Category: MILITARY HERITAGE

Conflict in command during the Kokoda campaign of 1942: did General Blamey deserve the blame? Score 0%

Conflict in command during the Kokoda campaign of 1942: did General Blamey deserve the blame?

by | May 14, 2024 | , | 8

General Sir Thomas Blamey was commander-in-chief of the Australian Military Forces during World War II. Tough and decisive, he did not resile from sacking ineffective senior commanders when the situation demanded. He has been widely criticised by more recent historians for his role in the sackings of Lieutenant-General S. F. Rowell, Major-General A. S. Allen and Brigadier A. W. Potts during the Kokoda Campaign of 1942. Lieutenant Colonel Rowan Tracey, a Trek Leader with Adventure Kokoda examines each sacking and concludes that Blamey’s actions in each case were justified in a paper published by the Royal United Services Institute, Volume 61, 2010.

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The fallacy of a ‘Lost Battlefield’ on Kokoda

The fallacy of a ‘Lost Battlefield’ on Kokoda

by | Mar 2, 2022 | , | 0

The story of Kokoda is second only to Gallipoli in the annals of Australia’s military history – but it’s been a slow awakening!
Since Prime Minister John Howard and PNGs Grand Chief, Sir Michael Somare, opened a solemn memorial at Isurava on the 60th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in 2002, scores of books have been published, television documentaries produced, and more than 54,000 Australians from all walks of life have trekked across it.
It was inevitable that the pilgrimage, which is a serious physical and emotional challenge, would eventually attract its share of entrepreneurial urgers, and rent-seekers from the government aid-sector.

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