Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Isurava 1942 - Australia's Thermopylae

  1. #1

    Default Isurava 1942 - Australia's Thermopylae

    Anzac Day

    Today is Anzac Day - the closest thing we Aussies have to a truly sacred national day. April 25th marks the anniversary of the beginning of the disasterous Gallipoli Campaign, which was the first campaign in which Australian troops fought as an independent nation. The fact that Gallipoli ultimately ended in a heroic defeat has shaped Aussie attitudes towards war. In many ways it's a good thing that we commemorate our service men and women, past and present, on the date of a ultimately futile defeat rather than any glorious victory.

    Like millions of other Australians, I'll be heading out this morning to watch the Anzac Day Parade through Sydney and cheer on the old 'diggers' from past wars. Then we'll head over to our local pub for an afternoon of drinking and playing the traditional Anzac Day games of Two Up; which shows that, in true Australian style, no sacred day can't be made even more sacred by large amounts of beer and gambling.

    While Anzac Day falls on the anniversary of Gallipoli, it is a commemoration of all Australian campaigns, wars and service; past and (unfortunately) present. One more recent campaign which is, belatedly, finally getting the recognition it deserves is the Aussie defence of the Kokoda Track in New Guinea in 1942. This was a desperate battle against the, until then, unbeaten and supposedly invincible Japanese Imperial Army. Against incredible odds, largely untried, poorly trained and badly equipped Australian troops maintained a fighting withrawal through the jungle of the New Guinea highlands and, despite being outnumbered 10-1, managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Japanese. The Japanese path to Port Morseby was blocked, their planned invasion of Australia was thwarted and the Aussies went on to totally crush the Japanese Army in New Guinea and helped turn the tide of the Pacific War.

    Of all the battles fought in that grim campaign, none demonstrates the incredible odds and desperate heroism of the Australian troops better than the Battle of Isurava, which has been rightly called "Australia's Thermopylae".

    The Prelude

    In July 1942, the Japanese landed on the north coast of New Guinea and began an advance in force southwards, heading over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Ranges towards Port Morseby on the south coast. New Guinea was at that time Australian territory and the Japanese knew if they could take the port and air strips there they could not only severely disrupt Allied operations in the south Pacific but also potentially invade northern Australia, robbing US General Douglas MacArthur of the primary staging area for his war in the area.

    MacArthur, on the other hand, underestimated the strategic significance of the Japanese invasion of New Guinea. Ignoring sound intelligence, he decided that the invasion was simply to establish a supply beachhead in northern New Guinea. Even when Allied Command in Brisbane received word of the Japanese push south, he regarded this as simply a reconissance-in-strength.

    New Guinea was already seriously under-defended. With most of Australia's best regular troops either still deployed in the Mediterranean or en route back from that theatre, most of the troops in New Guinea were poorly trained and badly equipped militia. They were issued with equipment suitable for desert fighting but totally inadequate for the jungle terrain of New Guinea, where the constant rains and stifling heat of the day gave way to freezing conditions at night. Most of the Aussie soldiers wore desert uniforms which were useless for camoflague in the jungle, many of them had barely learned rifle drill, most of the machine gunners had only fired their weapons a few times and some mortar crews didn't even know how to assemble their weapons.

    Due to incompetence at the highest level, at a time when a crack infantry force of the best jungle fighters in the world was advancing across Australian territory, the troops sent to meet them were the lowest grade forces Australia had to offer.

    Retreat to Isurava

    As forward elements of the Japanese Army moved south, a small unit of Aussie troops from the 39th Militia Battalion were sent north over the Owen Stanley Ranges to establish an airstrip and supply base at Kokoda.



    Even getting to Kokoda was an ordeal. The Kokoda Track was, in most places, a mud-covered series of steep ascents through the rainforest where soldiers and native carriers could barely manage a single file. Boots and uniforms quickly disintergrated in the torrential rain and progress was painfully slow, hampered further by problems of supply of food and fresh water and outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever and chronic dysentry.

    On getting to Kokoda, the Aussies found that most of the expected air-dropped supplies had been lost or had never arrived. Patchy intelligence also totally underestimated the numbers of Japanese forces advancing towards the makeshift base, and the Australians soon found themselves under fierce attack by at least 6000 enemy troops. They were driven from Kokoda, retook it the next day but, on July 29 1942, were forced to retreat back up the mountains to the village of Isurava.

    Preparing for Battle

    With the loss of Kokoda, the rest of the 39th Battalion, and the Militia's 340th Brigade were sent to reinforce Isurava. These troops - codenamed 'Maroubra Force' - were ordered to hold Isurava while Allied Commanders, finally realising the seriousness of what was happening in New Guinea, diverted the veteran 7th Division from Australia to Port Morseby. With these veteran crack troops still in transit, all that stood between the Japanese and Port Morseby and therefore northern Australia, were 400 poorly trained, badly equipped, under supplied and already shaken militia.

    Advancing against them was the full force of Major-General Tomitaro Horii's 10,000 strong South Seas Force, including crack units such as the 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force and veteran jungle warfare experts who had yet to be beaten in a year of victorious campaigning. They were lightly equipped, could live off the land and were supported by rapid-firing mountain artillery.

    Horii's strategy was based on rapid movement, since his force was deliberately lightly equipped and supplied to enable speedy advances. He needed to overun Isurava quickly and push on over the Owen Stanleys as rapidly as possible.

    As a result, he ordered 2500 of his best troops straight at the Australian positions; intending massed frontal assaults, supported by mortars and mountain guns, while constantly probing the flanks of the Aussies in attempts at envelopment.

    The Aussies, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Honner, dug in around the village using tin hat helmets, bully beef cans and their bare hands. Honner read the ground correctly and decided that Horii - pressed for time - would have to try to take the village by direct assault. He sent out standing patrols to slow the enemy advance and 'hold him at arm's length for as long as possible' and then positioned the rest of his small force in defensive positions with overlapping fields of fire where possible. With only 36 hours to prepare his defences and knowing the relief forces of the crack veteran Aussie battalions were still days away, Honner and his green militia troops waited for the first assault.

    The Battle of Isurava

    At midday on August 26th a forward patrol of the 39th Battalion was heavily engaged by Japanese troops and the village of Isurava began to be shelled and mortared. Two patrol platoons managed to fight off the inital attacks but couldn't locate the mountain gun that was shelling the village. The advance fighting went on into the night and eventually one patrol, having taken heavy casualties, were forced to fall back to the village. The other was cut off and considered lost.

    On the morning of the 27th, Horii began his attacks on Isurava itself, sending in waves of troops under artillery support while deploying one battalion around his left flank to try to outflank the Aussies and cut their line of supply and retreat.

    Honner's men held their positions against all attacks and the fighting ebbed and flowed all day. At one point Honner left his position and went to a creek behind the lines for a much needed wash. As he got there a breathless runner came up and told him that the 39th's E Company position was being overrun. Seeing E Company's commander, Captain Merritt, at the creek halfway through having a shave, Honner said 'Captain Merritt, when you finish your shave, will you go to your company. The Japs have broken through your perimeter.' Merritt dropped his razor and sprinted back to his position. 'It seemed such a pity to disturb him' Honner commented later.

    The half-shaven Merritt rallied his men and, supported by a reserve company, threw the Japanese back. But it was the 39th's B Company which bore the brunt of the attacks. B Company had been criticised for their earlier performance at Kokoda and Honner deliberately placed them in the line of the main attack, trusting their former defeat would inspire them to fight all the harder.

    B Company rose to the occasion, fighting ferociously in the face of constant attacks and overwhelming odds. When they were on the point of being overrun, Honner recalled a patrolling company of the 2/14th Battalion under Captain Nye from the jungle to the west. Using their two platoons and mortars, Honner closed the pincers on the Japanese attacking the sorely pressed B Company and, as night fell, drove them back.

    On the third morning of the battle, the 39th was finally reinforced by elements of the 2/14th and 2/16th - 'just as we were on our last bloody legs' Honner later wrote. But the Japanese attacks began again at dawn and the accompanied bambardment of the Aussies continued non-stop until 8 am. Then wave after wave of seemingly insane Japanese assaults began, with fighting with bayonets spilling into the village at times. In the afternoon Horii turned his attention to attempted flanking moves. August 29th saw the heaviest fighting yet, with Horii almost succeeding in taking Honner's flanks and Honner always managing to reinforce pressed units at the right moment.

    At one point, on the brink of being overrun yet again, a group of signals staff led by Sergeant Bob Thompson was forced to reinforce the right flank. Thompson ordered his twelve men to fix bayonets and charge to support what was left of C Company's 9th Platoon. One of the 9th Platoon survivors was Private Bruce Kingsbury:

    He rushed forward, firing the Bren gun from his hip through terrific machine-gun fire, and succeeded in clearing a path through the enemy. Continuing to sweep enemy positions with his fire, and inflicting an extremely high number of casualties upon them, Private Kingsbury was then seen to fall to the ground, shot dead by the bullet from a sniper hiding in the wood.

    Kingsbury's efforts stopped the Japanese attack on the right in its tracks and he was postumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism. He was the first Australian to win a VC on Australian soil.

    It was around this point that the 'lost patrol' which had been cut off four days before managed to emerge from the jungle behind Isurava. They were in terrible condition, nearly crippled, all wounded and most sick, having fought their way south over four days of extreme hardship. But when they heard the rest of the 39th was sorely pressed at Isurava, they got up without a word and headed to the village to join the fight and help their mates.

    By the end of August 29th, however, Honner could see the battle was over. Having delayed the Japanese for over four days and inflicted heavy casualties, the surviving Aussies at Isurava were about to be outflanked. Honner began a fighting withdrawal that night and pulled what was left of his tiny force out of the village under the cover of darkness.

    Victory

    The Battle of Isurava was just the beginning of one of the most hard-fought and difficult campaigns of the Pacific War. For the next few weeks the Australians drew Horii's troops deeper and deeper into the Owen Stanley Ranges. Every day they delayed the superior Japanese forces the weaker Horii's men got and the longer his overstretched supply lines became. Meanwhile the green militia troops who had held the enemy for those critical four days were now being reinforced by fresh veterans of North Africa, Greece and Syria.

    Eventually the Australians began a rapid counter-offensive against the exhaused and badly-supplied Japanese. After days of hard fighting, the Japanese eventually began to retreat back up the track and their withdrawal soon turned into a rout. Major-General Horii was a victim of this disorderly retreat - he was swept out to sea during the crossing of the Mumusi River and was never seen again.

    'Ragged Bloody Heroes'

    In a bizarre epilogue to this story, after their defeat of the formerly invincible Japanese Army, the men of 'Maroubra Force' were assembled by the Australian Supreme Commander, General Thomas Blamey. The troops expected to be congratulated on their amazing victory, but instead Blamey gave them a dressing down for being 'beaten' and for 'running'. "Remember," Blamey was reported as saying, "it's the rabbit who runs that gets shot, not the man holding the gun."

    The troops were so outraged that their officers had trouble restraining them from shouting abuse at Blamey, who'd spent the entire campaign back in Australia and clearly had little idea what had just been achieved. Most of the troops refused the 'eyes right' order as they were marched away, ignoring Blamey on parade. When Blamey visited some of the wounded later, the nurses smuggled lettuce leaves into the hospital so the men could nibble on them while the General inspected his 'rabbits'. Blamey is a reviled figure in Aussie military history to this day.

    But the men of the Kokoda Track eventually got the recognition they deserved. The 'ragged bloody heroes' of the Kokoda Track and the other victories of Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda broke the back of the Japanese advance through the Pacific, destroyed the myth of the invincible Japanese and helped turn the tide of the Pacific War. In about an hour I'll be standing with my mates as we cheer men from the 39th Battalion and the other units who held out for four critical days at Australia's Thermopylae.


    "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not
    weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the
    morning, we will remember them. Lest we forget."




    Peter Brune, A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua
    The Battle for Australia: The Kokoda Campaign

  2. #2

    Default Re: Isurava 1942 - Australia's Thermopylae

    Interesting. I wonder if the Japanese invaded Australia before Pearl Harbor, how the rest of the war in the Pacific would have ended up. You think Australia would've held out or lost against the Japanese? The natural resources that country has would've definitely helped out in the Japs war effort.
    In Patronicum sub Seleukos.

    I am the living death
    The memorial day on wheels
    I am your yankee doodle dandy
    Your John Wayne come home
    Your Fourth of July firecracker
    Exploding in the grave -- Ron Kovic

  3. #3
    Obi Wan Asterix's Avatar IN MEDIO STAT VIRTUS
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Somewhere in a lost valley in the Italian Alps
    Posts
    7,671

    Default Re: Isurava 1942 - Australia's Thermopylae

    Well New Guinea and Port Moresby were easier to hold than Australia. In my opinion this was actually the last stand... the heroic respulying of Port Moresby by sea despite massive losses to transports made it possible.
    All are welcome to relax at Asterix's Campagnian Villa with its Vineyard and Scotchbarrel
    Prefer to stay at home? Try Asterix's Megamamoth FM2010 Update
    Progeny of the retired Great Acutulus (If you know who he is you have been at TWC too long) and wooer of fine wombs to spawn 21 curial whining snotslingers and be an absentee daddy to them

    Longest Serving Staff Member of TWC under 3 Imperators** 1st Speaker of the House ** Original RTR Team Member (until 3.2) ** Knight of Saint John ** RNJ, Successors, & Punic Total War Team Member

    TROM 3 Team - Founder of Ken no Jikan **** Back with a modding vengeance! Yes I will again promise to take on the work of 5 mods and dissapear!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •