One of the most brutal conflicts in Australian war history, the Kokoda Campaign was a powerful victory that directly saved Australia from the threat of Japanese occupation. Both historians and veterans alike distinguish it as a campaign of exceptional savagery with each army pushing the other back along a muddy, precipitous track over the mountainous spine of New Guineas Owen Stanley Range. Troops were reduced to a primal level, such were the inhuman conditions in which the battle was waged and the impossible expectations made on soldiers of both sides at the front line.