SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—According to a report in The Herald Sun, a team of Australian researchers is exploring an obscure road built by the Japanese army during World War II in Papua New Guinea. Archaeologist Matthew Kelly of Extent Heritage and his colleagues were investigating the battlefield of Etoa, which is located along the Kokoda Track—a 30-mile-long footpath across rugged mountain terrain from Owers Corner in Central Province to the village of Kokoda—when they found the hidden supply road. It ran parallel to the Kokoda Track, but was wider and could have been used by the Japanese army to move supplies on horseback while the Australians and Japanese fought along the Kokoda Track from July to November, 1942. “It would have changed things,” Kelly said of the secret road. “This one would have been unknown to Australian intelligence. They could strafe the Kokoda Track but they couldn’t see the Japanese moving back and forth along this one.” To read more, go to “The Archaeology of WWII.”
