NEW BOOKS

Evening Star, Issue 25701, 26 January 1946, Page 10

NEW BOOKS

'GREEN ARMOUR 1 THE WAR IK NEW GUINEA In ' Green Armour,' which tells of the war in New Guinea, with a briefer view of Guadalcanal and the fighting at Munda, New Georgia, a New Zealander, Mr Osmar White, who was a correspondent with the Australian forces, has written one of the best of the War books. The story itself was an epic; and the sharp,, vivid phrases of this narrator, describing heroism and suffering almost incredible, in, their wild setting of Nature's malignity, with glimpsed background 1 of history and strategy, are a model Of how such a story should be told. In New Guinea the Australians had two enemies, of whom Nature was far more to be feared than the Japanese. The close jungle, the diseases, the razor-backted ridges, the heat, cold, and rains—in the highlands it could rain an inch in five minutes—turned against the brown invader in the last phase, when the Allies had piled up their mechanical strength and could cease to attack him by the first primitive means. Australians from the factory and the station could not compete with the Japanese as jungle fighters. They.had not been trained for it like the enemy, who knew beforehand the programme he designed for the Pacific. Neither "diggers" nor their leaders knew the interior of the country in which they had to do their fighting; west of Port Moresby the island had hardly been crossed, and such scanty settlements as existed inland had been formed and supplied by air. Only the New Guinea Riflemen, who were a mere handful, Iknew the jungle, and they could move better in it than the Japanese, who were stupid and always at a loss when they were surprised. The 6tory opens with the fall first of Rabaul, where • 14,000 Australian troops were overwhelmed by the attack of two Japanese divisions, and then of other points on the northern coast, and the terrible trek of fugitives by the coast and overland to refuge at Port Moresby. There was little hope that any lasting shelter could be given there. It held less than 3,000 combat troops, and the few Australian planes that were its best defence were slower at climbing than the Zeros. They held those at bay, however, bombing. Itabaul and patrol forces at intervals—the Japanese again made poor use of their air resources—till American supplies and, later, flyers after long interval raised the balance. The war in New Guinea; was a race between Japanese plans for the conquest, of the whole Pacific, including Australia, and America's - ability to bring forces to bear. There w : as no fighting by large forces on land. Th-i Japanese were as incapable as Australians of crossing the great central range in the strength required; the whole Pacific war, more than anything else, was a struggle for airfields. If the Japanese had nad the or the resources—to attack Australia, by-passing New Guinea instead of halting there, Australia would have gone. At: a late stage the authorities realised the importance of giving special training to men . for jungle fighting, but by that time the necessity for jungle fighting had almost passed. A better means of attack had been found in the amphibious operations, by air and sea and land, in which the greatest possible, superiority, of. material was brought to bear. In.'New Guinea men endured more, for months on end, than it might be. thought they could endure and live. Heroes of the war, not less *than the Australians, were the devoted native boys from mission stations who maintained the transport service, carrying indispensable supplies, day after day. to forward posts, often at the cost of their lives The _ name 'Green Armour,' connotes the jungle which, protected both sides against land offensives in force. Since W. H. Hudson wrote his ' Green Mansions,' describing the South American forest, there has been no better description of forest, nature than that which Mr White here provides. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, publishers.