JUNGLE EPIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 388, 29 November 1946, Page 15

JUNGLE EPIC

PACIFIC VICTORY, by Hugh Buggy. Ministry of Information, Commonwealth of Australia. HE task of writing a brief popular but official history of Australia’s effort in the war against Japan was by no means easy, and Mr. Buggy deserves credit for the manner in which he has marshalled his material to bring out the dramatic quality of the events of Australia’s deliverance from the threat of Japan. This is eminently a popular production, both in scope and format. Possibly to-day we are inclined to forget how close the war came to the Australian mainland, as close relatively as we would have been to it had the Japanese made landings in Fiji. The Japanese attempts on Port Moresby and Milne Bay were made with strength and determination. Darwin suffered, too, one devastating air raid; and the North-west corner of the Australian continent was for a long time menaced by the building up of enemy strength in the East Indies. The repulse of the Japanese in the jungles of New Guinea is One of the great stories of the war. It is this jungle fighting with its almost unendurable hatdships which is the central theme of the book, though the magnificent contributions of Australia’s navy and airmen are also related. Mr. Buggy tells

tales of individual gallantry, besides presenting a competent general view of these difficult campaigns. He gives due weight to the personality of such leaders as the, late Mr. Curtin and General MacArthur, The freeing of New Guinea and the taking the offensive to the North have a quality of gréatness that fully merit that too-lightly-used word "epic." Pacific Victory is a deserved tribute both to Australian fighting spirit and to Australian generalship. The author, preoccupied with Australian achievements, does not always give a balanced picture of the Pacific war as a whole. There is a lack of proportion in the omission of any reference to the outflanking advance of the United States Fleet, in which the Gilberts and Marshalls fell, without which there would not have been such freedom of movement for amphibious operations on the North coast of New Guinea. Then this book has some of the faults it is always hoped will be avoided in popular histories. Plans of particular operations do not show essential names, amd there is no general map of New Guinea. The author exhausts himself with his use of superlatives, and his considerable journalistic powers are severely strained in the search for fresh synonyms for the fine behaviour of Australian troops. This persistent overwriting is wearying to read, and in the end does a disservice to men whose courage was indeed worthy of the most subtle and skilful literarv treatment.

D.O.W.

H.