This is the story of the 39th Battalion's young inexperienced militia men, who held up the progress of a vastly superior Japanese invasion, once intent upon crossing the Owen Stanley Ranges & taking Port Moresby.
The high command had miscalculated the size of the Japanese force & had no idea about the type of terrain & conditions in which the soldiers fought. The 550 men of the 39th Battalion & the 6000 Japanese soldiers, fought a strange war with small advances made by the Japanese as the Australian soldiers defended their ground.
By the time some relief forces arrived to support the Battalion, the Japanese were already suffering due as much to the conditions as anything else. The Japanese were then pushed back to the coast. ( )