Body 1:
Fighting against the Japanese on the Kokoda track was a horrific for the Australian soldiers because this battle was jungle warfare. Jungle warfare is a term used to cover the special techniques needed for military units to survive and fight in jungle terrain. It has been the topic of extensive study by military strategists, and was an important part of the planning for both sides in many conflicts, including World War II and the Vietnam War.
In This battle of the Kokoda track the attacker, who is manoeuvring, often cannot find his way and becomes lost. His sub-units cannot see each other so cannot easily coordinate fire and movement. The defender, who is in his fighting pit, cannot direct his fire on targets hidden by thick…show more content… You'd come to a group of men and say 'Come on! We must go on.' But it was physically impossible to move - many were lying down and had been sick ... many made several trips up the last slope helping others. We began to see some of the tremendous effort the troops were going to make to help the lesser ones in. Found many of the battalion [at Ioribaiwa] lying exhausted, some ate, others lay and were sick, others just lay. Some tried to eat but couldn't. [Unnamed officer of the 2/14th Battalion, quoted in Dudley McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area - First Year, Canberra, 1962,…show more content… Also the soldiers had some of the worst sicknesses and diseases out there, the two biggest problems were malaria and dysentery but soldiers also suffered from dengue fever and scrub typhus.
Body 2:
The Australians along the Kokoda track did entirely without artillery except for a few days from 21 September 1942. When the Japanese were on Ioribaiwa Ridge, at the limit of their advance, two 25lb guns of 14th Field Regiment were dragged up to Owers' Corner from where they were able to fire on the enemy.
The Japanese experience of war in China in the 1930s had taught them that in remote road-less regions the only artillery they would have was what they carried with them. On first landing in Papua they had 17 artillery pieces. These were of three types; 75mm mountain guns, 70mm infantry guns and 37mm guns which could fire an anti-tank or an anti-personnel round. All three could be taken apart and carried by horse or man. When the Japanese advanced into the Owen Stanley Range the carrying of the guns and their ammunition had to be done by men alone. One fifth of their force was needed to shoulder the burden of the disassembled guns and several thousand rounds of