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The Battle of Isurava 26-29 August 1942 -
I think this would make a great movie
The Battle of Isurava 26-29 August 1942 -
AUSTRALIA'S THERMOPYLAE
1,100 Australian Diggers faced the might of 10,000 of Japan’s best combat experienced troops, in their drive to take the strategically important town of Port Moresby – this would become the Battle of Isurava.
In this battle, ‘my personal hero’ Pte Bruce Kingsbury, of the 2/14th Battalion was to become the first Australian to win a Victoria Cross on Australian soil.
Bruce Kingsbury was credited with preventing a Japanese breakthrough when –
During the morning of the 29th Aug 1942, C Company had also been repeatedly subjected to human wave attacks in its right forward position facing Deniki. The Japanese had mounted these attacks with such ferocity and determination that C Company had suffered heavy casualties, and there was a real prospect of a Japanese breakthrough that would imperil all of the Australians at Isurava. A platoon from the A Company reserve was called upon again to prevent the Japanese overrunning C Company's position, but in fierce fighting this platoon also suffered heavy casualties. Sensing victory, and with no apparent regard for their heavy losses, the Japanese continued to storm the C Company position in wave after wave, and the situation for the Australians remained critical. With the survival of the two Australian battalions at Isurava now under serious threat from a Japanese breakthrough, Lieutenant Clements of C Company gathered men for another counter-attack that was to be led by Sergeant Bob Thompson from Headquarters Company and Private Bruce Kingsbury from A Company.
Private Kingsbury had taken a Bren light machine gun from Corporal Lindsay "Teddy" Bear who had been wounded while leading an earlier desperate counter-attack in defence of the C Company position. When another wave of Japanese stormed the C Company position, Kingsbury called on his comrades to follow him. Firing his Bren gun from the hip, Kingsbury charged through a storm of fire towards the approaching line of Japanese troops. Kingsbury's charge broke the Japanese line and they fled back into the jungle. As his comrades caught up and gathered around him, a Japanese sniper's bullet cut down the gallant private.
1st Picture
The official relief of the 39th battalion on 6 September 1942 at Menari is one of the most famous images from the Kokoda Campaign. The exhausted survivors of the 39th Battalion are parading at Menari after the Battle of Isurava before their proud commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner. Out of the original 409 members, there were only about 180 of the battalion left to parade and about a quarter of these were sick or wounded.
2nd Picture
VX19139 Pte Bruce Steel Kingsbury V.C. (1918-1942)
Bruce Kingsbury was a member of 7th Section of the 9th Platoon, in the 2/14th Battalion which in 1945 was described as the most highly decorated Section in Australian and British military history.
Regards
Pioneer
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