Word: kokoda
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Dates: during 1942-1942
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Australians, guarding the gap above Kokoda, had tried to stop them along the single narrow trail that leads over the mountains. The Japs' methods were those they had used in Malaya and Burma. Monkeylike troops, with heads, legs and bodies painted green, filtered through the jungles. And the Australians retreated. Said an Australian officer: "They kept outflanking us and getting behind us. They could see us but we couldn't see them...
They met the Jap near Kokoda (where there is a usable airdrome) and stopped him. The enemy seemed confused at the kind of opposition he got. He came in force upon one small Allied patrol, saw it melt into the jungle before he could fire a shot. The little infantrymen fanned out and sprayed the underbrush with tommy-gun fire. They shouted: "You come, you come." But the patrol did not come. It pulled out without losing...
...military man in Port Moresby was foolish enough to think that this was a victory. There would be more Japs. They had Kokoda and they would probably try to force the pass. The threat to Port Moresby would be serious. If the enemy made his objective, he would have pushed the Allies a good 350 miles farther away from Japanese bases on New Guinea and New Britain. So Douglas MacArthur's ground soldiers were out to stop him short of the pass, while his airmen, with what strength they had, pecked at his new position on the northern coast...