Kokoda Track Research Paper

There were many reasons for the allied victory on the Kokoda Track. One of the major factors contributing to the Allied victory was their superior supply line providing soldiers with essential provisions. An American operation at Guadalcanal diverted Japanese troops away from the Kokoda Track, giving the allies an advantage. The Allies had numerical superiority during the middle to end of the New Guinea campaign allowing them to refresh exhausted troops. Finally the Allies had the assistance of the Papuans who carried supplies and cared for their wounded troops. At the beginning of the campaign the Allies were unsuccessful, however this changed as they began to gain the advantages of supplies, numerical superiority, alternate Pacific battles

This put them at a distinct disadvantage however this changed when Australian Infantry Forces (AIF) arrived. After this the allies on Kokoda had almost double the number of the Japanese troops who had 22,000 troops. This meant the Allies had strength in numbers hence they could withdraw tired, exhausted and sick troops and replace them with fresh ones more often than the Japanese. If the Australians hadn’t been able to call on more troops than the Japanese on the Kokoda Track, they would not have been able to drive back Japanese troops and therefore win the New Guinea campaign. Australia was closer to Papua than Japan and held a large reserve of Allied troops, which meant groups of soldiers could be delivered to Papua quicker than the Japanese could. The Japanese also had to dispense huge numbers of soldier’s elsewhere as they had many fronts to protect such as China and the Dutch East Indies. Another reason for Allied numerical superiority on Kokoda was that Papua campaign was a high priority for the Allies, but initially a lower priority for the Japanese as it was just a tactical securing of Pacific which they thought would be easy to gain. 92-year-old Bede Tongs survivor of Kokoda states in an interview that "We were fighting for Australia. Our friends died for Australia,’ this displays how the Australians saw Kokoda campaign as an extremely important battle as they believed that if Japan captured Port Moresby Australia would be invaded. An example of when Allied numbers assisted on the Kokoda Track was at Buna and Gona where the Allies initially failed because their 10,000 men were no match for the equal number of Japanese entrenched defenders. However with the Allied reinforcements, field guns and tanks the Japanese could not compete and so the battle turned in the allies favour. This is just one example where Allied numerical