After Fighting 300 Australians, the Japanese Estimated They'd Faced 1,200

Описание: After Fighting 300 Australians, the Japanese Estimated They'd Faced 1,200

July 1942. The Japanese South Seas Force lands in Papua New Guinea with a single objective: cross the Owen Stanley Range, capture Port Moresby, and cut Australia off from America.

Standing in their way? Approximately 300 Australian militia soldiers. Average age: eighteen and a half. Combat experience: zero. Back home, regular army troops called them "chocos" – chocolate soldiers – because everyone expected them to melt under pressure.

They didn't melt.

Instead, these teenage soldiers fought with such ferocity that battle-hardened Japanese veterans – men who had conquered Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies – became convinced they were facing a force of 1,000 to 1,200 men.

This is the story of the Kokoda Track Campaign – one of the most remarkable intelligence failures of World War Two, and one of the most desperate defensive actions in Pacific War history.

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📚 CHAPTERS:
0:00 – The Impossible Numbers
[Add timestamps after final edit]

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🎖️ KEY FIGURES:
Lieutenant Colonel William Owen – Commander, 39th Battalion (KIA July 29, 1942)
Captain Samuel Templeton – Took command after Owen's death (KIA August 1942)
Major General Tomitaro Horii – Commander, Japanese South Seas Force
Private Bruce Kingsbury – First Australian VC on Australian territory (posthumous)

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📖 SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
"Kokoda" by Peter FitzSimons
"The Path of Infinite Sorrow" by Craig Collie & Hajime Marutani
Australian War Memorial Archives
Japanese Military Records, South Seas Force

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#WW2 #Kokoda #PacificWar #AustralianHistory #WorldWarTwo #MilitaryHistory

© Archive footage and images used under fair use for educational purposes.