Australia's young Kokoda warriors who repulsed the powerful Japanese drive to capture Port Moresby in 1942 will feature in a remarkable film to be released on Anzac Day 2006.

This film focusses on one of the most important battles in Australia's short history as a nation - Isurava.

On 26 August 1942, about four hundred young soldiers of the 39th Australian Militia Battalion were all that stood between Japanese General Tomitaro Horii and Japan's primary strategic target in the South Pacific - Port Moresby. The administrative capital of Australian Papua was the last remaining Allied base on the island of New Guinea. Major General Horii had assembled 6,000 troops of Japan's elite South Seas Detachment between Kokoda and the small village of Isurava that is located on one of the high northern ridges of the rugged Owen Stanley Range. The Australians had dug in at Isurava and they were grimly prepared to sacrifice their lives to block the Japanese advance until help could reach them from two fresh Australian AIF battalions advancing in single file along the Kokoda Track from Port Moresby. The two AIF relieving battalions were being delayed on the track by an acute shortage of equipment and supplies produced by inept planning by senior commanders in Australia and Port Moresby.

Returning from the Battle of Isurava, soldiers of the 39th Australian Infantry Battalion trudge through deep mud on the hellish Kokoda Track. In heavy fighting under appalling conditions, these heroes have played a vital role at Kokoda, Deniki, and Isurava in blunting the momentum of the Japanese advance towards Australia. AWM 013288

The situation of the Australian militia soldiers at Isurava was desperate. Although heavily outnumbered, they had held the more heavily armed and combat toughened Japanese at bay for a month and blocked their entry to the Kokoda Track. The Australians were exhausted by constant fighting. They were starving and their uniforms were reduced to rags. They had only rifles and light machine guns to pit against a fiercely determined enemy equipped with mountain artillery, mortars, and heavy machine guns. After probing attacks for weakness on 26 August, the Japanese launched wave after wave of suicide attacks on the thinly defended Australian perimeter on 27 August 1942. By sheer weight of numbers the Japanese were able to breach the Australian lines. In fierce fighting, the Japanese were repulsed and the Australian lines held. The hard-pressed Australian defenders were joined at Isurava on that afternoon and over the following day by battle toughened AIF soldiers of the 2/14th Battalion, AIF 7th Division. The Australians were still outnumbered at Isurava by at least six to one, and although clearly unfit for combat, the gallant soldiers of the 39th Battalion declined to be relieved and stayed to support their AIF comrades.

The resolute stand by the exhausted and starving troops of the 39^th Battalion against massive and repeated Japanese frontal assaults, throughout the day of 27 August 1942, deserves to rank as one of the great defences in military history. If the young militia troops of the 39^th Battalion had been unable to resist the awesome power of the Japanese attacks until relieved late in the day by AIF troops, Major General Horii's drive to Port Moresby would have achieved an instant momentum that would probably have been unstoppable.

Over four days at Isurava, the Australians inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese and blunted the momentum of the Japanese drive towards Port Moresby. The stubborn resistance of the Australians at Isurava wrecked the Japanese timetable for crossing the Kokoda Track, gave time for Australian reinforcements to be brought up, and paved the way for the ultimate defeat of Major General Tomitaro Horii’s army before it could reach Port Moresby.

If Port Moresby had been captured, the Japanese would have secured the anchor for their plan (Operation FS) to cut off Australia completely from American support. Much of northern Australia would have been brought within range of Japanese bombers operating from Port Moresby. The course of the Pacific War would almost certainly have been greatly changed.

As Australia's fate hung in the balance on the Kokoda Track, the blame for this crisis could be clearly sheeted home to Generals MacArthur and Blamey in Australia who had ignored intelligence warnings that the Japanese were intending to capture Port Moresby by crossing the Owen Stanley Range. To save themselves from dismissal, and to their everlasting shame, MacArthur and Blamey resorted to disgraceful lies. They claimed falsely that the Australians outnumbered the Japanese and were retreating because they were poor fighters. To lend credence to these lies, Blamey felt it necessary to remove the field commanders in New Guinea who had laid the foundation for the ultimate Japanese defeat on the Kokoda Track.

The young Australian heroes faced overwhelming odds and suffered appalling losses on the bloody Kokoda Track. By their heroism, they have truly earned the right to be called "the men who saved Australia". The producers of the film "Kokoda" are to be congratulated for bringing a defining episode of Australia's wartime history to the screen. Find out more about this film and view trailers at the "Kokoda" film web-site.

James Bowen's final comment

If the film "Kokoda" lives up to the trailers at its web-site, it will be compelling viewing and should fill all Australians with pride. Read about the background to this very important film in the Kokoda chapters of the Battle for Australia Web-site.