314 OIVI-GORARI 2-3 Nov
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To the west the 25th Brigade was closing in. The 2/31st was still forward along the track, the other two battalions completing the circle of their wanderings with the 2/25th between Alola and Deniki and the 2/33rd at Alola.
On the eastern track, on the 2nd, the 2/3rd went forward to Kobara where the men began to prepare a dropping ground in an open kunai patch. One patrol quested as far as Pirivi - the area in which the 39th Battalion had fought to delay the Japanese approach on Kokoda on that 8th August, less than three months before. The whole brigade then camped in the Kobara region hungrily waiting for the food which would be dropped to them next day. Had it not been for the fruit and roots they had gathered from native gardens they would have fared badly. They made their evening meal from yams, paw paw, sweet potatoes, taro root and cucumber, all slightly green. But the going had been easier during the day - the track falling from Siga into the valley and, after passing through Fila, becoming well defined and level - so that, although the men were tired and hungry, they were not as distressed as they had been in the mountains.
There was good news from the western track. In the morning patrols of the 2/31st had been early astir. One, under Lieutenant Black, 1 entered Kokoda itself and found that the Japanese had been gone two days. By 11.30 a.m. the main 2/31st Battalion group was moving forward and had Kokoda firmly covered by the middle of the afternoon. By 4 p.m. Brigadier Eather was there with his advanced headquarters and the other two battalions were approaching. Preliminary engineer reconnaissance suggested that aircraft would be able to land after two days' work on the strip and dropping could go on from dawn of the 3rd.
So, quietly, the Australians re-entered Kokoda. Apart from its airfield its significance lay only in its name which would identify in history the evil track which passed across the Papuan mountains from the sea to the sea.
Monday, November 01, 2010
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