Kokoda (2 page)

In the endnotes and bibliography, I hope I have fully acknowledged all the writers and historians whose work I have drawn upon, but it is appropriate that I also ‘dips my lid’ here.

In the course of researching this book I became so enamoured with the work of Osmar White, Chester Wilmot and Damien Parer—who recorded the actions of the Kokoda campaign for newspapers, radio and film respectively—that I decided to make them characters in the book. With these three outstanding journalists there was very little need for me to use any poetic licence, for they recorded their feelings for posterity at the time, and how. I might say in passing that spending many a late night going through transcripts of Chester Wilmot’s reports for ABC radio, particularly, was a delight. Osmar White’s book
Green Armour
is equally a gem, and though getting into Damien Parer’s head was not as easy, the work of his principal biographer Neil McDonald, who wrote
War Cameraman
, went a long way towards bridging the gap. I also appreciated Neil’s warm support of this project and his valuable advice. It was also he who first played me recordings of Wilmot’s ABC reports, which was a great thrill.

To my eyes, all of us who have written about Kokoda since the time of White, Wilmot and Parer—and there will be many more to come after me—are building on foundation stones laid by three historians in particular.

Official historian Dudley McCarthy’s book
Australia in the War of 1939–45: South West Pacific Area First Year, Kokoda to Wau,
which came out in 1959, sets out in clear language all the key movements of the major battles and is a first-class bit of work. W. B. Russell’s official
History of the Second Fourteenth Battalion
was also invaluable. The other man was Raymond Paull, who accomplished a similar feat with his book
Retreat from Kokoda
, published in 1958, with even more detail, albeit within narrower parameters.

Among contemporary writers about Kokoda, there is none finer than Peter Brune, who has written
A Bastard of a Place, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes
and the biography of Ralph Honner,
We Band of Brothers.
Time and again, in the course of writing this book, I turned to Brune when trying to understand what happened in specific actions. Let me also place on the record how much I appreciated the fact that when I had completed the manuscript, both Peter Brune and Neil McDonald were kind enough to carefully go through it, spotting errors and giving valuable advice on how to improve it. (That said, whatever brute mistakes remain in the text are my responsibility alone.) The book is far better for their generous input, and I am deep in their debt.

Another contemporary writer whose work I found valuable was Lex McAulay, who wrote
Blood and Iron: The Battle For Kokoda 1942
. My knowledge of Arnold Potts and his actions in the war were filled out by Bill Edgar’s
Warrior of Kokoda
:
A Biography of Brigadier Arnold Potts.

Much of the information concerning General Douglas MacArthur in this book came from two key biographies. First, and most important, is William Manchester’s classic,
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur
, and I also drew upon
Old Soldiers Never Die: the Life
and Legend of Douglas MacArthur
, by Geoffrey Perret. On the subject of both General MacArthur and Major General Sir Thomas Blamey, I found Jack Gallaway’s book
The Odd Couple: Blamey and MacArthur at War
—which focuses on both commanding officers—useful for information and influential in the way I approached looking at their relationship. On the subject of Sir Thomas Blamey specifically, I constantly referred to Professor David Horner’s book,
Blamey: The Commander-in-Chief
, and I also warmly thank Professor Horner here for his time and advice in helping me to pin down the specific details of Blamey in which I was interested.

David Day’s work on Australia’s primary wartime prime minister,
John Curtin: A Life
, was revelatory from first to last, as was his book
The Politics of War
, which helped me to put the Kokoda campaign in its political context.

The great Stan Bisset, the oldest living Wallaby, has been a wonderful help to me throughout the course of writing this book, and I have treasured the time I have been able to spend with him and his wife Gloria, for which I warmly thank them now.

After Damien Parer’s Oscar-winning film
Kokoda Front Line
, which documented the Kokoda campaign at the time, there have been two outstanding documentaries, both of which I devoured. The first came in 1992 and was called
The Bloody Track
, produced by George Friend and presented by Patrick Lindsay, both of whom have been helpful. The second was a Four Corners’ documentary which came out in 1995, called
The Men Who Saved Australia,
produced by Jacquelyn Hole and presented by Chris Masters. Chris, who I am proud to call a friend, was a great source and sounding board on this project, and I also thank him. As a matter of fact something that greatly struck me in the course of writing this book was just how helpful other ‘Kokoda people’ have been, sending me information, ideas and advice and doing everything they could. In this field I particularly cite Bill James who sent me some wonderful material on Tom Grahamslaw that I had not previously spied.

Beyond information, I cite a particular influence in the way this book was shaped. Well into the writing of the book, my friend Bill James sent me a paper published by Professor Emeritus Hank Nelson, of the Australian National University, where the professor cogently argued that the story of the Kokoda campaign was strong enough in truth, that it didn’t need some of the trappings of mythology that have been attached to it over the years. I contacted the professor and he graciously advised me thereafter, sending me some of the academic papers you will see referred to in the bibliography. If anyone was helpful in my getting the Japanese side of the story, and in pinning down the true conditions that the native porters worked under, it was Professor Nelson, and I cannot thank him enough for it.

Many other people helped me in specific areas of the book. I thank Trevor Robertson for his expert advice on submarine warfare during World War II and Richard Seeto for his help with the fascinating language of Pidgin. My former editor at the
Sydney Morning Herald
, Max Prisk, proved to be a collector of many WWII Battalion magazines, books and the like, and he very kindly lent many of them to me, pointing out exactly where the best information could be found. Equally, Charlie Lynn, of the New South Wales Upper House—a Kokoda devotee to beat them all—was a wonderful source of information and of material for me to go through. My friend Michael Cooper, with whom I walked the track, proved to be an aficionado of matters medical on the track, and sent me everything he had.

Both the 2/14th Battalion Association and the 39th Battalion Association were wonderfully welcoming when I attended their reunions, and I warmly thank all the Diggers I talked to, both at those reunions and in subsequent interviews. From the 39th, Joe Dawson of Forster was a wonderful find. He was with the battalion from its first days at Darley; he travelled on the
Aquitania
to Fairfax Harbour in January of ’42 and was unloading the
Macdhui
when Japanese bombers got it in their sights in June ’42. He was with the 39th when they took their first steps up the track three weeks later; was there when Sam Templeton met his fate at Oivi, and was just ten yards away when Captain Owen stood too tall at Kokoda. Throughout all of the Battle of Isurava Joe was in the thick of it; he was standing in the front rank when Ralph Honner made his speech at Menari, and he was still with the 39th when they stormed Gona in December of 1942.

I thank Joe for the time he accorded me to interview him and affirm how much I enjoyed it all. I particularly thank Joe’s wider family who were so wonderfully accommodating to me, none more so than his wife, Elaine. Joe’s two daughters, Leigh Vaughan and Toni Hoekstra, together with Joe’s granddaughter Caitlin Vaughan had already done a lot of painstaking and professional work getting Joe’s experiences recorded and written down, and I was very lucky that the family was happy to share that with me and allow me to draw from it.

It was also very kind of Ralph Honner’s family to allow me to see some of his remaining papers and I record my appreciation to them here.

This is my fifteenth book, and by this time I have been blessed to have a very good team of people helping me put it together. My thanks as always to my principal researcher, Kevin Brumpton; my transcriber of interviews, Margaret Coleman; and my help in all things to do with the form and texture of the book, my indefatigable and treasured colleague at the
Sydney Morning Herald
, Harriet Veitch, who put many weekend and evening hours into the project. I record my appreciation and professional respect to the people at Hodder Headline—most particularly Matthew Kelly and Deonie Fiford, who was a Trojan when I most needed her—and my editor for this book, Belinda Lee. She and I have now worked together on four books, and she consistently manages to strengthen my stuff.

In all my books I have called on the professional editing skills of my wife, Lisa, and this book is no exception. Her input was as invaluable as ever, and the book is all the better for her many suggestions.

Peter FitzSimons

May 2004

THE KOKODA TRACK

Territories of New Guinea and Papua

The 39th’s Positions at Isurava 18–27 August