As the Japanese withdrew north to assume defensive operations to consolidate their beachheads on the northern coast, the Australians subsequently re-took Kokoda in early November 1942.

[2] These troops were initially tasked with proving the route over the Owen Stanleys before the main body of the landing force, Major General Tomitaro Horii's South Seas Detachment, arrived.

[3] In this vein, a bridge at Wairopi was destroyed by the withdrawing PIB troops who had been reinforced by a platoon of Australians from the 39th Infantry Battalion, with a brief fire-fight on 24 July, before the Japanese began forcing a crossing of the Kumusi River in rubber assault boats supported by mortars and machine gun fire.

As the Australians and Papuans began massing in some numbers, with several plane loads being landed at Kokoda on 26 July and moving north,[5] they attempted a stand around Oivi under Captain Sam Templeton, commander of 'B' Company, 39th Infantry Battalion.

Encircled, and having suffered heavy losses – including Templeton who was captured and executed – the surviving Australians and Papuans withdrew to Deniki under the command of Watson, and guided south around the Japanese on the track by Lance Corporal Sanopa of the PIB.

[4][6] Positioned on a plateau north of the Owen Stanley Range to the south of the Mambare River which runs roughly north-west to south-east, Kokoda lies around the northern approach to Port Moresby.

[9][10] These troops were mainly from the 39th Infantry Battalion – mostly survivors from the fighting around Oivi – but also included small numbers of men from the PIB, the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit, the Royal Papuan Constabulary and several signallers from the 30th Brigade headquarters,[8] Flanked by parallel tracks which cut back south of the airstrip, Kokoda was not easily defendable, particularly by a company-sized element.

Throughout the afternoon of 28 July, Ogawa's troops – mostly veterans of the fighting in China[10] – advanced along the Kokoda–Oivi road, approaching Kokoda from the east before moving towards the flanks of the Australian position.

[12] As night fell, the Japanese began harassing the defenders before launching a frontal assault up the slope towards the plateau in the early hours of 29 July, supported by light mortars and a 70 mm artillery piece.

After about an hour of close quarters fighting, including hand-to-hand combat, the engagement ended in the Australians withdrawing from the village after Owen died from wounds received while moving amongst his troops to buoy their morale as the threat of encirclement grew.

At the same time, the Japanese force, which had grown to around 660 men with the arrival of the remainder of Hatsuo Tsukamoto's 1st Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment and supporting elements, began their advance on Deniki.

A see-sawing action followed over the next couple of days, in which the main Australian force, consisting largely of Captain Arthur Dean's 'C' Company, was pushed back along the track to the battalion's headquarters around Deniki.

In an effort to make the main Australian force aware that they had taken the village, Symington fired off a red signal flare, and dispatched messengers to go back to Cameron to advise him to send reinforcements and supplies.

[34][35] Ironically, the day after the engagement Allied aircraft, unaware that the village had fallen due to communications delays, arrived over Kokoda dropping the supplies that Symington's company had been expecting.

[36] While not ultimately successful in holding Kokoda, the attack by Cameron's force had the effect of surprising the Japanese commanders and subsequently delayed the advance on Deniki by four days.

In late September and early October, after reverses around Milne Bay and Guadalcanal,[42] the Japanese went onto the defensive as the strategic situation in the Pacific began to turn against them, and the Australians were able to launch a cautious counter-attack which saw them retake Kokoda unopposed on 2 November 1942.

[43] This was followed by heavy fighting around Oivi and Gorari, which proved to be the final action of the Kokoda Track campaign prior to the Battle of Buna–Gona as the Japanese were pursued back towards their beachheads on the northern Papuan coast.