At the Oivi–Gorari action in early November 1942 the Kokoda myth that the Australians inflicted huge losses on the Japanese was at last partially correct. Something had changed, and Japanese generalship and fighting power were no longer what they had been, while those of the Australians had improved. One clear marker that a serious defeat has been suffered is the loss of artillery pieces to the enemy. In no battle so far had this occurred to the Japanese, but at Oivi–Gorari the Nankai Shitai lost every one of the 15 guns assembled there. The Japanese were also tossed out of their position and driven in disorder to the coast, which, with the loss of the guns, marks the battle as a very great disaster for the Nankai Shitai, on a par with Kawaguchi’s defeat at Edson’s Ridge on Guadalcanal. Even for the optimists in the Nankai Shitai and in Rabaul, Oivi–Gorari clearly marked the end of Japanese prospects for taking Port Moresby.