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Kokoda Papua New Guinea (Clear)

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The iconic image of the Kokoda campaign. Taken by Damien Parer, it portrays members of the 39th Militia Battalion, AMF, on parade after weeks of fighting in dense jungle in appalling, debilitating conditions under constant pressure from the advancing Japanese, during the Kokoda campaign. The officer in front is Lieutenant Johnson. The men behind him are left to right, Armie Wallace, Bill Sanders, Harry Hodge, Kevin Surtees, George Cudmore, GeorgePuxley Kevin Whelan, Len Murrell, Dick Secker, Neil Graham, Clive Gale and Jack Boland.

The iconic image of the Kokoda campaign. Taken by Damien Parer, it portrays members of the 39th Militia Battalion, AMF, parade after weeks of fighting in dense jungle during the Kokoda campaign. The officer in front is Lieutenant Johnson. The men behind him are left to right, Armie Wallace, Bill Sanders, Harry Hodge, Kevin Surtees, George Cudmore, GeorgePuxley Kevin Whelan, Len Murrell, Dick Secker, Neil Graham, Clive Gale and Jack Boland.
Soldiers of the 2nd/27th Battalion, cut off from the Brigade withdrawal from Mission Ridge, finally regain touch with their colleagues after almost two weeks with very little food. They brought in the wounded of the their own and two other Battalions of the 21st Brigade.
Men of the 39th Battalion's D Company make their way along the track in the course of their delaying defence. From right to left: Warrant Officer 2 R. Marsh, Privates G. Palmer, J. Manol, J. Tonkins, A. Forrester, and Gallipoli veteran Staff Sergeant J. Long.....AWM 013288
Australian soldiers with captured Japanese weapons including the dreaded 75mm mountain gun
The Australians of the 16th Brigade assemble near Eora Creek in the Owen Stanley Ranges for an attack on Japanese positions near Kokoda. These men at least have Bren Guns, but supply problems thwarted the attempt to retake Kokoda and instead the epic defence of Isurava was conducted.
A US C47 Dakota conducts a supply drop at Nauro Village. Supplies were free dropped and suffered high loss rates on impact, and being lost in trees and swamps, leading to an overestimation of supplies stockpiled forward. Mde worse when a Japanese air raid took out most of the available C47s at Port Moresby.
Corporal Jim Canty was one of the heavily out-numbered heroes of the 39th Australian Infantry Battalion who blocked the passage of Japanese troops along the Kokoda Track, until relieved by the 16th Brigade.
Damien Parer's cine film of Kokoda

https://aso.gov.au/titles/newsreels/road-to-kokoda/clip1/
I could see no chance of getting back home as I often heard the noise of the guns coming nearer and nearer after us. We passed Manari and on and on, getting up at 4AM every day and started the journey fearing of aeroplanes. At Efogi they were short of soldiers and got us to help them carry the guns. I thought of a way to hide from the Japanese and meet the Australians, but I had no chance… things went on like this until we reached Kokoda. Fred Boski, excerpt of diary AWM2020.8.1464. Conscripted by the Japanese as a porter, he fled and joined the Australians.
Hampered by a lack of any heavy weapons in the early phases of the campaign, the arrival of the 'Short' 25 pounder gun, a heavily modified version of the original produced by the Australian Ordnance factories in quick time, at last gave the Australians overmatch for the Japanese 75mm mountain gun, later in the campaign. But not without a lot of physical effort by the gunners.

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