 The initiative now passed to the Japanese. As the Australians advanced, a large force of Japanese – consisting largely of the 79th and 80th Infantry Regiments, part of the 26th Field Artillery Regiment and a battalion of the 238th Infantry Regiment, which were grouped together as the 20th Division under Lieutenant General Shigeru Katagiri – launched an unsuccessful counter-attack in October before retreating inland towards an abandoned German mission that sat atop a 900-metre (3,000 ft) peak at Sattelberg.
