When the Imperial Japanese Army was "pushing" to Port Moresby they still had plenty of ships and many of their warship classes were superior vessels compaired to the allied ones, most naval engagments with IJN units, except for their carriers, and especially at night, resulted in a japanese victory including after the coral sea battle, until radar was available to the allies. Their destroyers in particular were standouts with enclosed and protected bridges for one thing, while all else were still chewing salt water on weather bridges. That their immediate intension was to neutralise our unsinkable aircraft carrier and not to follow up with an invasion straight after that, has much merit which is vastly due to post campain intelligence that was not available to anyone actually on the front line at the time. So yes, our CMF and AIF soldiers believed they had "no choice but too" fight as hard and tenaciously to the death as they did in many clashes during the kokoda track fighting. Cheers Hargraves