|
IMDB rating: 6.20 Plot: A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II. |
Actors: Finsterer Jack,McMahon Travis,Stone Simon,Ford Luke,Budge Tom,Le Marquand Steve,Sampson Angus,Baker Christopher,Leslie Ewen,Barrack Ben,Bourne Shane,McInnes William,Taylor Darren,Stibbard Lucas,Gunn Jeffey,Drama,War,
Does Australia owe its survival to the soldiers who fought in Kokoda?
There is a debate on whether Australia was fighting for it’s survival in 1942 because it is unknown whether the Japanese would invade it. If invasion theory was true, does Australia owe it’s survival solely to the soldiers who fought in Kokoda and the New Guinea campaign or must the Battle of Midway and Coral Sea be taken into account? Who does Australia owe it’s survival to?
However, if this invasion was a myth, what threatened Australia’s suvival that it was compelled to send out it’s troops? What were those men fighting for?
The initial goal of the Japanese campaign in SE Asia was to seize the oil fields of Indonesia / Borneo.
Check.
Drive out Allied bases in the area that would interfere with the supply lines. Singapore, Philippines, Indo China.
Check.
Extend Japanese bases west to interfere with British attempts to retake those bases. Burma campaign.
Check.
Extend Japanese bases southeast to interfere with American/Australian attempts to build up forces to counterattack from that direction. Rabaul, Port Morsbrey, Guadalcanal.
Ooops.
Once the Japanese had established bases in New Guinea to support bases in the Solomons to attack the supply line from America to Australia, the next step was to eliminate the ability of Australia to be used as a threat against them, which was invade somewhere north of Brisbane and drive south.
The Japanese were not only concerned with the oil of the Dutch East Indies, but like their German allies, something called lieberstrand, literally "Living Room". Japan is CROWDED. China is filled with Chinese. Australia was a whole continent , comparatively barely settled, with a few people who could become comfort women or slave laborers, who’s army was 7,000 miles away fighting the Italians in North Africa.
The Japanese never had a detailed plan for Australia, the way, say, the Germans had "Sea Lion" for England, but it was next.
and yes, you Aussies owe your survival to the few Australian ..and one US regiment…that fought in those hellish conditions; to the improbable alliance of a vain aristocratic genius American general and a radical leftist Prime Minister who saw that "Australia must be defended in New Guinea"…….and yes, to the USN that stopped the sea born invasion of Port Morsebry which would have cut off the Allied troops ashore at Coral Sea; and to the USN ( and the cruisers Australia and Canberra ) and the US Marine Corps that stopped the right flank attack on the communication lines at Guadalcanal.
yankee_sailor | Oct 20, 2009
