The Kokoda Trail is part of Australian military folklore.
During July
to September 1942 the Japanese set about the capture of Port Moresby by an
overland crossing of the Owen Stanley Range, and a landing in Milne Bay. To
oppose a force of 10,000 crack Japanese troops on the Kokoda Trail, the Allies
committed one under-trained and poorly-equipped unit - the 39th Battalion, later
reinforced by Veterans of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division AIF. These were then
men of Maroubra Force.
The Australians put up a desperate fight. They
withdrew village by village, forcing the Japanese to fight for every inch of
ground. Finally at Ioribaiwa, the Japanese turned away, beaten and exhausted.
The Australian soldiers' reward for their remarkable achievement was denigration
by the High Command - General Blamey called them 'running rabbits'.
Then
in December 1942 when the fighting at the beachheads had produced little
success, the former members of Maroubra Force captured Gona after heavy fighting
- but at tragic cost.
Those Ragged Bloody Heroes is the story of those
battles told as never before, through the eyes of the Australian soldiers who
fought there. It is a story that raises serious questions about the planning and
command of the Kokoda and Gona campaigns.
Those Ragged Bloody Heroes is a
stirring history of triumph, tragedy and controversy set in the mud and steaming
jungle of the Kokoda Trail and the fireswept beaches at Gona.
About Peter Brune
Peter Brune is a leading authority
and writer on the Australian campaigns in New Guinea in World War II. He has had
exclusive access to much of the information he has gathered over recent years,
including interviews with many of the survivors, several of whom have now passed
away.
First published in 1991, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes was Peter's
first book. He has gone on to write a number of bestsellers; The Spell Broken,
We Band of Brothers, and A Bastard of a Place and has co-authored with Neil
McDonald 200 Shots: Damien Parer and George Silk and the Australians at War in
New Guinea
Peter Brune is a school teacher and lives in
Adelaide.
Contents:
Foreward -
Acknowledgments - Abbreviations - Peace in our time - The threshold of fear -
The devils design - No do-or-die stunts - A desperate baptism - On our last
bloody legs - Confident even cocksure - Unawed in the gates of death - Rupert's
Clinic - Full of fight but utterly weary - A question of momentum - 92 this way
- The rabbit that runs - To the beach-head - Not to reason why - Embarrassed to
be alive - Silent - Notes - Bibliography - Index
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