Kokoda

[johnnyroad]

Sorry about the tardy response; I spend my summers north of sixty, without computer access and only sporadically attend these most interesting sites.
Re the Kokoda campaign, there is at least one other published description of this series of dreadful and critical battles. It appeared in the fifties and was written by Raymond Paul under the title "Retreat from Kokoda" - originally printed by Heinemann in 1958, with a Panther paper back put out in 1960.
As you say, the performance of the Aussie Infantry in this fighting seems to be second to none during the whole of the second world war and should be appropriately known.
About five years ago I remember seeing (in "Legion" magazine) the per capita casualty figures for all of the participating Western Nations involved in the last war and was surprised to find that the only nation with a higher per capita loss rate than Canada was Australia.
In a related book dealing with the New Guinea fighting, (Bloody Buna by Lida Mayo) the point was raised that it was the Aussies who inflicted the first categorical land defeat on the Japanese after Pearl Harbour, when they crushed the landings at Milne Bay.
It's clear that they suffer from the same handicap as we do, that of being overshadowed by the "big brothers", U.K. and U.S.A.
Paul's account was spellbinding and I'll look for the Fitzsimons book to read more about this terrible campaign.