Australia's Thermopylae - Battle of Isurava - Pacific War #41 DOCUMENTARY

New Guinea Cassowary can kill a man. Not sure about Southern (Australian) cassowary though. Yes the birds look prehistoric from dinosaur era for sure. Large Red Kangaroo or Eastern Grey or Western Grey kangaroo can kill a man. Cut you up bad. Usually they just mess you up (injure you) though.

Cockoda 😂

The M ilne Bay engagement , initially derided by this commentary was the very FIRST time in the whole of ww2 that a Japanese invasion force was actually pushed back in to the sea!

I only got to the first ten seconds in this presentation and with the wild mis pronouncination of Kokoda decided to post this with the rest sight UNSEEN. Any history needs to be researched to reveal documentary evidence of what the writer wishes to reveal,. Japanese documents reveal that they landed 22,000 troops at Buna/Gona , 12,000 0f which were veterans of fighting in China, The attack on Hong Kong and invading Malaysia, they were the Pacfic South Seas soldiers, the other 10,000 were made up of different echelons . including, army and logistics and service elemetns. There opponents consisted of 542 men of the Aust ralian Milita, and a nomimal New Guinea battalion that evaporated as soon as the Japanese landed, they went home to make sure their families were ok, something we all would have done. That being said, 542 V 22,000 were not real good odds and the Australians withdrew, the Japapanese pursued them, about 8,000 did, these figures and st ats are available from NOT only the Aus tralina domumen ts but also t he Japanese so are not revisionist history but merely the fact. The Australians WERE outnumbered 16 to 1 at th is s tage by well supplied , well armed and well led warriors or previous enagagements, The Australians were untried militia with limitied training and not much in the way of a program to support a fight against a super ior enemy force. The average age of t he Australian militia was 18 and this is another fact t hat can be CHECKED from official records. Kokoda was never seriously even contestes as claimed in this presentation and the Australians were SO outnumbered that all they did was make a stand here and a stand there t o use delaying tactics in the hope that help would find t h em . FINALLY help s tar t ed arriving, in lots of one and two soldiers who had straddled the slippery , slimpy path to link up with what was left of the militia and when there was sufficient reinforc ements they fixed bayonet and assaulted the Japanese positions only to find the Japanese had one what NO Japanese fighting force had hi th erto done, re tr eat. Now as I have said, I did only listen to about the first ten seconds of this but had decided it was bullshit, The evidence IS out there and it IS in the public domain. The latter day Japanese acknowledge this and have wanted to heal the souls of those Japanese who perished in New Guinea in the capaign that the Japanese called," The fight where no one comes back"

When I first heard of this in primary school it was called the Kokoda Trail

The Australians are excellent fighters! It was general Erwin Rommel himself who said that if he was going to take Hell he would use the Australians and if he was going to hold it he would use the New Zealanders! Cheers from California 💪💪💪

It is pronounced kok ko da not how it you say it. For Aussies it is a sacred place like Gallipoli

The Japanese had diarrhea because they ate too much not because their food is contaminated.

Australians fought at the actual Thermopylae a year ago, now they got to have their own Thermopylae.

With due respect to your great efforts (which I greatly enjoy) as an Australian, whose family took a very small part in the P.N.G. campaign, I would like to make one small correction. Kokoda is pronounced K"o"k"o"da (it does matter to us). I believe you are using a computer generated voice. These are known at times to fail to pronounce names and other words correctly. Please check this. Also please continue your terrific work which I find well balanced, secant and well researched. One small note also. General McArthur had General Blamey (who had his faults) at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo in part as an apology for his remarks about the fighting ability of the Australians (politely put) in P.N G. I have read. I know also many Americans have had their views about him. He like the rest of us had his positives and negatives.

have you ever mentioned that the first Australian forces in New Guinea wer called chocolate soldiers as they weere under trained and equipped and were expected to melt in the heat of battle , but instead they distinguished them selves and fought the much motre battle hardened Japanese

It’s a pity about the narrators incorrect pronunciation of just about every location he refers to.

Accurate pronunciation of the names helps…….

A great series. However, the AI mispronunciation of names such as Kokoda, Maroubra ect is annoying. 😖😆🇦🇺👍🏻

Ah yes....the crocoduck track

Interesting pronunciation of place names 🙄

Japanese unfortunately faced the white people who can both lived through heat & cold: Aussies

Please learn to pronounce Kokoda properly.

Actually, the Australians (19th Brigade) also fought at Thermopylae on April 24-25, 1941, trying to delay the German advance on Greece.

As an Australian, that butchering of "Kokoda" is like nails on a chalk board to my ears and spit on my heart. I really tried to watch it, and I'm sure there was a lot of effort in this but its just too hard to hear it like that.

Watch the Australian Army's video on this (also released by the Cove, the magazine of the Aus Army)

You’re mispronouncing Kokoda

Good GOD the mispronouncing of kokoda is grating

Australians uniformly pronounce Kokoda as "Kok-oh-duh" but the locals in PNG pronounce it "Kok-uh-duh".

The 'Choko' militia, and later the AIF, in PNG fought like lions. And Blamey called them 'rabbits' for their fighting withdrawal (having himself abandoned his troops in Greece), and MacArthur (who abandoned his troops at Bataan) critiscised the slow pace of the counter-attack, with the Diggers fighting in impossibly difficult terrain against a fanatically brave and determined enemy.

It's pronounced, Ko Ko Da

Such a pity that the narrator constantly mispronounces names and locations.

Good vid but get the pronunciations of names right.

As always a brilliant account of the crucial battle of Milne Bay. Please don't take this the wrong way but the weakness of the Kings and Generals documentaries is, understandably, the occasional pronunciation errors. At the very beginning, Milne Bay and Kokoda are both mispronounced. Milne is pronounced Miln (silent e). Kokoda is pronounced Ka coda. Keep up the good work.

It’s really annoying that he can’t pronounce Kokoda or Isurava correctly.

It's pronounced ko-ko-da,not koko-da!

The mispronunciation of place names makes listening to this by any Australian wearing and embarrassing. It destroys your credibility and makes for a bad joke. As for viewing your vid about MILL- NEE Bay, no thanks.

And McArthur called the Australian soldiers in New Guinea...cowards. He was an incompetent leader of men.

Me: “OK brain. You have numerous familial links to this theatre. The chockos did jungle training on your farm. There are a lot of historians in here so sound insightful and dont make an idiot of us. Australia’s Thermopylae: watcha got?”
My Brain: “THIS IS STRAYA!”

The 39th and 53rd battalions were militia, and the 53rd was made up of many conscripts. The militia weren’t as trained as the AIF so kudos to the 39th for their efforts and resolve.

Kokoda pronounced Ko-ko-dah, no emphasis.

My uncle was there, wounded seriously.
Honor and respect.
Lest we forget.

It's ko-KOH-da, not KO-ko-dah, and what's with all the God's-eye view of the future (from the past, of course), "the Japs would do this" and "the Australians would do that"? Just a plain and simple past tense - "the Japs did" and 'the Australians did" WOULD do. Other than these two quite cringeworthy grains of sand in the ointment, all good, and thank you for an informative retelling of the battle.
My Dad was not in New Guinea, but severely wounded in the Blitz, then in action in Burma, at El Alamein and Anzio.
I live not far from Kingsbury Drive in Melbourne. It is moving to learn where the name came from. The whole area was built in the immediate post-war qand is replete with WW2 names - Gona St, Alamein St, Kokoda St, Tobruk St and of course, Kingsbury Drive

Aussies: Ko-ko-da

This guy: Kokeda

If you do your commentary job well, you pronounce correctly. You know how to say Alamo? Learn how to say Milne. You know how to say Gettysburg? Learn how to say Kokoda. It's insulting.

Redo this with the correct Australian pronunciation please.

Wtf is Cock-Ida....I know about Ko-ko-da.....but that's only because I'm Australian and a history buff.

I'll shut up and learn....because.....grrrrrrr

Yep...my aussie pronunciation training meant i couldnt listen to it and just got angry. Ocd is a mo fo

The Australians should have sent the birds to the battle.

So much mispronunciation AARRRRRGGGGHHHH

Aussie here , Kokoda is said Koh Koh dah not the way you are saying mate , thank you ‘ great videos best history on utube. , it should be told in all Schools as history lessons .

It would be helpful if there was a scale somewhere showing actual distances.

Brigadier Potts did a great job despite limited men, supplied, and equipment. It a disgrace that Blamey and Mac took a credit

No chinese Spy Tik Tok for me