Kokoda Track campaign

With the sea route to Port Moresby blocked after Coral Sea, Japan tried to reach it overland. A force landed near Gona on July 21 and 22, 1942 and pushed south along a single mountain track through the Owen Stanley Range, until by mid-September it was close enough that Imita Ridge was the last barrier before the town. The Australians fought a long retreat and then a pursuit, retaking Kokoda on November 2. More than 600 Australians were killed and over a thousand wounded, and perhaps three times as many fell ill. The campaign could not have been fought without the Papuan carriers who moved rations and ammunition forward and the wounded back. For Australia it remains the defining battle of the war.