Author(s): Peter FitzSimons

Pre-Loved Books | Military, War

Kokoda was a defining battle for Australia, where a small force of young, ill-equipped young men engaged an experienced and hitherto unstoppable Japanese force on a narrow, precarious jungle track. This book tells the Kokoda story in a gripping and moving style.

'It was just a series of muddy footholds in the mountainside . . . so slippery that you had to sling your rifle and leave your hands free to grab the nearest vine or branch as your feet slid from under you . . . so steep that in some places you could scale the mountain face only by using both hands and both feet . . . so muddy that at times you sloshed through a quagmire more than ankle deep and felt the cloying mud suck your feet back at every step. That was the track they were fighting for down there.' Chester Wilmot (from a despatch banned by Commander-in-Chief Sir Thomas Blamey's headquarters)