Those Ragged Bloody Heros

by Peter Brune

Those Ragged Bloody Heroes tells the story of the Australian soldiers who fought on the Kokoda trail. From July to September 1942 the Japanese set about the capture of Port Moresby by an overland crossing of the Owen Stanley Range in conjunction with a landing at Milne Bay. Against a force of 10,000 crack Japanese troops on the Kokoda trail, the Allies committed one undertrained and poorly equipped unit, the 39th Battalion, the chocolate soldiers. Amidst ever-mounting enemy strength and ferocious fighting, the young militiamen were reinforced at Isurava by veterans of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division AIF