Qualla: Kapa Kapa Trail https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kapa Kapa Trail https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail Kapa Kapa Trail: Introduction https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit Public domain. The local people called it Suwemalla. Nobody wanted to go there. The trail across the Owen Stanley Range, over a 9,100-foot pass near the 3,080-meter peak of Mount Obree, was avoided by the nearby villagers, who believed the crest was haunted. No white man had used the route since 1917. And yet in October 1942, General Douglas MacArthur's staff decided that more than 900 men of the U.S. 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division would cross it on foot, in 42 days, carrying 80-pound packs, to flank the Japanese. They called the summit Ghost Mountain. Seventy percent of them came out of the jungle with malaria. Not a single one of them fired a shot at an enemy along the way.

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kapa Kapa Trail: A Name Misheard https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. The trail begins at Gabagaba, a coastal village on the south coast of Papua New Guinea. When English speakers first wrote the village's name, they heard "Kapa Kapa," and the trail running inland from it carried the mispronunciation into the history books. From Gabagaba the trail ...

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Image: The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-a-name-misheard.mp3 0:06 2 full Kapa Kapa Trail: MacArthur's Flanking Idea https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. By early September 1942, Australian troops on the Kokoda Track were under heavy pressure. Japanese forces had advanced to within 30 miles of Port Moresby. General Sydney Rowell thought he could hold them with the reinforcements arriving from Australia. MacArthur wanted more. He a...

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Image: The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-macarthurs-flanking-idea.mp3 0:06 3 full Kapa Kapa Trail: Rain, Heat, Uniforms That Held Heat https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. The men learned the hard lessons first. Their uniforms, dyed in Australia, turned out to trap heat. Quinine pills, water chlorination tablets, vitamin pills, and salt tablets began disintegrating almost as soon as the men put them in their pockets, because the men were always wet...

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Image: The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-rain-heat-uniforms-that-held-heat.mp3 0:06 4 full Kapa Kapa Trail: Ghost Mountain https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. On the shoulder of Mount Obree, in the cold, dense forest at the crest, the men gave the peak its English name: Ghost Mountain. The local porters would not cross the border at the top of the range. To cross, they would have become illegal combatants in the League of Nations manda...

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Image: The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-ghost-mountain.mp3 0:06 5 full Kapa Kapa Trail: No Japanese Found, Then Too Many https://qualla.com/kapa-kapa-trail/ Photo credit The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. They never saw a single Japanese soldier during the whole crossing. The flanking maneuver they had marched 42 days to execute was already moot - the Japanese had been pushed back along the Kokoda Track by the Australians while the 126th was still in the jungle. Meanwhile, on 14-1...

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Image: The original uploader was ColinF at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/q/2/b/kapa-kapa-trail-wp/rq2b-kapa-kapa-trail-no-japanese-found-then-too-many.mp3 0:06 6 full