adversaries, veterans of China, Guam and Rabaul, were equipped with heavy machine-guns, mortars and mountain guns ? weapons which the Australians lacked. It is for this reason that the Kokoda Trail is rightly remembered as a high point in Australian history. Along with Milne Bay, the Kokoda campaign remains the most important ever fought by Australians to ensure the direct security of Australia. The campaign was also notable because so much misunderstanding existed back in Australia at the time about what was actually happening along the Trail. While the Australian defenders were steadily falling back before the advancing Japanese, their's was no abject retreat but a tenacious, uncompromising and measured withdrawal ? a fact which General Douglas MacArthur and his senior officers failed to appreciate or acknowledge. Sackings of commanders alleged to have failed to hold or reverse a situation which was much more difficult than armchair strategists could possibly realise, and slurs about men running like rabbits, paid no regard to the true magnitude of the performance and achievement of the troops on the Trail. These days, however, the name Kokoda strikes a responsive chord with ordinary Australians, and it is recognised and appreciated that the hardy men who fought so bravely during the dark months of 1942 ? especially those men whose names appear on the walls behind me here ? won a major victory, turning the tide of Japanese successes to that time, and securing the Australian homeland from the threat of sustained or serious attack. We