Kokoda: Countdown To Battle (Part 3)

What happened to the 35,000 rations that never reached Myola? Why were the Japanese so much better than the Australians at fighting in the jungle in July 1942? How did Ralph Honner rebuild the exhausted 39th Battalion before the Battle of Isurava? Join Al Murray and James Holland for part 3 of Kokoda, as the Japanese land at Buna and Gona and take Kokoda, the militiamen of the 39th fight a desperate series of withdrawals, and Brigadier Potts's 21st Brigade reaches Myola to find the promised supplies missing. With Papuan carriers and ANGAU officers like Bert Kienzle holding the supply line together, it is a story of logistics, mistakes and endurance on one of the hardest tracks in the world. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Get your WHW Merch here! A Goalhanger Production Senior Producer: James Regan Editor: Charlie Rodwell Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: [email protected] Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 1:44Speaker 03

  Once he got on that trail, there was for most people that sense of personal pride or ego, call it what you like, to keep battling, to go a bit further, a bit further. And not realising a bit further was getting you more and more into trouble and to the stage where it didn't matter how severe things had been up to that point. The next day was gonna be worse and the following day was gonna be worse again. And that was Private Bert Ward of the 2nd 27th Battalion.

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Yep, and he's talking about the Kokoda Trail itself there before a shot is fired. Then we have Lieutenant Bert Keenzel, who's an officer with Angau, which we'll be finding out about in a minute. He was tasked with running the supplies into the battlefield, so this is one of the really important issues. A carrier carrying only foodstuffs consumes his load in 13 days. And if he carries food supplies for a soldier, it means six and a half day supply for both soldier and carrier. This does not allow for the portage of arms, ammunition, equipment, medical stores, ordnance, mail and dozens of other items needed to wage war on the backs of men. The track takes eight days, so the maintenance of supplies is a physical impossibility without

• 2:56Speaker 00

  large scale cooperation of plane droppings. So, welcome to our third episode of the story of the Battle of the Kokoda Trail. And in our first episode, we, what is Papua, we looked at, why are the Australians there? And then, and then of course, the story of the Australian Army, the big personalities involved in it, some of the politics to come, MacArthur's arrival in Australia. A man who should have had his tail between his legs, but somehow, I think he at an early age docked his own tail, so had no way of having his tail between his legs. And now we come to the beginnings of this epic struggle, this Australian Thermopylae, no two ways about it.

• 3:39Speaker 00

  Port Moresby, the prize, after all, for the Japanese is 150 miles from Australia. It means they can, they could stage an invasion or dictate terms to the Australians if they take Port Moresby. And the Australian, Australian strategy is in a tangle because MacArthur's turned up. He doesn't really care too much about that. He wants to go back to the Philippines, one way or another.

• 4:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's all me, me, me with him, isn't it?

• 4:07Speaker 00

  It's extraordinary. And yet they, the Australians regard themselves as so desperate and, and have burned their bridges with the British that they fall on MacArthur's mercy, which is a very, very peculiar decision and, and that results in all sorts of tangles to come at the high political command level. But at the centre of this is Kokoda, the Kokoda Trail or track. And Kokoda itself is a Papua administration point. It's a classic sort of colonial outpost. It's 1,200 feet up in the northern foothills of the Owen Stanley Range. It's like all these, a lot of these places we've looked at in Burma that get fought over. There's a magistrate's house, the assistant magistrate's house, there's some police houses,

• 4:50Speaker 00

  there's a hospital, a native hospital, there's a rubber plantation and there is, crucially, and this is why we looked at the supply problem, the only airfield in the region is at Kokoda. If you've got an eight day march but a 15 minute flight, the thing to do is to hold on to the airfield. This is why this place, why this name rings through Australian history, the name of this, of this outpost. Before the Second World War, Papuans would use different routes to reach it. There isn't one trail or track in particular. One includes a route over the mountain range, which is a foot track, which is three or four feet wide, single file traffic.

• 5:27Speaker 03

  Which is nothing, is it? I mean, it's nothing.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  It's nothing. And to bring a brigade into battle, Jim, which is what we're looking at here, and these tend to be brigade sized encounters, you know, we've just finished this Barbarossa campaign with, you know, millions of Soviet soldiers being deployed. Millions of Soviet soldiers being rustled up out of, out of nowhere. And this is, but this is brigades, battalions, companies, platoons, to start with, of Australian militia fighting the Japanese.

• 5:58Speaker 03

  Sections.

• 5:59Speaker 00

  And sections. At distances, you know, there's stories from later in the battle of two platoons being 80 yards apart, an officer sends a runner to the other platoon, never sees him again. Because the jungle's so intense, so thick, that you can be lost in that kind of short range move. So this is super intense and really no Papuans, no non-Papuans really know the routes, know about the trail. And there is this core logistic issue. An eight day trail, local carriers who use essentially half of what they carry to get there. It's an incredibly punishing journey.

• 6:39Speaker 00

  And, and really, as we'll see in the battle, not until the sort of toughened guys who've been fighting in Syria turn up, hardened soldiers who can cope with the trail. Until then, the Australians are running on fumes in the defence of Kokoda because they've sent militia. And we looked in the last episode, that battalion of men who are sent, who don't know where they're going, who are simply mustard stuck on a ship and sent to Port Moresby. And they, you know, they haven't been in intensive training, they aren't combat fit. In fact, they're rated F from A, B, C, D through to F, A being ready to go, gleaming people to F, F being no fucking way, right? And in Australian high command circles, there is a notion among, among some people,

• 7:24Speaker 00

  there's a thing called the Kokoda Gap, which is literally a gap in the mountains, a pass that could be dynamited with explosives or something, or held with just a handful of men, rather than the kind of terrain, this is the kind, this is the kind of terrain the Japanese have shown themselves to be so brilliant at fighting in. You know, a strong central attack to hold you up, flanking through seemingly impassable jungle, you know, sending probes out, looking for your flanks and exploiting the flanks, right? And it's just the kind of terrain that the Japanese have shown that they're brilliant at. And the bombing of Port Moresby starts on February the 3rd, 1942. The natives flee, of course they do. Desertions from coastal ships are high, there's chaos in the city itself.

• 8:09Speaker 00

  And the fighter planes then show up and sink three Catalina flying boats off the coast on the 28th of February, 1942, Japanese errors. So there's just two Catalinas and one Hudson left to defend the garrison. There's meant to be kitty, there's not a lot, there's meant to be Kitty Hawks turning up to join in and they're known as Never Hawks because they never turn up, they never appear. And they turn up, you know, they turn up weeks later and then do feature.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  Um, i- i- in the battle later. And then there's this sort of strange hiatus where no one really knows what's gonna happen. And the Japanese opt for an overland invasion.

• 8:50Speaker 03

  There's not much preparation from the Australians having been bombed, is there? I mean, you'd have thought what you would then do is, if it's so crucial, reinforce it, wouldn't you?

• 8:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. But the lockers bare. You know, they, they, they need to bring soldiers back from the, um, back from the Mediterranean theatre, the North African theatre. They, they, they haven't got any planes.

• 9:07Speaker 03

  Right.

• 9:08Speaker 00

  You know, that, and, and because they bet the farm on Singapore to deter in Japan, they're, they're, what can they do?

• 9:14Speaker 03

  So the Japanese can then prepare at their leisure, effectively, can't they? They've got plans for invading the, uh, um, Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands. So they're doing all that at this time in this first half of 1942. They're also, of course, sort of running amok in Burma at this time. They're up through, this is exactly the period that they are marauding through Malaya and Singapore. Of course, Singapore falls in February 1942, and then pushing on up into Burma, clearing Burma by, by the end, middle, middle end of, of May 1942. So they're quite busy and they are preparing for this assault on Guadalcanal at the same time. But they're also preparing to get on to Papua New Guinea because they realise, the whole point about the Japanese

• 9:56Speaker 03

  is, is to create this, this line, is it's to stop traffic between America, the United States, the west coast of, of the United States and Australia. And the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea are kind of sort of like a, like blocking islands between that route. And that's why this is, this is so important to the Japanese. And also, it's only 150 miles from Australia. So, you know, why wouldn't you? So this is left to, um, Lieutenant General Hayakataki, who is the commander of the Japanese 17th Army, and he has issued orders on the 14th of June 1942 to prepare a plan for the overland attack on Port Moresby. I mean, it does sound quite mad though, doesn't it?

• 10:37Speaker 03

  I mean, going across Papua New Guinea with, with the, uh, Owen Stanley, um, mountain range, thick jungle and all the rest of it. And yes, the Japanese are very good at jungle warfare. But even so, you know, all the logistic problems cut both ways, right? Anyway, they only plan to, uh, to use 1500 soldiers for the initial operations, a mere 1,500. A sign of Japanese ignorance, um, I think it's fair to say of about the geography and military needs to be successful in Papua New Guinea. So, yes, the Australians are really, really badly underprepped and don't have the right people and haven't really thought it all through. But, but I think there's fairly clear evidence the Japanese haven't either. Anyway, the force is built around Lieutenant Colonel Sukko, uh, Sukamoto's

• 11:21Speaker 03

  first battalion of the 144th Regiment. They're going to be the spearhead and a company of the crack fifth Sasebo naval landing force. And, and these are the units that are going to ultimately spearhead the Kokoda Trail campaign. And the insignia of this force is, is, is two crossing anchors and a chrysanthemum. And a man also have an anchor on their belt buckles.

• 11:41Speaker 00

  The thing is, is the, this would be all very well if they were going to take Port Moresby but from the sea, um, this landing force and all this sort of stuff. And, and before the war, they have recked Port Moresby and Japanese officers in disguise on freighters and stuff have been looked at Port Moresby. But the thing they don't know about is the, is the, the overland route. They've recked the wrong, wrong bit, given the circumstances as they turn out.

• 12:06Speaker 03

  Why don't they just go straight to Port Moresby?

• 12:08Speaker 00

  Because it, because the, the Americans have made it navelly impossible for them. And also, as you say, Guadalcanal's on their minds. So, so one of their issues is they're dividing, they, they're caught up.

• 12:18Speaker 03

  They're dividing their punch, aren't they?

• 12:20Speaker 00

  Exactly. And, and, and that's a, that's a big, that's a big contributing factor to, to how this campaign plays out for the Japanese. Is that, is that Guadalcanal, they get stuck in Guadalcanal. Guadalcanal doesn't happen as they hope. And this doesn't work out as they hope. And they basically, they find themselves caught between two stools.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  I would, I would say that it doesn't work out as they hoped. It is basically the leitmotif of the entire Japanese war.

• 12:43Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, it's the surrender is not, the war has not turned out to Japan, Japan's favour, isn't it? I mean, it's the.

• 12:50Speaker 03

  Advantage.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  It's advantage. It's right there, isn't it? The whole thing, right?

• 12:56Speaker 03

  Perhaps only, only Singapore and, and Hong Kong and, um, and, and Malaya work out to, you know, as they hoped.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  So command of this assault over the Owen Stanley Range is going to be with Major General Tomitaro Hori, um, with his South Sea Force, which is built around 144th Reg. And Hori is described as a small, plump and bespectacled figure. He campaigned with his troops and directed operations from headquarters never far behind the most forward outposts. His troops saw him occasionally astride a carefully groomed white thoroughbred, a remote, powerful and dignified being. He found a horse and would ride the horse.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  Surely not on Papua New Guinea.

• 13:33Speaker 00

  He found a horse and he would ride a horse. And he's very, but he's very much, you know, dynamic, leads from the front, cares about his men, uh, um, you know, gets stuck in as much as anyone else. And, and, you know, e- e- eventually, spoiler, this will cost him his life.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  Yes, appearances can be deceptive.

• 13:50Speaker 00

  And we also, we will see plenty of Australian officers of a similar spirit who lose their lives, um, uh, i- i- with the same sort of right down the front gumption, lead by example gumption. But the eventual Japanese build up, as planned, if the operation is approved, is going to comprise 13,500 troops. And some of these are veterans from China, from Guam, from, uh, Rabaul, um, and, and Salamaua. So experienced soldiers with experienced commanders.

• 14:18Speaker 03

  But, but that's also, that's a similar garrison to, say, Pelale, for example.

• 14:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 14:24Speaker 03

  It's a division.

• 14:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. So we, we're talking about a Japanese division and an Australian brigade here, and a brigade of militia. On the 21st of July, on, at 2:40 in the afternoon, the Japanese arrive and they begin by machine gun in the Booner Station, which is on the north coast. And then they, then they convoy musters just off the coast near, uh, Ghana, um, which is also on the north coast, which, and these are places that by the end of the year, the Australians, um, uh, will have to, will have to winkle the Japanese out of. And, and we'll come to those in later episodes, which, and that's a, that's a, a grim and bitter story. Allied aircraft do rock up and do do what they can. But by the afternoon, the Japanese are ashore, they're disembarking. Um, it's an unchallenged, um,

• 15:07Speaker 00

  uh, uh, landing. They invade successfully through the afternoon into the night. Because after all, the Australian weight of strength is down in Port Moresby, the other side of Papua. The Australians have set up the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit, which is set up in March after the air attacks by the Japanese. Um, and the purpose is to provide two things, district services, policing territories, maintaining law and order, all that, welfare of the, of the locals, providing and controlling the native labour, because they know they're going to need to lean on it. Production services, providing food for the natives, transport for men from, um, district services and plantation workers and technical director, direction of production. And they end up with seven observation posts along the north coast as an early warning radio system. And they also have the Papua

• 15:51Speaker 00

  Infantry Battalion as part of them. So the landings are reported by the PPIB.

• 15:56Speaker 03

  The, the PIB, the Papua Infantry Battalion, they also, they, they do attack the Japanese and, and there's a, there's a patrol led by, I think, Lieutenant Chalk. They shoot up some, up some, some of the invaders.

• 16:08Speaker 00

  They do what they can.

• 16:09Speaker 03

  And melt back into the jungle.

• 16:10Speaker 00

  Exactly. But it's a patrol and basically we're looking at this massive, massive Japanese strength. Angar relies on people like Bert Keenzel, who we met at the start of the episode. And he's a second generation plantation owner. He's a miner. He's six foot two. He's 18 stone. And he knows the air is a giant bear of a man.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Jesus, that's a, he's a big boy, isn't he?

• 16:30Speaker 00

  Big, big lad. And, you know, it's a lot, that's a lot of.

• 16:32Speaker 03

  18 stone.

• 16:33Speaker 00

  That's a lot of, lot of yourself to lug around the jungle, isn't it? But he knows, uh, uh, the place as well as any Australian. And he's been tasked as follows. Commanding Officer Angar to make arrangements to fulfil requirements up to a maximum of 1,000 native labourers. Construction of road to Kokoda to commence not later than the 29th of Ju- June, road to be completed by the 26th of August. So they want him to build a road all the way up to Kokoda. A road, Jim.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  Across the whole.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  Across this jungle plain that is basically a, a track that's basically impossible.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  In two months.

• 17:06Speaker 00

  In two months. And he said of this later, "I have heard of Superman, but have yet to see him in action." He knows it's impossible. And Keenzel is one of these, one of these characters in the campaign who always seems to be everywhere. And he's the expert, but no one ever quite listens to him. You know, he's sort of got this Cassandra quality, um, as he goes about, as he goes about the battlefield.

• 17:27Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 17:28Speaker 00

  And another officer, Major Noel Simulton, Symington or Symington, said of Keenzel later, "He was very highly regarded in the civil community up there and a very good operator. I do not consider that sufficient recognition was made to this gallant officer by the army commander or his country. They gave him an MBE or something, a bloody insult." But Keenzel works tirelessly with the carriers and the one top people who could speak to and motivate and understand. And there are obviously tensions with, with the carriers and all this. But, you know, what they, they use carrot rather than stick and the, and the Japanese lean into using the stick to get local people on side, you know, encouraging them against their imperial overlords and everything, but treat them terribly.

• 18:09Speaker 03

  Abominably, yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Abominably. Keenzel is very successful in keeping the supply going. Major General Basil Morris, who's the fellow on the ground, he then orders to con- a battalion up to Kokoda. He wants a battalion concentrated there. And he orders Lieutenant Colonel Owen of the 39th, um, Militia Battalion to fly to Kokoda on the 23rd of July.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  But, but, but is there not a kind of a bit of a concern from Major General Basil Morris that, that these Japanese have landed and a battalion is not really going to cut it?

• 18:36Speaker 00

  He's going to send what he's got. And also, there's this thinking that there's this gap, there's this, this, this, if, if you can just block them there, you'll be fine. And a, a failure really to get to grips with the fact that the Japanese aren't going to fight like that. They aren't going to, they aren't going to take no for an answer if, if there's resistance at Kokoda.

• 18:53Speaker 03

  Yes. And so this is where, where Sam Templeton enters, isn't it?

• 18:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, who's quite another one of these extraordinary characters. Um, and he'd fought in the Great War. His men think he's 50. You, you found a thing saying he's 42, but he's older than the others.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  Why is it found a thing he was born in 1900?

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, you see, some of the men think he's at least 50, but they don't know that, that the blokes, and he's really experienced. So he's fought in the First World War. Rumour has it he's fought in the Irish Civil War. He's super experienced, for which side, I'm not sure. He's super experienced. Um, so there are, there are people in the militia who do know what they're doing. Sam Templeton's B Company, which is, is a rifle company, the 39th, they're sent ahead of the rest of the battalion to secure Cokoda, ahead of plans to build an airstrip near Buna, um, uh, which is up on the coast. The Japanese aren't going to let them get to, to get to Buna, but the plan is they'll be in airstrip at Buna by mid-July.

• 19:49Speaker 03

  So the, the plan to send them up there to build this airstrip is before the Japanese invade, obviously.

• 19:54Speaker 00

  It's still wildly inadequate. Um, uh, and B Company get to Cokoda on the 14th of July. Um, and the, and the code word for taking a Cokoda is Marubra. So then this then becomes Marubra Force. It's talked about as Marubra Force. Um, you know, because the PIB, the Papad infantry battalion, join, join up with them and sort of coagulate around Cokoda. And then we come to the first battle of Cokoda itself, which is late July, early August, 1942. And you think this is, this is after the Gazala Lines battle?

• 20:27Speaker 03

  Yes, yes, yes. After the fall of Tbruk, yes. So the Japanese land on, on the evening of the 21st of July. Um, and at this point, Templeton's already pushed two of his three platoons forward to stage sort of delaying actions because obviously he presumably gets radioed in or someone, or, or may, maybe the Angao or the, uh, the PIB sort of scuttle back and, and, and let him know. But anyway, he knows that the Japanese have arrived, haven't they? And the third platoon of his company is, is occupying Kokoda. And the Japanese are within spitting distance of Kokoda by the afternoon of the 23rd of July. So it's only taken them a couple of days because they, they land about 5:30 PM on the afternoon of the 21st of July. And, and the Japanese push these forward platoons back very, very easily because they, obviously because they massively outnumber them. And, and as you

• 21:11Speaker 03

  were saying, really, I mean, you know, the Japanese method of attack here is you send scouts forward knowing quite a good chance that they get killed, then follow up with immediate, strong frontal attack, you know, and it is accepted that you're, you're going to get casualties, but the speed of movement is going to win you the battle, the battle. That's the idea. Uh, and, and they also sort of outflank, encircle and destroy with speed. You know, their equipment's light. This is very much the Japanese way, isn't it? At this stage of the war, you, you go in with very small amount of food, um, you know, just the ammunition you're carrying. It's all light weapons only.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:45Speaker 03

  And, and you feed off what you capture. That's sort of basically the idea. At this time, they're, they're much more competent than at jungle fighting than the, uh, than the Australians they are up against. You know, the 39th Battalion, Miss Militia Battalion is, is, is courageously engaging, but they're being overwhelmed, aren't they? And on the 26th of July, Uncle Sam Templeton heads off to guide a party that's, um, that, that's, that's reached Kokoda. And, um, as someone says, you know, we knew he wasn't coming back and he doesn't ever come back and his body was never recovered. Actually, later on, his son is, tries to find out what happened to him and manages to find someone, one of the Japanese who's still alive, who'd been fighting there. And he says that what happened

• 22:30Speaker 03

  was, was he was wounded, taken to see the Japanese commander, Colonel Hatsuo Sukamoto. Um, and, and, um, Templeton was boasting that there were 80,000 Aussie troops in Port Moresby and Sukamoto loses his rag and kills him with his sword. And then Keynesall, um, goes on to name a crossing through the Eora Creek Valley as Templeton's crossing in, in his, in his memory. But yes, but there's, there's more actions to follow, aren't there?

• 22:59Speaker 00

  We will, of course, we will post a map, although.

• 23:03Speaker 03

  It's just a wiggly line from north to south, basically.

• 23:04Speaker 00

  Exactly. The maps do no justice to the terrain, to the idea of the, to the idea that the terrain at all. O E V is, is, is, if we want, up the trail towards, uh, uh, the, the, the northern coast, um, away from Kokoda. So this is the, this is the falling back retreat. There's a place called Wirerope further up that's called that because it's named after the Wire Rope Bridge, because it, because it's all pigeon. There's a big battle at O E V on the, um, uh, on the 26th, 27th of July. And the, and the, you know, the Japanese do this thing, they concentrate force, their firepower, they bring it around at the rear of the defenders. The Australians respond with grenades, rifle fire, and then they panic and they abandon their position and fall back. And some push forward to their original front while others move towards their rear facing almost certain death. One

• 23:48Speaker 00

  of the things I think we need to, we just briefly mention is that the, these Australian soldiers, they've got a handful of Tommy guns. They don't have any Vickers guns because it's been decided that they're just too difficult to handle in the jungle and not suitable for jungle warfare. They don't have any artillery. They don't have any mortars because someone, some bright spark has decided that mortars will detonate in the, in the trees when they go. And so they're not any use in the jungle. Whereas the Japanese have arrived with lots of light machine guns, because that's the way they do things. And there's, there's a story about, you know, Bren guns turning up and some bloke going, I need company headquarters for, uh, battalion headquarters for these Bren guns. And the bloke goes, oh, I'm, I'm

• 24:27Speaker 00

  battalion headquarters and takes the Bren guns because, and he's never seen them before. The men have never seen them before. What do we do with these Bren guns? And they figure out how to, how to operate and clean them and use them. It's because the Australian cupboard was bare at the time. And, you know, you need automatic weapons in this, in this environment, very much so. You certainly need Tommy guns because the close range encounters that you're looking at in the jungle need automatic, light automatic weapons. Anyway, um, Owen, who's the commander of the 39th Battalion, and Owen really, uh, it, Owen survives none of this with any reputation at all. He reckons that after this, that what they need to do after A V, they need to pull back Kokoda. The trail will be easier to defend

• 25:12Speaker 00

  in the village. So to pull out of Kokoda rather, he sets fire some buildings and some stores and he falls back to a place called Deniki further up the trail. He discovers that the Japanese have not yet occupied Kokoda. So he puts a new bunch of blokes together and sends them off to, to reoccupy, um, the village on the 28th of July. And he thinks, what I'll do is I'll, we'll reinforce it by air. And he leaves a small force of 80 soldiers to hold the Kokoda airstrip in the meantime. And you think, given the Japanese numbers coming, um, uh, how is that, how is that possibly going to work out? And I think we'll take, we'll take a quick.

• 25:48Speaker 03

  Good idea.

• 25:49Speaker 00

  I think we'll take a quick break. We'll come back to find out and we'll meet some more of these absolutely amazing people who, uh, figure in this campaign.

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• 27:23Speaker 00

  Welcome back to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray, James Holland. Jim, we left the Cokoda airstrip. Colonel Owen has decided that 80 blokes will be able to hold the airstrip.

• 27:32Speaker 03

  Yes, this doesn't seem the truest of, of moves, does it?

• 27:34Speaker 00

  No, but what can he do? I mean, this is the thing. He has been sent on a essentially impossible job.

• 27:42Speaker 00

  Um, um, uh, let's, let's put, enter some more characters. So there's a, obviously you need a medical officer in this situation. And so step forward, Dr. Jeffrey Vernon. Now Vernon is a doctor, but he's also a planter from Daru in Western Papua. He's 60 pretty much by, by the time the war breaks out. He's deaf, he's stone deaf, right? So goes around yell, goes around yelling at everyone and having, having to be yelled at, exactly.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  He's got good reason to be deaf though, hasn't he?

• 28:10Speaker 00

  100%, yeah. Yeah, he's been at Gallipoli, rid off our acubras to him. Um, and he's, um, he's tall, he's thin, he's got deep lines on his face, and he's been in the Papua and ranges for years and years and years. And so he can, he can tab huge distances. He's just completely at ease in the jungle and can go for, go for miles and miles and miles.

• 28:32Speaker 03

  In his feet on a loincloth, yeah.

• 28:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly. Um, and he's working alongside Keen's all he's, he's responsible for the physical well-being of the carriers, um, the Papua and men helping uh, carry the Australian kit, kit across the trail. And the burden on these people on the, on the Papua's is really, really tough. Um, and obviously, we know, we're looking at 90 years ago nearly, and, and so there is the, the, there is a racialized prism through which the Australians look at the carriers and their abilities. But, um, he did acknowledge, you know, um, how tough and really hard it was for the, for the, for the carriers. I think Jim, you, you should be Dr. Vernon.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  The native carrier starts with a physique and constitution considerably inferior to that of the white soldier, nor is he anything like, like carefully selected medically for service. In addition, the native resisting powers to disease is inferior to the white man's, and both physically and mentally, he is more likely to succumb to sickness. The sole advantage is that he is more used to the country and to the hardships, inferior diet exposure to rain and cold, excessive walking, climbing, etc. It imposes on all it working along the main range route. Although many carriers were without a single blanket, rice was practically the only food issue, meat was withheld for two or three weeks

• 29:56Speaker 03

  and tobacco scarce. The regulation governing the reduction of loads to 80 kilograms was often ignored, and excessive weights and distances imposed on the carriers as if they were merely pack animals. No day of rest could be given for weeks. So in other words, they're treated like shit, basically, aren't they?

• 30:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. And what I really love about that description is you have the absolutely classic, while these people are inferior to us, they're much tougher in the, than we are in this environment, right? So he's, he's, he's, he's starting position is, you know, these people compared to us physically are nothing. And then goes on to say, you know, they've, they, they can cope with the country and the hardships, the bad food, the rain, the cold, much better than us. And yet.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  Yes. And by the way, being, being six foot two and 18 stone isn't that much of an advantage in Papua New Guinea.

• 30:42Speaker 00

  No, exactly. I mean, it's really, it's really interesting. There's the shit, the open contradiction in, in his, in his racial approach to this, that, that, there he is saying it and, and yet, and yet with a seemingly with a straight face. It's v- very weird. Um, so, so when Owen decides to reoccupy Kokoda, Vernon is in Deniki looking after the carriers and he can't help himself. Um, the medical officer, the 39th still hasn't arrived, he's still making his way up the trail. So Vernon decides to follow B Company back into Kokoda. They need a doctor, he thinks. Um, and there's a, another fellow, John Wilkinson is the only other person doing any medical assistance in Kokoda. He remembers Vernon's arrival. He says, Captain Vernon arrived out of the fog. Very pleased to see

• 31:26Speaker 00

  him. He had some instruments and dressings and two triangular bandages. He nearly got shot when first seen owing to his unregimental dress. Captain Vernon had shorts, a blue pullover, a felt army hat, and a long newspaper cigarette in his mouth, a small dilly bag and some army biscuits and tobacco in it. He saw me and spoke, Jack, I heard there was some action up here and I thought you may need some assistance. Where do I start? What a man.

• 31:51Speaker 03

  What a man.

• 31:52Speaker 00

  The caliber of, the caliber of these blokes. So the, the 29th of July, in the early morning, the Japanese launch a big attack on the 39th on, on the Kokoda plateau, which, and the plateau is where the airstrip is meant to be. Lieutenant Goff Judy Garland, excellent sir, excellent nickname, is a platoon commander occupying Kokoda at this point. And, uh, he recalls.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  Owen was another one similar to Sam Templeton, that wanted to show his leadership, and he walked around the top of the perimeter where we were all lying down, naturally you would. And I said to him, sir, I think you're taking an unnecessary risk walking around among the troops like that. Well, he said, I've got to do it. I suppose half an hour later, he got shot right through the forehead. I'm interested if you prons around.

• 32:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, but, but this, this leadership from the front thing, you know, we were saying this about Horiye, that, you know, that, that this is what the officers are doing.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  Well, yes, but, but, but, but it's, I would say it's more, more, more advantageous to the troops to, to not be dead.

• 32:46Speaker 00

  Yes, I, I know, I agree completely. I agree completely. It is not really your job to get shot. The plateau battle descends into chaos very, very quickly. Soldiers don't even know who's the enemy, because this is how close, clear, close, uh, fort this is, and who's their mate. Uh, one thing stays clear though, the enemy is breaking through the perimeter and they're going to have to withdraw again. Um, the Japanese are just putting them under too much pressure.

• 33:10Speaker 03

  Yep. So Doc Vernon recalls, he says, by midnight, the firing on both sides had become almost continuous. About one o'clock, a hand touched my shoulder. It was Brewer. With news that Colonel Owen had been wounded, we picked up a stretcher and several bearers. Major Watson came in to see him. And then we had four or five casualties in rapid succession who, when dressed, were told to go back to Deniki as soon as they could. Presently, we fixed up Colonel Owen, who was now dying as comfortably as possible, moistening his mouth and cleaning him up. Among the impressions of that exciting night, none stands out more clearly than the weirdness of the natural conditions. The thick white mist dimming the moonlight, the mysterious veiling of trees, the almost complete silence, as if the rubber

• 33:52Speaker 03

  groves of Kokoda were sleeping as usual in the depths of the night, and the men had not brought disturbance.

• 33:58Speaker 00

  It's quite, that's an image, quite a vivid description, that. Yeah, yeah. That's shades of the thin blue line, isn't it? Where there's, you know, the, the, the shots of nature playing itself out while, while you have the battle raging somewhere else, isn't it? Poor old B Company, they cannot hold Kokoda and they withdraw to Deniki and the rest of the, uh, uh, um, 39th Battalion join them in early August. And Major Alan Cameron of the 30th Brigade, he arrives to assume command. And warrant officer John Wilkinson notes in his diary, Cameron is very bitter towards the men. They says, he says they are cowards. He must have met up with a few shot through. These youngsters, these militiamen who've been sent there untrained, unprepared, who've been fighting at Oivin Kokoda.

• 34:36Speaker 03

  Without telling their mums.

• 34:37Speaker 00

  Without telling their mums, they buggered off. And Cameron won't acknowledge these men at all. Won't look them in the eye, what doesn't want anything to do with them, says they're cowards.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  That's not very helpful, is it?

• 34:46Speaker 00

  No, one, no, no. And, and, and then he decides to undertake a new operation to retake Koda. But it starts, oh, it starts fairly well, but the battalion don't have enough ammunition to apply enough pressure on the Japanese as they come in. So then there are various, uh, more intense attacks on Deniki, and the 39th have to withdraw again to a place called Isurava.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  Yes. I mean, it's not far, is it? It's about, it's probably about 10, 10, 10 kilometres. So what's that, six miles south of Kokoda? So Deniki is probably about three miles.

• 35:16Speaker 00

  It's this, these relentless assaults, this sort of piecemeal withdrawals, um, uh, uh, and so on. Um, so we now come to this stand at Isurava, um, in the last week of August, um, 1942. We should zoom out and go, go and look at what, what's going on um, at high command level while this is happening, to see what the considerations are. So, because as we mentioned earlier on, you know, Guadalcanal is a big part of the picture here. It's happening, it's happening at the same time. In the American centre of gravity and what's going on, um, it isn't necessarily this desperate struggle at Kokoda.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  McCaffrey's sort of underestimating it, isn't he? He's not particularly bothered by the Japanese taking Kokoda because he just reckons it's an advance to take, you know, secure a beachhead and a, and an airfield. And to be honest, that's, that's not an entirely unreasonable assumption, when you think, what the hell are the Japanese doing? Trying to get to Port Moresby, overlapped. I mean, you know, logistically, that makes no sense whatsoever. So, um, you know, I, I can see why he comes up with, you know, why he draws that conclusion. Um, and he also thinks that, that the Japanese will probably withdraw the troops from Papua to, to Guadalcanal anyway, once the, once the American Marines land in early August, which is when, when they're due to, to come ashore there. So, again, you

• 36:36Speaker 03

  know, it's not an entirely unreasonable assumption. But of course, you know, he is now the Southwest Pacific commander, isn't he? So he's, you know, he is the overall top man, including of these Australian troops as well as Americans, you know, who are about to, to launch this campaign in Guadalcanal. But anyway, uh, uh, by, by early August, he gets intelligence that convinces him to reinforce Papua. So on the 1st of August, Raoul is ordered to Port Moresby. Remember, we, we mentioned him in the last episode?

• 37:02Speaker 00

  Sid Raoul, yeah.

• 37:03Speaker 03

  To assume the command of the New Guinea force. And, and his task is to secure the defences of, of Port Moresby, then destroy the Japanese in Papua. Uh, Brigadier Potts, Allen and Raoul all head up this operation. And Allen and Potts brief Basil Morris, who we mentioned before the break, is now commanding Angau on the 13th of August. And 21st Brigade is required to recapture Kokoda as a supply base for future operations against Gona and Buna. Crucially though, Allen and Potts also tell Morris that their troops will be carrying their own supplies to Maiola, i.e. they can't rely entirely on Papua and carriers. Morris understandably protests this very forcibly and robustly, pointing out that it's just,

• 37:47Speaker 03

  it's really, really hot to navigate through the jungle terrain, let alone carry loads of, um, loads of goods. But, but his superiors aren't, they're not having it, are they? They just, they just absolutely insist that, that this is how it's going to be. Um, and meanwhile, Japanese soldiers are continuing to land at Gona, which is, you know, 4,000 more, and then of which 1,800 are combat troops. So you've got your initial 1,500 and another. Eighteen hundred combat troops. So, you know, you're getting on for kind of over three thousand, aren't you? And the Marubra Force, um, uh, the journey to Viola begins on the sixteenth of August. Um, so, so there's a kind of sort of, again, there's another of these hiatuses, isn't there, where, where, where thirty ninth battalion are kind of sort of holding on.

• 38:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. Well, the terrain's so difficult, you can't press your advantage, you can't rush it here. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it is, it's impossible. Yeah, yeah. So yes, there's five battalions in Maruba Force, Jim, aren't there?

• 38:42Speaker 03

  Yes. So there's the thirty ninth, which is already there, obviously. There's the fifty third. So these are militia. So fifty third is militia as well, right?

• 38:49Speaker 00

  That's right. Yes.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  And then you've got the second fourteenth, the second sixteenth and the second twenty seventh. And, and as you will remember from the earlier episode, the second means that the fourteen, sixteen and twenty seven battalions were in the First World War. And this is a kind of second iteration of the Australian Imperial Force, AIF. So this is now, you're now back to the regular Aussie Army. And Sergeant R O Clemens of the second fourteenth Battalion notes about the journey.

• 39:16Speaker 00

  How can one describe the monotony of following a trail over mountains and climbing up endless steps which have been cut up the slopes and then finishing the day's march physically exhausted. And then after a spite, move out at first light for a repetition. The steps he's talking about, this is a thing called the golden stairs, which is this, this route that's been cut up a hillside out of logs that you'd climb up and slip and slide on and, and bash yourself on. And this is the thing, it's the, the, the journey itself is so incredibly physical. This is one of these things, a battalion may have arrived somewhere, but how many of the men are fit? How many of the men are sick? How many of the men haven't arrived yet? How many, how many disappeared, broke their legs on the way up? You know, that, that there's this whole thing that it's not about, a battalion

• 40:01Speaker 00

  deployment doesn't, doesn't mean the battalion's there at all.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, it doesn't mean you've got eight hundred and seventy super fit blokes ready to, ready to fight by the time they get to where they've got to be. This reminds me very much, I have to say, of the Second Chindit Expedition up in Burma, where they're, you know, these guys are having to sort of travel a hundred miles through the jungle. You know, and half of them are dead of yellow fever before they, you know, before they actually get anywhere near any, any, any Japanese. Anyway, um, Potts is, um, is, is a solid mate and they, he's a, because it's mateship and he's a leader to his men. And Lieutenant John Blythe of the second sixteenth battalion recalls, he was everywhere. On one occasion, I crawled to the top of a ridge trembling with exhaustion and covered in mud. I looked up to the figure standing before me. It was Potsy. He looked at me and said, you haven't

• 40:46Speaker 03

  shaved. Go and clean yourself up. You're filthy. It was one of the worst things anyone could have said to me at that moment, but it was also the best thing. I felt wonderful after I'd hopped in a stream for a while. That's cheering, isn't it?

• 40:58Speaker 00

  It's fantastic. But, but the, the key thing about, um, that many of these men and their officers is they were previously involved in the Syrian campaign.

• 41:07Speaker 03

  So this is seventh division men, isn't it? These are seventh division, right?

• 41:10Speaker 00

  These are seventh div guys. And, you know, where the terrain's very difficult, the climate's very demanding. So that, that, these are, these are hardened guys. They aren't the militia who've been scooped up and stuck on a ship, you know. While these battalions are making their way up over the trail, a couple of absolute calamities, clang and, and real military clangers occur. So the first is on the seventeenth of, of August. The Japanese turn up, they bomb, um, Seven Mile Airfield, as it's called, outside, um, Port Moresby, and they destroyed two Dakotas. They damaged five more and they destroyed three Flying Fortress bombers. The Dakotas are fully fuelled and packed with supplies. And the thing is, the day before, Sid Rau had said, do you not think you need to disperse those aircraft? Do you not think they're all lined up like they're on a parade ground?

• 41:54Speaker 00

  And the Americans went, yeah, yeah, we'll sort that. You absolutely, you know what? You're absolutely right. We hadn't thought of that. And they don't do it.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  And they get hit.

• 42:00Speaker 00

  Supply is hard enough and they're making it more difficult for themselves. And when, um, Potts arrives at Monari, Arnold Potts arrives, um, uh, ahead of his troops at Monari, he finds staging camps, supply personnel there are massively underprepared. Um, uh, and the promised abundance of supplies, they're just not there. Um, when they reach Miola, where there, where there's also another air, uh, there's also a contender as an airstrip at Miola as well. There's a dried lake bed there. Potts discovers that the promised forty thousand rations are in fact only five thousand.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  So, so where are these thirty five thousand rations? And no one's ever quite sure, but it's probably most likely that they just were never sent.

• 42:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, they were never sent. And, and there's also, there's, there's this whole thing of people saying, well, it's secret. I can't tell you where the rations are. And then people, everyone going round and round in circles, asking for secret rations that don't, you know, that no one can, no one can admit to. The subsequent report into the operations of twenty first brigade says the situation was hugely mishandled. There should have been a senior officer in charge, running the quartermaster side of things between the base and troops prioritising dropping supplies at Miola. You know, if they'd done that, twenty first brigade wouldn't have had to have each soldier carrying five days' rations. And every pound you carry, kilogram you carry on this, um, trail is, is sapping the blokes. So, you know, what happens to the missing thirty five thousand ration portions? There's one argument that it's like crappy civilian pilots, pilots,

• 43:19Speaker 00

  but that can't be it. It's just basically a great big screw up.

• 43:23Speaker 03

  Administrative cock up. Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. Anyway, Rau presses Blamey for more transport planes, but Macarthur makes things very difficult for Blamey, doesn't he? Due to limited planes available, Macarthur says. And he says, air supply must necessarily be considered an emergency rather than a normal means of supply. Consequently, every effort should be made by the GLC, NGF to develop other means of supply. Um, well, yeah, you know, at that stage, he's, Macarthur's probably got a point. I mean, there probably aren't that many planes around at this stage of the war. That's all going to change, of course.

• 43:58Speaker 00

  What other means? Like what?

• 44:01Speaker 03

  There is no other means of supply.

• 44:03Speaker 00

  You can say that the people at the top are divorced from the reality of, of what's going on underground in Kokoda. They, in Papua, they don't know what the terrain's like at all. They, they, they've got, they haven't got their heads around. They're looking, they're looking at the wiggly line on this map and thinking, well, it's only five K. You know, and five K can take you two days if the terrain's against you.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  There's no such thing as Google Earth in those days.

• 44:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  They just can't do it. But they can fly over with planes to take reconnaissance photos. I mean, that's what they could do. But they haven't got those either. They've got anything.

• 44:33Speaker 00

  So in the meantime, Brigadier Potts and second fourteenth and second sixteenth are forced to wait at Miola for days, waiting for more supplies to be dropped in before they can move up and execute their orders. So they, there's this, this, this, you know, there's this hitch. And in the meantime, the Japanese are concentrating their forces near Isarava in order to, to take Isarava. And on the fifteenth of August, thirty ninth battalion, who are not involved in this Miola cock up, they're digging in at Isarava.

• 45:01Speaker 03

  Yes. And these are the guys who've already been at Kokoda and fallen back.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  Exactly. And B Company, who, who, um, have been considered cowards and all this stuff. And they get a new lieutenant colonel, who's lieutenant colonel Ralph Honner. And he's an original member of the second eleventh nineteenth brigade, sixth division. He's extremely experienced. He's been in Libya, Greece, Crete. He's golden, this guy. And, and he has a transformative effect over this militia battalion. Um, but when he arrives, he's very shocked by the state of the thirty ninth. And, and he says, James.

• 45:34Speaker 03

  Physically, the pathetically young warriors of the thirty ninth were in poor shape, worn out by strenuous fighting, an exhausting movement, and weakened by lack of food and sleep and shelter. Many of them had literally come to a standstill. They shivered through the long chill vigil of the lonely nights when they were required to stand awake and alert, but still in silence. Only the morning brought a gleam of comfort. Yeah, this does sound really miserable, doesn't it? You know, and that's before the Japanese have started fighting.

• 46:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. This is before, before things kick off. The battalion doctor with the second sixteenth, um, Captain Stewart, who, who comes up, sees the thirty ninth near Isarava, and he describes the men as gaunt spectres with gaping boots and rotting tatters of uniform hanging around them like scarecrows. Their faces had no expression, their eyes sunk back in their sockets. They were drained by malaria, dysentery and near starvation.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, it just sounds awful, doesn't it? And of course, and of course, you know, disease is rampant here, isn't it? Uh, I mean, you know, someone said the Kokoda trail starts and ends with malaria. As we mentioned in the, in, in the first episode, there's also dengue fever, the scrub typhus. I mean, that doesn't sound good, does it? Tropical ulcers, dysentery, fungal infections, leeches galore. I mean, you know, you're spending the whole time going like this, honey, you know, plapping off the, the bugs and the flies and, and, and everything else. I mean, just.

• 46:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. And suppurating jungle sores and all this sort of stuff. You've men who are cutting away the, the, cutting away the backs of their trousers, of their shorts, because they've got such bad dysentery. So they, they're fighting with bare arses because, because it's so bad. But Hona does, does what he can, and this is really interesting and shows the measure of the man. With B Company, who've been declared cowards, he decides the best thing to do is reinstate their morale. So he gives B Company the central job, the post of honour, the ground where he expects the Japanese most likely to attack, to show them that he trusts them and to show, to get them to prove they're not cowards, to believe in them and to believe in the men. He electrifies the battalion. And he's got,

• 47:35Speaker 00

  you know, as well as his, as well as his extensive military experience, he's well versed in Shakespeare, the classics, he speaks French, Spanish, German, Italian, he has his epic view of life and of war. So will Isurava be the making of an Aussie legend here?

• 47:49Speaker 03

  It's set up to be that, isn't it?

• 47:50Speaker 00

  We know, you want your Australian Thermopylae, that's what we've promised you, here it comes. There's a big flat clearing to the east of the track where the village is. And on the south of the front, there's a creek, and it's very steep, descending track runs through the middle of the village, eastwards towards Asigari. And on the western flank, there's lots of timber and very, very thick jungle. So it's a good defensive position, but it's not impregnable, particularly not the way the Japanese like to fight.

• 48:16Speaker 03

  But, but, it's a, it's a much better position than Kokoda, isn't it?

• 48:19Speaker 00

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that, it's the, yeah, well, given, given how many blokes he's got and, and, and the strength of the battalion, because they're, they're exhausted. Hona predicts what the Japanese are going to do. He says, he thinks the Japanese will use the Australian killing ground west of B Company's position as a base to concentrate big numbers, and having swung from the main track to the narrow village, and then on through the jungle and woodland. B Company are ordered to dig into deep, narrow pits. And Hona recalls of the preparation, "There wasn't much I could do in the way of an attack, except hold the enemy at arm's length as long as possible, to prevent them from finding out how weak we were and how small indeed was our garrison. Had they known how small we were, they should have gone around us and cut us off from our supplies

• 49:03Speaker 00

  and annihilated us. We had to buy time and buy distance as long as possible and as far as possible."

• 49:08Speaker 03

  I mean, that's, I mean, just imagine you're there, Al. I mean, just, just, just imagine, you know this, you're cut off, the supplies are absolutely minimal, really, in the big scheme of things. Your, your dysentery's so bad, you're having to kind of cut the seat of your pants out. You know, the Japanese are lurking in the jungle ahead of you. You are going to feel completely cut off, abandoned, bereft, all those things, aren't you? And just thinking, how the hell am I ever going to get out of here? I mean, must have been absolutely terrifying.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, but luckily, there are men like Hona at the middle of this.

• 49:42Speaker 03

  Yes, and his adjutant recalls, doesn't he? He says, as he was "always a perfect gentleman, didn't lose his temper, a very easy man to work with. He made the war his war."

• 49:53Speaker 00

  Ralph Hona, Australian hero. We are going to see, in our next episode, a moment of shining leadership and, and the guts and grit of the Australians in this battle. It's a truly extraordinary feat of arms that's to follow. And then, some very, very strange reaction to it. So on the 21st of August, the 39th, they're given, they're relieved, they spend the next few days patrolling, waiting for the inevitable Japanese offensive. Basically, this pause in the battle while the Japanese gather their skirts and the Australians do the same. And the thing to remember is, all this time, MacArthur doesn't think this is much more than an encouragement to Kokoda to secure the air bases. There's complacency

• 50:36Speaker 00

  at the top, ignorance, arrogance, his eye is on the scrap coming at Glade Canal as he sees it, which is where the centre of gravity has to be, because it's the American centre of gravity. He doesn't understand the strategic and political importance of holding Port Moresby, or the peril of losing it. So, join us for our next episode.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  Well, it's all going to kick off at Isurava.

• 50:56Speaker 00

  It's all going to kick off at Isurava. And, and, and things, the Kokoda battle will play itself out in spectacular style. If you want to hear that episode right away, then go to our Patreon, become a We Have Ways To Make You Talk Patreon member, where there's tonnes more stuff to get your teeth into, audiobooks, live streams, and so on. But, in the next battle, the Aussies, the diggers, will be giving it a fair go, Jim, and we will be there beside them. As you said earlier, imagine yourself there. This is yet another episode from the history of the Second World War. I'm glad I was born to a generation well clear of, at least a generation well clear of.

• 51:33Speaker 03

  Indeed, yes.

• 51:35Speaker 00

  Jesus Christ. We'll see you then. Cheerio.

• 51:37Speaker 03

  Goodnight.

• 51:45Speaker 04

  Welcome to the 50th Hunger Games. Witness the beginning of the revolution.

• 51:49Speaker 05

  Hey Mitch, you've been trying to take down these games from the start.

• 51:52Speaker 04

  Filmed for IMAX.

• 51:54Speaker 05

  Make them remember you.

• 51:56Speaker 04

  The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, November 20th, made in PG-13.

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