World War II · Film · 2006
Kokoda
A section of young Australian militiamen, cut off behind Japanese lines on the Kokoda Track, struggles through jungle, disease and ambushes to rejoin the desperate stand at Isurava.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Kokoda Track
On forward patrol the section is hit by a Japanese attack, loses its officer and is cut off in the jungle, sick with malaria and dysentery.
Stop 2: Isurava
Key location
The survivors stagger into Isurava and, barely able to stand, volunteer to hold the line through a night of Japanese assaults.
What really happened
Japanese troops landed near Buna and Gona on the north coast of Papua on 21 July 1942 and pushed south along the Kokoda Track, a 96-kilometre footpath over the Owen Stanley Range toward Port Moresby. The poorly trained 39th Battalion militia fought delaying actions at Kokoda and then held Isurava with the arriving 2/14th and 2/16th Battalions from 26 to 31 August.
The Australians fell back to within sight of Port Moresby before the Japanese withdrew in late September, and the campaign became a founding story of modern Australian identity, along with the Papuan carriers known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. The film's section is fictional; the famous parade of the exhausted 39th took place at Menari rather than Isurava.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Kokoda
- Directed by
- Alister Grierson
- Countries
- Australia
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Released
- 2006
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Pacific
- Themes
- Combat
