It was a school excursion, and as such, a day out of the classroom, so I cannot say that I was in the mood to listen to history.

However, as we trekked past the old war plaques on the way to MacDonald's Corner, there was a sense of the importance of the trail, and the hardships endured by young Australians in August - September 1942.

School children in New Guinea are well aware of the importance of that trail - 'The Bloody Track" - as it was called by the men who fought there.

And many people would have visited the many quiet rows of crosses at Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby.

But I wonder how many children in Australia are familiar with the battles fought and the heroic deeds by the young militia troops sent to Kokoda.

Like Gallipoli, many historians and soldiers now feel that Kokoda was a battle fought against extreme odds. There also was the added burden of orders from military leaders who knew nothing of the type of warfare needed to fight in the jungle.

The significance of the Kokoda Trail in military history cannot be underestimated. If the Japanese forces had managed to cut across the Owen Stanley Ranges to Port Moresby, they would have established a base to launch a military attack on Australia.

When Rabaul was invaded by General Tomitaro Horii, in January 1942, it was the first time in our history that Australian territory had fallen to an invader. And protecting Australia from the battle-experienced South Seas Detachment, was the 39th militia battalion.

These soldiers were totally inexperienced, the average age was 18 to 23 years, and many had never fired guns.

They had been sent to New Guinea in December 1941, but instead of being trained in jungle combat and weapons, they were used to unload ships, and build airstrips. The soldiers had little defence against malaria and dengue fever, their uniforms were not suited to the dense and humid climate, and the Kokoda terrain proved to be a severe test of endurance for even the fittest.

Robert Hillman, in conjunction with the Australian War Museum, has just written a wonderful account of the Kokoda campaign which is suitable for children and adults.

It is part of the Great Australian Stories series, and is titled The Kokoda Trail.

Hillman looks in detail at the lives of the soldiers on the trail, the conditions they experienced, how the Kokoda campaign fitted into the greater Pacific campaign, and some of the heroes who gave their lives to defend us.

For a more detailed account of the individual battles along the track, and the way in which walking the track affected not only the soldiers at the time, but others through the years, Patrick Lindsay's The Spirit of Kokoda - Then and Now is the only book to read.

Not only does he movingly recreate the day by day battle for every inch of the track, he brings alive heroes such as Bruce Kingsbury, the only man awared the VC for Kokoda, and Charlie White, who survived the horrors of the track, only to be gunned down in the final phase of the Papuan campaign, at Buna.

The story of the Kokoda Trail deserves to be better known than it has been, and names such as Brigade Hill and Mission Ridge should be as familiar to Australians, as Iwo Jima, El Alamein and Tobruk.

The latest two additions to the history of "The Bloody Track" can only increase the knowledge of our debt to those young soldiers who fought in Papua New Guinea in 1942.