Talk:Battle of Kokoda

Military history: Asian / South Pacific / Japanese / World War II

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re: Background[edit]

From McCarty (and others) this is what I understand. Templeton and Watson (with a Pl of 39th and some PIB) after an initial engagement west of Wairopi, had withdrawn to a second of the 39ths platoons forward of Kokoda and were joined by a half platoon of D Coy (landed by air). Most of the PIB had disappeared by this stage. Note, the initial Pl of 39th had also operated east of the Kumusi (not just PIB). Templeton, expecting the other half of the D Coy Pl went back but "disappeared". This force broke contact. Owens was at Kokoda and sent the second half of the D Coy Pl forward (that followed in a second plane - more planes arrived next day with more of D Coy but did not land - nobody home?). Owens decided to abandon Kokoda and destroyed what he could - proceeding to Deniki with the platoon that was holding Kokoda. He met with the force (now under Watson - previously Templeton) there. Meanwhile second half of the D Coy Pl had withdrawn back to Kokoda and then Deniki - reporting Kokoda had not been occupied. Owens then Reoccupied Kokoda. It was then, that a Coy of the 49th did not land to reinforce and the first engagement took place in which Owen was killed. It was during just as the first engagement commenced that planes carrying part of the 49th aborted their landing. Comments pls Cinderella157 (talk) 13:29, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

G'day, unfortunately I don't have all of the books used in the article at the moment (I've ordered Williams and Australia 1942 from the library, so they should hopefully be here in a week or two...takes a while to get them up here). However, Brune p. 108 mentions the 49th making an attempt on 9 August during the second engagement also. Thompson p. 326 mentions this also, but does not identify the troops as being from the 49th Bn. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:25, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]