Kokoda

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by johnnyroad
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 is also not often recognised that the Australians were the first to defeat the German tactic of Blitzkreig in being able to resist and frustrate Rommel at Tobruk, in several repeated thrusts and attacks. Tobruk held for 18 months, although by the time it fell, the Aussies had left and Rommel was in the early stages of his long fighting retreat to Tunisia. This is the first time in the war that the Germans weren't able to overcome and take a specifically chosen target, and earnt the Australians Rommel's grudging respect as "Perhaps the finest soldiers in any army in the world".
(PS Peter Fitzsimmon's 2nd book is on Tobruk and is nearly twice as thick as his "Kokoda".)