Kokoda

by Paul Ham

For the first time ever, the compelling story of the infamous Kokoda Track campaign has been told from both sides of the conflict. In a unique and balanced portrayal, renowned journalist Paul Ham recounts both the Australian and Japanese perspectives of the events on the hellish Papuan jungle trail where thousands fought and died during World War II. Based on extensive research in Australia and Japan, and including previously unpublished documents, Kokoda intimately relates the stories of ordinary soldiers in 'the world's worst killing field', and examines the role of commanders in sending ill-equipped, unqualified Australian troops into battles that resulted in near 100 per cent casualty rates. It was a war without mercy, fought back and forth along 90 miles (145 km) of river crossings, steep inclines and precipitous descents, with both sides wracked by hunger and disease, and terrified of falling into enemy hands. Defeat was the Australian soldier was fighting for his homeland against an unyielding aggressor; the Japanese ordered to fight to the death in a bid to conquer 'Greater East Asia'. Paul Ham captures the spirits of those soldiers and commanders who clashed in this war of exceptional savagery, and tells of the brave souls on both sides of the campaign whose courage and sacrifices must never be forgotten.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Australia, World War II, War, Military Fiction, Audiobook

888 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

PAUL HAM is a historian specialising in 20th century conflict, war and politics. Born and raised in Sydney, Paul has spent his working life in London, Sydney and Paris. He teaches narrative non-fiction at SciencesPo in Reims and English at l'École de guerre in Paris. His books have been published to critical acclaim in Australia, Britain and the United States, and include: 'Hiroshima Nagasaki', a controversial new history of the atomic bombings (HarperCollins Australia 2010, Penguin Random House UK 2011, & Pan Macmillan USA 2014-15); '1914: The Year The World Ended' (Penguin Random House 2013); 'Sandakan' (Penguin Random House 2011); 'Vietnam: The Australian War' and 'Kokoda' (both published by HarperCollins, 2007 and 2004). Paul has co-written two ABC documentaries based on his work: 'Kokoda' (2010), a 2-part series on the defeat of the Japanese army in Papua in 1942 (shortlisted for the New York Documentary prize); and 'All the Way' (2012), about Australia's difficult alliance with America during the Vietnam War, which he also narrated and presented (it won the UN's Media Peace prize). Paul is the founding director of Hampress, an independent ebook publisher, and a regular contributor to Kindle Single, Amazon's new 'short book' publishing platform, for which he has written '1913: The Eve of War' and 'Young Hitler', co-written 'Honey, We Forgot the Kids', and published several titles by other authors. Hampress welcomes your ideas! A former Australia correspondent for The Sunday Times (1998-2012), Paul has a Masters degree in Economic History from London School of Economics. He lives in Sydney and Paris, and takes time off now and then to organise the Big Fat Poetry Pig-Out, an annual poetry recital, for charity.

Some relevant links:

http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Ham/e/B001...

https://www.hampress.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ham

http://us.macmillan.com/hiroshimanaga...

http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/hir...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...

http://www.amazon.com/Sandakan-Paul-H...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42...

http://www.randomhouse.com.au/authors...

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/97807...

Reviews

[zed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The battles of the Kokoda Track campaign, along with Gallipoli in The Great War, have played a part in modern Australia’s military history that through popular narrative has seeped into modern psyche as what defines us as a nation.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-herit...

This Australian Federal Government parks and heritage web site states “The story of Kokoda is one of courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice. These qualities are declared on the Australian memorial erected at Isurava, the site of a major attack by the Japanese in the last days of August 1942, in which both sides suffered heavy casualties.”


Author Paul Ham has written an account of the campaign in this very detailed book that probably deserves a wider readership beyond just that of Australia and those WW2 buffs who have delved deeper into the so-called lesser campaigns.

Ham has divided this telling into 5 parts covering each phase of the war. He is generous with very good maps throughout. The bibliography is extensive and uses both allied and Japanese sources, and what end notes I checked were good. The blurb on the back of my copy states that this is a “…..balanced portrayal…” that accounts for both perspectives. To give the author his fair due, I am not going to disagree. My read of Ham’s book on Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War fell into very one-sided poor and populist rantings at times, but Kokoda has a far superior balance and certainly does not fall into the overuse of slang and vernacular as in that book.


Be that as it may, Ham is an author who wears his opinions on his sleeve and with that lacks subtly to lead the reader in a direction without some semblance of forceful opinion in his writing. An example would be his utter disdain with Australian General Thomas Blamey who he called “This appalling man…” Ham thought Blamey a self-promoter who took the glory of the eventual success of the campaign while deriding those below who were trying to win what were a series of brutal battles in the fact that there was no quarter given nor prisoners taken during fighting in at times virtually impenetrable jungle. Ham had no time for Blamey concerning his criticism and use of nearly untrained militia (derisively called Choco’s in the vernacular, as in chocolate soldiers) that were thrown head first very early against an invading Japanese force that was battle hardened due to other campaigns since as early as 1936. His treatment of some of the commanders on the track itself also came in for some serious criticism. Blamey, along with MacArthur it can be added, he accused of being a spin doctor.

Page 479 “Blamey and MacArthur received the warmest congratulations from their respective Governments, and praised the ‘magnificent and prolonged effort’ of the troops. The commanders singled out Brigadier Wooton for high decoration, in recognition of his ‘soundness and steadiness in control’ and ‘valour and determination in execution’
Macarthur personally congratulated Eichelberger ‘Dear Bob’ he wrote ‘I am glad that you were not injured in the fighting. I always feared that your incessant exposure might result fatally. With a hearty slap on the back, Most cordially, MacArthur’
The supreme commander later failed to correct the impression that he personally oversaw the victory as Buna, and allowed the idea to percolate that he was somehow involved in a front-line role. An understandably embittered Eichelberger wrote to he wife at the time: ‘The great hero went home without seeing Buna before, during or after the fight while permitting press articles from his GHQ to say he was leading his troops into battle.’”


A final word from a Second Lieutenant in the Japanese army.
Page 491. “Troops began to wonder why they had shed so much blood for a place of no consequence, at the extremity of the empire. Rinzo Kanemoto wrote plaintively:
‘When you look around … there is no agriculture. No towns … What possible plus can our occupation of such a place offer to our national strength? Yet even given that, here we are, two large groups of white and yellow fighting over the Girwa area, flinging the fires of war at each other … What on earth is all this for? That soldiers … had to die so horribly to secure such a completely worthless piece of land! What is the bloody sense of that”

Recommended to anyone who has an interest in World War 2.

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the by far the best book to read if you want to learn and understand what Australian and Japanese soldiers endured during one of the worst campaigns in the Pacific during World War Two. The main story covers the infamous Kokoda Track campaign, and is told from both sides of the conflict, offering a balanced portrayal. The story is well told and the book moves along at a fast pace which isn't bad for a military history book. Detailed research and a gripping, horrible account of terrible battles fought in hellish terrain. The author ensures that Australian and Japanese perspectives of the hellish Papuan jungle trail are presented in a non-bias light.

[Manray9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Kokoda, Paul Ham crafted a striking account of World War II as it played out in the forbidding hills and jungles of Papua-New Guinea. Ham relied heavily on firsthand accounts – field reports, journals, diaries, letters – as well as interviews with survivors, both Australian and Japanese. Even if he occasionally lapsed into bald Aussie flag-waving, his effort nevertheless must rank among the best on the campaign that defined Australia's role in the Pacific War. I finished the book with nothing but respect for the average Digger. They did their country proud under some of the worst conditions in a war unlike anyone expected. Ham's Kokoda is strong Four Star material.

This review addresses the audiobook version of Paul Ham's Kokoda.

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the first book that I've read on the Kokoda campaign of WW2, and I wasn't disappointed. I actually listened to the audio read by Peter Byrne.

Paul Ham doesn't mince words when it comes to the leadership or lack thereof by Australian General Blamey and the "supreme commander" Douglas Macarthur. Ham says that the egos of both men got in the way of the campaign.

The heroics of the Aussies in New Guinea and the help given by the Fuzzie Wuzzie Angels will rightfully live our hearts forever.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4 stars**

Well researched and well-written! A very comprehensive look at the experience of both Australian and Japanese soldiers during the Kokoda Campaign in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. The writer uses many primary sources, included letters and diary entries of both Australian and Japanese soldiers to showcase what soldiers on both sides of the campaign experiences. While long, it is faced paced and looks at many different people, places and events.

Would read more by Paul Ham in the future.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this one, to be honest. I'm not quite sure how much I should say this was due to the quality of content, or simply the fact that it was just too long. Since, objectively speaking, it would appear that Ham has outdone himself in the research department, and also that this book remains one of the more authoritative on the Kokoda campaign, I also feel it's only fair to state that usually I am not very interested in military history. It is a section I will generally walk past without so much as a sideward glance at any book market. But then, in previous years in commemoration of ANZAC Day (basically Australia's equivalent of the American Memorial Day), I have read and greatly enjoyed a number of books within this genre. The most similar to Ham's book would be Bob Drury's Last Stand of Fox Company, published only five years later, about a battle fought by the Americans in the Korean War, which I found a whole lot more engaging, although granted it was written more like a novel than Ham's Kokoda was.

Certainly, there were some strong moments. And, without a doubt, much credit should be given for the in-depth look at both sides of the gruelling campaign - both the Aussie experience (the heroes, the villains, and everything in between), and the same on the Japanese side. It should also come as little surprise that there is much to challenge any squeamish readers. It would be extremely naive to say the Allies were always upright in their dealings with enemies, P.O.W.s and civilians, but few serious historians would get away with denying that some of the war's worst human atrocities were committed by soldiers of Imperial Japan.

It basically comes down to this. Though it pains me to admit it, my subjective enjoyment alone would have gotten the book only two stars. A more reasoned and detached consideration of the book's merits might push me towards giving a reluctant four. So, the happy middle-ground is an easy if enthusiastic three stars. Probably I would have liked it more if I had read the printed version, instead of listened to the audiobook. But then it would have taken me even longer to finish.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoy learning more about history from a different (i.e. non-American) perspective, and learning more about the war in the Pacific has personal meaning for me because my great-uncle was a POW in Japan.

But it was especially interesting to be listening to this audiobook and learn more about General MacArthur's role in WWII and his personality, actions, political moves, propaganda, etc., right before Trump mentioned him in the first presidential debate. I haven't yet read other essays currently circulating that discuss "what it means" or "why" Trump identifies with MacArthur and Patton in comparison to other U.S. generals of history -- but given MacArthur's flimsy relationship with truth and quickness to take credit for others' actions, I really wasn't surprised to hear his name spoken by Trump. And once again, it's important for us to revisit and relearn history as the proverbial saying goes.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUMMARY of Review
Ham’s Kokoda is an excellent account of the Kokoda Track and battles in Papua. The reader will gain an excellent understanding of the torturous conditions of this battle, as well as the disorganized and egotistical leadership involved in the Pacific theater during the outset of the war. Ham uses an exceptionally large list of superior sources, including journals and government documents, to ground his facts, while also interjecting moments of poignancy with personal letters and diary entries of the soldiers who risked and sometimes lost life and limb for their respective countries. US readers should be prepared, Ham does not sugarcoat the facts, which I at times found hard to swallow. My only two complaints are with Ham’s poorly laid out statistics, and his ineffective maps. That said, those complaints should not deter you from reading this fascinating, eloquent account of a battle that is far too often overlooked.


FULL REVIEW:
“Today you will be in action, and tomorrow night you may be dead.” Blamey to the troops heading to the front.

Extremes mark the battles on the Kokoda Track, in which Australian, US, and Japanese soldiers found themselves closely interspersed between dense foliage, torrential rain, and cesspool swamps. The altitude, thick vegetation, horrendous weather, prevalence of tropical diseases, isolation and lack of supplies make the guerilla and siege warfare in Papua in 1941 a battle that rivals Guadalcanal and Midway; the shear gore is more reminiscent of the Siege of Stalingrad, or perhaps even the most famous war of attrition – Verdun of World War I.

Paul Ham, an author I have grown to admire, has compiled a detailed account of one of the Pacific front’s most despicable battles. Pulling from a myriad of sources from three counties, including the diaries of Japanese and Australian soldiers, Ham takes the reader on a journey that begins with the Japanese storming the island at Port Moresby. The brutality of the Japanese coupled with the ill-prepared Australian and US allies make for a devastating confrontation between the two forces. But for the tactile retreat over the traitorous mountain pass, the Australians would have been obliterated, and this part of the island would likely have been lost to the Japanese.

As the pendulum of war swings, suddenly it is the Japanese on the defensive, being pushed back over the pass. Eventually US troops arrive on the island to aid the Australians, unfortunately their initial performance proves to be less than admirable. With time, however, the Australians – and the US troops – repel the Japanese off the island.

My extremely brief summary does an incredible disservice to the astonishing detail Ham distills into a cogent, compelling, and candid history book. Ham, author of Sandakan, is not shy with words, speaking frankly about the conditions of the battle, the foibles of the leadership, and the ruthlessness both sides assumed to combat the other. Ham strikes a balance in providing the reader with enough details to make his point, but not so many details that it becomes hard to see the rainforest through the banyan trees.

Highlighting his aptitude for handling sensitive subjects, Ham masterfully addresses cannibalism, a taboo topic. (Ham also discusses cannibalism in Sandakan). Whether talking about the Papua headhunters or Japanese soldiers butchering Australian and Japanese corpses, Ham exquisitely covers anthropophagy on this tiny island, as it relates to WWII, covering the reaction to Australian troops confronted with seeing their compatriots’ flesh stored in bully tins for later consumption, to many Japanese soldiers’ very personal struggle with eating flesh to avoid starving to death.

Having read several of Ham’s books, I found this books to read as though Ham was more personally invested in this story. He is less politically guarded in this account, noting the weaknesses in the American forces, the mistakes of Blamey, and his opinions of the Japanese. Though never crossing an inappropriate line, I did find his treatment of the US troops to be a bit alienating. I have no doubt that Ham’s research has led him to draw conclusions (conclusions based on facts backed up by citations); however, I found some of his discussions on the US troops to seems demeaning, almost with an air of “they were nothing but trouble.” Ham does praise several superior US troops and brass, which actually underscores his criticisms of the Americans as balanced though still hard for this American to swallow. As many other authors have pointed out, at the beginning of the Pacific front, the American’s were making more mistakes than they were progress. (Consider American author Ronald H. Spector’s Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan, which clearly establishes the allies’ poor leadership, lousy chain of command, political compromises, and the allies’ negligence in assessing the strength and weakness of the Japanese in the early theaters of the Pacific war.).

Ham’s treatment of the US troops involvement ultimately has not swayed my opinions of Kokoda negatively; however, my two points of contention are with his treatment of statistics and casualty rates at the end of the book, and Ham’s poorly designed maps.

In the final chapter titled “The End” (Page 518) Ham lists casualty rates, however he bounces between those of the Australians, US, and Japanese, and doesn’t even compare apples to apples. For example: “The Allies [US and AUS I assume] suffered 7500 killed and wounded at Gona, Buna and Sanananda. The Australians 7th Division lost 5905 men in the month between 25 November and 23 December…”followed by an explanation of how those troops were replaced. The immediate next paragraph: “Of the 14,500 American soldiers who served at Buna and Sanananda, 930 were killed and 1918 wounded – a casualty rate of 20 percent (double that of Guadacanal).” My issue here, Guadacanal is an entire front, similar to Kokoda, while Buna and Sanananda are skirmishes within a front. As you go further the statistics become more jumbled, “Total Allied [US and AUS I assume] deaths in Papua numbered 3095 and 5418 were wounded – 8513 battled causalities. An additional 8700 US [Why was AUS listed later?] troops succumbed to disease in Papua… A total of 625 Australians were killed in the Kokoda Track battles.” My point is, the organization of the causalities and disease stats was jumbled, requiring me to actually get a piece of paper and create a chart to make sense of the numbers. Personally, I would have preferred a graph or chart to accompany the paragraphs dealing with the very important bits of information.

Ham is sparing with his use of maps, which is understandable given the guerilla type warfare that much of Kokoda resembled; however, when Ham does provide maps, they are challenging to interpret. I found Ham’s use of small, faint arrows to be hard to follow, rather than a more solid line. His amorphous “positions” plotted on the maps were slightly better then the arrows, but it was hard to determine the army’s general movement. Another helpful thing would have been if Ham had provided a small icon-map showing the entire island with each zoomed-in map, highlighting on that small icon-map where the close-up is located within the island and South Pacific. Without this reference, I had to flip back to the maps in the beginning of the book to constantly remind myself where on the island the maps correlate. Also irritating is the page split on the map on page xiv, which is literally split exactly in the section where the entire track is laid out. The fact that the map wasn’t adjusted to avoid this from happening is really unfortunate, making it necessary for me to consult other maps and sources outside of Kokoda to get a better sense of the track.

Really, my issue with Ham’s maps and statistics was not overall distracting, and certainly didn’t hinder the narrative. This highly readable account of an underwritten battle is well worth a read. Even if you are not familiar with military history, or with the Pacific front of WWII, this book is easy to pick up, straight forward to follow, and is filled with emotionally impactful stories that make the war relevant to every human. Though I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Ham’s Sandakan and 1914, I highly recommend people interested in the Pacific war, Australian military history, or the South Pacific history get this book from the library.

Tags: WWII, Pacific War, Papua, Port Moresby, Kokoda, Australian Army, US Army, Japanese Army, Military History, Guerilla Warfare, General MacArthur, General Blamey, Cannibalism, Tropical Warfare, Mountain Warfare, Disease and War, Non-Fiction, 1940’s

[Aidan EP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and engaging history of Australia’s most important military campaign, told in an admittedly slightly jingoistic tone. Ham suffers from a little of FitzSimons’ disease, but overall the source-craft is more robust and the bibliography more extensive. To the book’s credit, whilst military manoeuvres are touched on, the real focus is human experience, which is always much more interesting.

This is definitely well worth a read, especially if you don’t know much about the Kokoda campaign. Australians will have heard mention of the battles, but to Americans I would expect it to be fairly unknown — despite their involvement.

My only other complaint is that it definitely could’ve done with more editing; some sentences were repeated a few pages later almost word for word, paragraphs sometimes failed to flow into the next, and some chapters felt too short. This was definitely more noticeable at the beginning of the book, and Ham certainly got into the swing of things by the end. Overall a great book, and I now plan on reading Ham’s history of Australian involvement in the Vietnam War.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an outstanding book. I could hardly put it down and it never got bogged down with military speak. It was a really balanced view on the theatre of war in that area and he never demonised the Japanese or become too nationalistic about the Australians. I learnt so much from it and was fascinated with the observations of the leaders. A must read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not really very interested in military history or books about war but I picked up this audio book at the library because military history is part of the history curriculum at school and I felt an obligation to be a bit more informed about the Kokoda Campaign than I was.

The six-month campaign on the Kokoda Track in 1942-3 is iconic in Australia, the stuff of legend. All our best trained troops were fighting overseas when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and they had swept through southeast Asia without check, apparently on their way to invade Australia, a misconception reinforced by the attacks on Darwin and other northern coastal ports. The task force that set out to check the advance in New Guinea was hopelessly ill-trained, ill-equipped and perilously naïve about the appalling conditions in the terrain yet they managed to achieve the first defeat against the Japanese. A heroic victory like that warrants more than one work of popular history and there are numerous books about it around, including the print version of Paul Ham’s Kokoda, at 624 pages long and The Spouse’s copy of Peter FitzSimons’ Kokoda, at 512 pages, but after reading Stalingrad last year I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to read either of them. The audio book seemed a more palatable way to get myself up to speed on the topic.

Paul Ham’s approach is like Antony Beevor’s in that it presents the perspectives of both sides of the combat. The bibliography shows that the author researched extensively in both Australia and in Japan, and there are first-hand accounts from front-line troops on both sides. His sources included official military documents, participants’ diaries, private papers and interviews, but it is these personal accounts which make some aspects of it even more chilling.

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/09/29/ko...

[Harry Croft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ham's account of the Allied experience on Kokoda, diligently researched, grippingly told, and still highly relevant, goes a long way to revealing the horrors of the battlefield. It is to be regretted that Ham's own bias (his contempt for MacArthur, simplification of the New Guinean porters, and disdain for the Japanese soldiers) occasionally shines through, however, once overcome, the reader can again be glad of the meticulous research (including interviews with veterans) and thrilling narrative.

[Xerodog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and readable. I spent a lot of time in the USA and visited Pacific War Museums in New Orleans and in Texas (in Admiral Nimitz's hometown). From memory this campaign didn't get much mention in either place. I suppose the Guadalcanal battles took all the attention as these were American affairs and the role of Australians in this period of the war is naturally of less interest to Americans, but this story is worth knowing and this account of it is very well written.

[Mark Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Didn't know much about this series of battles or its greater impact on WW2 in the Pacific. No holds barred on the performance of the Australian and American troops and their respective commanders. Found the snap shots of Australia's reaction to the invasion threat informative too. Really explains as well (but without recriminations) why Australia started to look to the US rather than the "mother country". Altogether a great book.

[Edward Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a fantastically well balanced and educational telling of the events at Kokoda during WW2. The array of stories and the different dimensions it covers are truly comprehensive. A great read! Albeit a long one.

[Nick Pengelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. A book every Australian should read.

[Nathan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having very little knowledge of the pacific campaign I went into this book blind.
Paul Ham has produced a very well researched account of the Kokoda track campaign, utilising first hand accounts on the Australian and Japanese side. Although the book does have a slight bias towards the Australians, Ham doesn’t stray away from criticising the Australian high command, who quite clearly valued their own arses than the lives of their men.
The conditions that the men fought in are truly horrific, battling malaria, dysentery, the weather as well as their own equipment. Air drops for instance were not accompanied with parashoots meaning the mortar rounds that were being delivered had already been primed, exploding when inserted into the mortar tube.
The descriptions of the war crimes committed by the Japanese on the locals and the Australians are truly horrific including rape, mutilation and cannibalism, with the only reason for no post war convictions being that many of the perpetrators didn’t survive the war.
I highly recommend this as a great read for anyone with no knowledge or even a seasoned reader of such topics.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, perhaps a bit of a misnamed book as it is a history of Australia preparation or lack of preparation for the war in the Pacific and the whole Papua New Guinea campaign. It is a well researched book and a goodread. The only minor issue I feel the author some times gets on his soapbox and lectures to the reader on what is good background but not totally relevant to this books scope.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book. Though I have not read other books on Kokoda I believe I would be fairly close to accurate to say this would be one of the most detailed books available.

[Troy Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed, must read book.

[Dulcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exhaustive; but yet....

[Garry McDougall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving and compelling read. Probably the best book on the subject.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was tempted to rate this book 4 stars but there were too many bothersome things for me. Consider this a 3.5 star rating.

Overall this is a solid book on the fighting in New Guinea between the Allies (primarily the Australians) and the Japanese in WWII. As the name implies it focuses on the Kokoda trail campaign, but also covers the Buna-Gona and Sanananda fighting pretty thoroughly. Milne Bay is touched on; the rest of the later battles in New Guinea are not. The author does a very nice job of conveying the horror of fighting a war in some of the roughest terrain on Earth.

So what were the problems? First there were a few issues with the writing that made me stop and say, "huh?" Small issues of this kind you can gloss over, but when it takes you right out of the book it's a problem. For example, when describing the rift between Australian generals Blamey and Rowell, Ham writes, "Blamey pursued a bitter personal vendetta against the man. He literally sank his teeth into Rowell’s carcass and refused to let go." Really? He literally sank his teeth into Rowell's carcass? He actually ate the man's flesh? I expect posts on Facebook to screw up using the word literally; I don't expect this from a published author.

Then there's this: "Thus the most disciplined army in the world was reduced to carrying primitives weapons. It brings to mind the Nazi panzerfausts — boys on bicycles — sent into battle against Russian tanks at the fall of Berlin." A panzerfaust was a one-shot anti-tank weapon used by the Germans, a predecessor of today's rocket-propelled grenades. While I suppose the Nazis may have in fact sent panzerfaust-armed boys out on bicycles, the panzerfaust was not itself a boy on a bicycle as the sentence would make think.

Less glaring, but added to the list: "With no vaccine against malaria in 1942, quinine and Atebrin were the most effective suppressants." There is no vaccine against malaria now.

Finally there's the pretty rampant pro-Australia theme running through the book. Given that the author is Australian I expected some of this. General MacArthur was a relentless self-promoter and glory seeker, and I already knew that he often referred to Allied (often entirely Australian) victories in New Guinea as "Allied" or even "US" triumphs. This led to considerable bitterness amongst Australians. It's clear that this bitterness lives on in Mr Ham. The only US soldier to garner any praise in the book is General Robert Eichelberger. The rest are generally dismissed as amateurs or worse.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched story from WWII Pacific theater. This book is a standout because it includes diaries and interviews with soldiers from both sides. Ham pulls no punches,, not for the Allies or the Japanese. He adds so many horrific details, it is not a book for the faint of heart but it does make me wonder how the survivors coped with post war life.

[Dariggle · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of a little-known theater of WWII - from the Australian viewpoint. The author is no fan of either Douglas McArthur or Austrailian General Thomas Blamey who did not understand the nature of war in the jungle and failed to support fully the troops on the ground during the battle for New Guinea.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is vitally important to Australia and Japan. I think it is the superior to any other written on this particular theatre. It is an unapologetic account of one of the fiercest battles fought in the Second World War. Phenomenally well researched and well written.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extensively researched and includes information which had previously been classified. Gives a much better and more balanced understanding of the events including the political decisions as well as the war theatre in PNG from of 1942 to 1943. Highly recommended.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific piece of military history

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of an accurate historical book told more from the australian point of view. P.F. has written another book that involves the japenese story as well. Pretty good.

[Laurel Lamperd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. The story of young Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese in New Guinea in 1942. a book men should love.