomitaro Horii's troops were confronted with hardly any opposition from

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the Australian Maroubra Force (400 hundred men from the 39th Battalion and members of the Papuan Infantry) and in only one week the Japanese had captured the Kokoda Village. In Rabaul, the commander of the Japanese XVII Army, Lieutenant-General Harukichi Hyakutake, astounded by how quick and easily his troops had advanced he ordered Horii to make an attack on Port Moresby.

Published in 1991 by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd

Published 1970 by The Readers Digest Association Proprietary Limited

Brigadier Porter relieved Potts and took command on September 10. Potts returned to Port Moresby to report the situation. By now the Australians had withdrawn to Ioribaiwa and were extremely tired, but with the arrival of Brigadier K. W. Eather's 25th Brigade on September 14, the Japanese were held at Ioribaiwa Ridge. Unable to make a worthwhile base for an offensive against the Japanese, Eather and Porter requested permission to withdraw to Imita Ridge. General Rowell approved this withdrawal, but stressed that "any further withdrawal is out of the que

Some common words found in the essay are:
Port Moresby, Range September, Japanese AIF, Ridge Horii's, Maroubra Force, Kokoda Track, Kokoda Horii's, Ridge Rowell, Harukichi Hyakutake, Brigadier Porter, port moresby, kokoda track, 39th battalion, australian army, story kokoda track, horii's troops, japanese troops, story kokoda, maroubra force, attack port, extremely tired, advance japanese troops, attack port moresby,
Approximate Word count = 754
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)