(Ebook) The Battle For Isurava - Fighting In The Clouds Of The Owen Stanley 1942 by David W. Cameron ISBN 9781922615671, 9781922615688, 1922615676, 1922615684

(Ebook) The Battle For Isurava - Fighting In The Clouds Of The Owen Stanley 1942 by David W. Cameron ISBN 9781922615671, 9781922615688, 1922615676, 1922615684

Within 24 hours of the Japanese invasion of Northern New Guinea at Gona in July 1942, the Australian Militiamen of ‘B’ Company, 39th AIF Battalion, spent four weeks fighting a delaying action against a crack Japanese force outnumbered by three to one. By mid-August, the rest of the battalion had arrived, and these men took up a position at Isurava, in the heart of the cloud covered mountains and jungles of the Owen Stanley Range. At Isurava, this small Militia force of the 39th AIF Battalion now numbering around 300 men was determined to make a stand against a crack Japanese force of the 144th Regiment and supporting elements, numbering at least 1500. Then on the day the Japanese launched their attack, to the great relief of these Militiamen, reinforcements from the 2nd AIF who had fought with great distinction in the Middle East began to arrive in the afternoon after having spent days struggling up the track from Port Moresby. Even so, the Australians were still outnumbered, as the Japanese also received reinforcements, and unlike the Japanese, the Australians had no supporting artillery or medium or heavy machineguns. The battle for Isurava would be the defining battle of the Kokoda Campaign and has been rightfully described as Australia’s Thermopylae. It was here that Australia’s first Victoria Cross in the Pacific war was awarded when the Japanese conducted several ferocious attacks against the Australian perimeter. Private Bruce Kingsbury AIF led an Australian counterattack, rushing forward sweeping the Japanese positions with his Bren gun firing it from the hip, saving the situation when all seemed to have been lost — he was killed leading the charge and the award was posthumous. Another two men were also nominated for the VC during the fighting at Isurava. The outnumbered and poorly equipped Australians managed to hold back the Japanese advance for almost a week; only then did these battle scared and weary men begin a month long fighting withdraw towards Ioribaiwa Ridge just to the north of Port Morsby. However, their sacrifice provided time for the Australian 25th AIF Brigade to be brought forward — finally forcing the Japanese to withdraw just as they glimpsed the lights of Port Morseby twinkling below them. David W. Cameron is a Canberra Australia based Author and has written several well received books on Australian Military and Convict era Histories. He has also written about the human and primate evolution, including over 60 internationally peer reviewed papers, for various journals and books. He received a 1st Class Honours in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Sydney in Australia, and later went on to complete his Ph.D. in palaeoanthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is a former Australian Research Council (ARC) Post Doctorial Fellow at the Australian National University (School of Archaeology) and an ARC QEII Fellow at the University of Sydney (Department of Anatomy and Histology). He has participated and led several international fieldwork teams in Australia, the Middle East (Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates); Europe (Hungary) and Asia (Vietnam and India) and has participated in many conferences and museum studies throughout the world.