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A film by Alister Grierson – K O K O D A
MATES BECAME HEROES, THE TRACK BECAME LEGEND
Kokoda_the_movie.jpgThank you to the following for giving us permission to post on our website:
title.jpgSYNOPSIS OF THE FILM:
KOKODA.jpgKokoda (Alister Grierson, 2006) is a 96 minute film set in Papua (New Guinea) in August 1942.
Australia is at war with Japan. Port Moresby is under threat of invasion from Japanese forces who wish capture the airfields there and so dominate the region, preventing the build-up of Unites States forces on the Australia mainland and in the surrounding islands.
A small group of Australian soldiers from the 39th Battalion have been sent as a forward patrol beyond the defensive perimeter of Isurava, a village in the northern foothills of the Owen Stanley Ranges, astride the Kokoda Track.
The small section is cut off from their line of communication with the main force of the 39th Battalion. Isolated in the jungle behind enemy lines, they ust attempt to make their way back through an unforgiving, hostile terrain to return to their mates. Allegiences form, strengths and weaknesses emerge and leadership battles threaten to destroy the group as the going gets tougher and tougher.
After three days with no food or sleep, carrying their wounded and suffering the effects of malaria and dysentery, they emerge from the jungle exhausted to the point of collapse. But then, on learning the situation is precarious at Isurava, they pick themselves up and move back to rejoin the battle.
A SUGGESTED CLASSROOM APPROACH
A suggested approach for using this Study Guide in class is:
1 Introductory exercise ? formulating ideas from photographs
2 Locate and interview a veteran [see 2/16th web site http://www.starwon.com.au/-skip%5D
2 Watch the film
3 Film discussion: General questions about war, such as ?Why did we fight: was it necessary ?
AND/OR
4 Film discussion: Is Kokoda good
history?
5 Work through the problems in
making such a film, and how they
are addressedSCREEN EDUCATION
CURRICULUM APPLICABILITY Kokoda can be used with senior students to explore the nature of war (in english, society and environment), and to explore the Kokoda Track element of the Battle for Australia (in Australian History). students of Film studies will also be able to explore how a feature film is made. Teachers need to be aware that the film contains occasional crude language, and war-related violence.
3RD_PICS.jpgActor playing out a scene in the movie
4TH_PIC___Historical.jpgHISTORICAL BACKGROUND
This summary can be used as a teacher reference, or can be given to students to use with the exploration of the film as a representation of history.
In 1939 Australia declared war against Germany for its invasion of Poland. Volunteers were called for the 2nd Australian Infantry Force (AIF), and the 6th Division was formed and sent to north Africa. The 7th and 9th were later sent there also, and the 8th Division to Malaya, based in Singapore.
The CMF, or militia, were soldiers who were to be kept within Australia for home defence.
In December 1941 Japan entered the war with its invasion of areas of south-east Asia. The Japanese quickly forced the surrender of the Allied forces in Singapore (including the Australian 8th Division ? over 15 000 men and some nurses), and continued to conquer the area north of Australia.
By July 1942 Australia had only a few hundred soldiers, inexperienced, poorly trained and ill-equipped, in Port Moresby, the administrative centre of Papua.
The Japanese had by this stage of the war decided not to attack Australia directly; rather, their main aim was to disrupt American supplies and reinforcements to the area that would come through Australia. Their first attempts to take Port Moresby were ruined by attacks on their invasion force at Guadalcanal, and then in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Japanese now decided to attack overland, and landed troops at Buna and Gona on the Papuan north coast and in the following month they landed another force at Milne Bay.
The barrier between the Japanese forces in the north and Port Moresby on the south coast was the Owen Stanley Range ? a steep, rugged series of mountains crossed only by a few foot tracks, the most important of which was the Kokoda Track. A small group of the 39th Battalion and Papuan troops were sent to secure the vital air field at Kokoda.
The 39th were poorly equipped for the task. They had insufficient clothing for the wet, freezing nights, and their khaki uniforms stood out in the jungle. They had quinine as protection against malaria, but the main problem was dysentery, for which they had very few medical supplies.
Re-supply was in fact a major aspect of the campaign. Motor transport could carry supplies and equipment as far as Owers? Corner, then mules were used to Uberi, after which the tracks were too steep, and humans had to carry everything. Most of the carriers were Papuans, who would carry wounded back on their return journey.
The Japanese, with a numerically superior, well-trained and well-equipped force, overwhelmed the defenders. The Australians re-grouped, and retook Kokoda in fierce fighting. However, they were again pushed back and forced to make a fighting retreat.
The key now was to slow down the Japanese until reinforcements could arrive by foot up the treacherous mountain track.
It isoverrun the defenders and seize Port Moresby, that the film Kokoda is set. The Australians now dug in around Isurava. The 39th were ordered to hold at all costs. They had lived for weeks without a change of clothing or proper food; their boots were holed and torn; their clothes were constantly wet; they slept without shelter or blankets; most were weakened by dysentery; ammunition was desperately short. One of the medical officers on the Track later described them as ?gaunt spectres with gaping boots and rotting tatters of uniform hanging around them like scarecrows.
Their faces had no expression, their eyes sunk back into their sockets. They were drained by malaria, dysentery and near-starvation.? Reinforcements from the battleexperienced 2/14th Battalion arrived to relieve the weary, battered and bloodied 39th, but there were insufficient men to hold the area ? so the 39th stayed on with them. For the first time the volunteer AIF and the conscript militia (or AMF) fought together.
The battle raged for four days. On the fourth day the Japanese were threatening to break through, until Private Bruce Kingsbury?s bravery in charging the enemy, firing a Bren gun from the hip, and clearing the area. Kingsbury was then killed by a sniper?s bullet. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded on Australian soil (New Guinea was then a Protectorate of Australia).
This battle was a turning point. The delay in taking Isurava meant that the Japanese supply lines were now strained to breaking point. The Japanese General Horii had to throw his reserve forces into the attack. For the next two weeks the Australians began a fiercely fought ?cat and mouse? withdrawal from Isurava to Eora Creek.
By mid-September the Australians had dug in at Imita Ridge, only fifty kilometres from Port Moresby, the Japanese objective, and were ordered to hold that position. A fight to the death was expected but the Japanese, lacking sufficient supplies because of their extended supply line, and fearing an American attack on their base at Buna, now began to withdraw.
During November the Australians now pursued the Japanese through the stinking mud and treacherous, slippery tracks as they went back along the Kokoda Track. The Japanese advance through the rain-sodden jungles of Papua had been turned into a retreat but, even though many of them were sick and starving, it was always a fighting retreat. Finally, they made their last stand in the swamps of Buna, Gona and Sanananda. It had taken four months and the Australians had
suffered 607 killed and 1015 wounded.For every man killed or wounded another two or three had been hospitalised for sickness. No overall figures for the 6000 Japanese soldiers on the Track are known.
The Australian advance was aided by the American 32nd Division which established bases to the south of Buna while the Australians pushed on down the Kokoda Track and across country from Wanigela. Gona was taken on 9 December and on 2 January 1943 Buna was captured. Sanananda, held by 600 Japanese, was not taken until 12 January. The total for the whole campaign was 2165 Australians killed and 3533 wounded.
BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM
5th_Pic.jpgHere is a set of photographs from the period and the place you are about to study ? the Kokoda Track, 1942.
The images all illustrate aspects of the soldiers? experience of Kokoda. Look carefully at each and write a caption that summarizes what you can learn from each about the nature of jungle warfare on the Track. You should be able to cover a variety of aspects, such as weapons, the problems of supply, the nature of the terrain, evacuating the wounded, etc.
1. Look at each photograph, give it a brief caption that explains what is happening, and then arrange them in an order that tells a story.
2. From these images, what do you think would have been the worst or hardest aspect of the experience?
3. For each image, brainstorm to identify the main emotions or feelings that might have been present among the men involved in that image.
4. Cut these images out and rearrange them to tell a story.
5. Are there any main omissions or gaps in your story?
6. Imagine that a soldier who was on the Kokoda Track is coming to talk to your class. List some questions that you would ask him about the experience.
When you have finished this exercise look at the film Kokoda and see how it presents this experience.
Photograph A: Kokoda Memorial, isurava.
Isurava.jpgCaption – B (left) : AwM ART23615 25 Brigade advancing along Kokoda Trail near Templeton?s Crossing. George Browning, 1944.
C (Right) : AwM ART24074 Kokoda Trail. George Browning. Kokoda track; 25th Australian Infantry Brigade; members of a patrol from unit in brigade crossing
a creek on the Kokoda Track.
6th_Pic.jpgCaption D (left): AwM P02423.009 imita Ridge, Papua, october 1942. Two native carriers and a member of the 2/4th Field Ambulance slowly climb the so called ?Golden stairs? towards ioribaiwa. each step was battened at its edge by a rough log which was sometimes broken and often slippery with a coating of mud. in climbing the stairs, soldiers had to lift their leg over the log and put their foot down on the step behind in what was frequently a puddle of mud and water up to six inches deep.
E (Right) : AwM P02038.144 Kokoda Track, Papua. 1942. soldiers rest on a track while on patrol near eora Creek. F: AwM 027003 Papua, New Guinea. september 1942.
The salvation Army in a forward area of the owen stanley Ranges. This very welcome tent, near Uberi, with its attendant cup of coffee and biscuits, was a great boon to the troops sick or wounded, going back from the front. G: AwM 013266 eora Creek, Papua. 1 september 1942, Melbourne corporal J.
7th_Pic.jpgF: AwM 027003 Papua, New Guinea. september 1942. The salvation Army in a forward area of the owen stanley Ranges. This very welcome tent, near Uberi, with its attendant cup of coffee and biscuits, was a great boon to the troops sick or wounded, going back from the front.
G: AwM 013266 eora Creek, Papua. 1 september 1942, Melbourne corporal J.A. Canty of the AMF, 39th Battalion just before going into action against the Japanese at isurava in the Kokoda area.
PicsF_G__Small_.jpg
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