11 October 1942

A captured Japanese diary reveals the heavy casualties they have suffered to date in the campaign. Lt Horibe wrote in his notebook that his company had landed with 162 men. By Isurava they were reduced to 112 men and were down to 88 at Ioribaiwa. By the time they had withdrawn to Eora Creek they could only muster 43 men.

They were now surviving on a handful of rice per man per day as they dug in on the high ground above Eora Creek village and waited for the advancing Australians.

10 October 1942

Near Templeton’s Crossing, Sgt Bede Tongs’ patrol from the 3^rd Battalion makes contact with the enemy. His orders are to find and engage the enemy, then report back to battalion HQ, so he withdraws his patrol and returns to HQ, now some two days back along the Track.

It soon becomes evident that Gen Horii has set a series of delaying positions, starting near Mt Bellamy, the highest point on the Track, and on each of the two branches of the main Track heading north from Kagi, around Templeton's Crossing and Eora Creek villages.

Around 9.50am three Allied bombers attacked Kokoda and the Wairopi bridge, scoring a direct hit on the bridge and disrupting the Japanese supply route. By the end of the day the main body of the Aust 25th Brigade was moving up the Track between Kagi and Efogi.

Private Noel Geraghty from the 3rd Battlion is sent on a dangerous solo mission to deliver a pack of tea and sugar to natives at Efogi to ensure they were loyal to the Australians not the enemy. After a harrowing trip he successfully completes his mission and returns safely.

9 October 1942

Near Efogi, patrols of 2/33^rd find the unburied bodies of the Australians left as they lay after the Battle for Brigade Hill a month earlier. Bodies are found in trenches, in trees, in the jungle, most still with their weapons in their hands.

Burial parties start two days of recoveries, finding and burying 99 Diggers, including heroes of the battle, Bret Langridge, Claude Nye and Charlie McCallum. One Padre conducts 90 separate burial services.

The Japs have collected and buried their dead in large mass burial mounds, marked with a perimieter of jungle vines and a single large timber pole adorned with Japanese characters.

8 October 1942

Allied air forces now supplying the Australian advance with air drops, literally supplies dropped, or kicked out of supply planes over the Australian drop zones, especially the large dry lakes at Myola on the Track.

Many Australians are volunteered as ‘kicker-outers’, the man who sits at the open plane door kicking the supply cargo out the door as it’s pushed down the fuselage to him. No safety belts, just hanging on for dear life with one foot securely placed inside the door and the other propelling the cargo out.

The primitive system is also a constant danger to the troops waiting below and Sgt Wally Wakefield of 2/25^th is killed when struck by a pack on the edge of the Myola drop zone.

7 October 1942

First clash between Australians and Japanese on the outskirts of Templeton’s Crossing where the Japanese rearguard has established well-concealed machine gun pits. Experienced Queenslander Sgt Wallace Patterson killed in action during a brief clash.

The Australians now begin to consolidate and move cautiously to try to establish the extent and positions of the enemy defences.