Kapa Kapa Track

General Douglas MacArthur, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allies’ south-west Pacific forces, issued an order to Major General Edwin Forrest Harding of the US 32nd Division on November 29, 1942: “Take Buna or don’t come back alive”. On the Kapa Kapa Track, many didn’t. The hard-won Allied seizure of this Japanese Papua New Guinea beachhead saw some of WWII’s most ferocious fighting, under utterly nightmarish conditions.

The Kokoda Campaign of 1942 has become legendary for Australians. The American memory is slanted towards triumphs including Coral Sea and Guadalcanal. However, the role played by US infantry in PNG is little known.

As Japan’s dominance in the Pacific increased, bringing them closer to Australia, Prime Minister John Curtin demanded of Churchill, that Australian troops be released from the Mediterranean and North Africa. Although our 6th and 7th Divisions returned, the 9th could not be spared. Instead, a raw US 32nd Division– until then slated for Europe – were provided.

There are some parallels here with the 39th Battallion “ragged bloody heroes” who distinguished themselves so brilliantly during the Kokoda Campaign. The 32nd Infantry Division recruits were militia, National Guardsmen from Wisconsin and Michigan. Ironically they had trained in Louisiana, where numerous swamps could have helped hone jungle fighting skills. However this terrain was ignored and they arrived in PNG totally unprepared for the challenges of a tropical jungle.  Their kit included leather toilet seats, but no insect repellent. Nor did they carry waterproof containers to preserve matches or anti-malarial tablets. Inevitably, 67 per cent of the 14,500 American troops were affected by tropical disease during the northern beaches campaign.

In September 1942, Australian troops inflicted Japan’s first land defeat of WWII at Milne Bay. The Allies then launched an attack on the Japanese Buna, Sanananda and Gona bases on the north coast. Most US troops were airlifted in, although reaching the battle zone was still a hardship with many GIs getting trenchfoot after long marches through swamps. The 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Division’s 126th Infantry Regiment launched an overland assault on Buna –– an expedition which saw them dubbed the “Ghost Mountain Boys”.

The Kapa Kapa Track is approximately 50km south-east of the parallel Kokoda Track. The terrain is even more difficult and is almost a kilometre higher in altitude, reaching 3080 mts (10,100 ft) at ‘Ghost Mountain’ or more officially Mt Obree. It is locally known as ‘Suwemalla’.

Veteran GI Stanley Jastrzembski gave some indication of the challenges faced by the 32nd Division with his comment: “I would’ve taken an enemy bullet before going back into those mountains.”

The original plan had the 1000 strong contingent heading west onto the Kokoda Track once across the Owen Stanley Ranges, to harass or cut off the retreating Japanese. However, forward scouts reported it was impossible to travel fast enough for this, hence orders were changed to covering the Australian flank before proceeding to Buna.

The Australians on Kokoda had to fight both the terrain and the Japanese. The 32nd had no bullets flying at them, but the jungle provided an enormous battle. Climbing what seemed like endless steep razorbacks and carrying up to 36kg (80 lb) of field equipment, the soldiers had to confront PNG’s tropical rain, stinging nettles, leeches and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. They couldn’t light fires to cook their rice and the bully beef made them sick. Before long, fevers, tropical ulcers and dysentery ravaged the group. Their original commander suffered a heart attack and had to be replaced.

After 42 days struggling some 210km (130 miles) over the mountains, famished and sick, the Ghost Mountain Boys were put under Australian command, and made the first penetration of the enemy perimeter at Buna on November 30, driving the Japanese back several hundred metres.

The price the Allies paid for victory was high, with casualty rates in some units near 90 per cent – mostly due to malaria. The Ghost Mountain Boys were particularly hard hit, with only six officers and 126 GIs still standing when Buna was re-taken.

The mountain track that tested them so sorely has largely retained its ghostly mantle, little visited by outsiders since the war. Getaway Trekking is the only company taking trekkers along the entire Kapa Kapa Track, courtesy of local operator Kapakapa Buna Trekking.

Reference: ‘The Ghost Mountain Boys’ – Highly recommended reading.
“Their Epic March & the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea – The Forgotten War of the South Pacific”.
Author James Campbell
Published by Crown Publishers