Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

On Shaggy Ridge 

EXCITING INCIDENTS

General MacArthur's Headquar ters in New Guinea, Jan. 24. — The fighting for command of the high ridges of the Finisterre Range is at such close range that at times the Australian infantrymen get to within eight or 10 yards of the Japanese before releasing the pins from the grenades and hurling them into enemy pillboxes. On top of Shaggy Ridge we had to attack along a 3 ft. ledge completely exposed to enemy fire and the only means of advancing was for the troops to hang over the side of the ledge and edge forward until they were able to throw their grenades into the dugouts. One side of the ridge is almost a sheer drop of 4000 ft. Corporal Eric Knight, of Benalla, was in a section that attacked under fire along this razor-back ledge. As they crept forward the section leader was hit and fell over the ledge and as the rest of the section dodged out of fire, Knight wriggled along to within six yards of a dugout from which grenades were being thrown. He opened up with an Owen gun and sprayed the length of the dugout, at the same time tossing grenades among the Japanese. They replied with a shower of grenades that came over like confetti, but fell over the side of the ridge and did no damage. When he ran out of grenades Knight called to a Bren gunner,

Private Axel Smith, of Victoria, to come forward, while he climbed around the pillbox and up a sharp rise. Taking Smith's grenades, Knight worked up to a small opening at the back of the pillbox, tossed the grenades inside and killed the Japanese, who were peering out at the other end. He then call ed up the section and, after they had taken up positions, went forward with his Owen gun, to make sure that nobody else was in the pillbox. As he did so, he saw a Japanese jump out of the pillbox and over the side of the ridge. Knight gave him three bursts with his Owen gun and killed him. He went farther forward and was about to pass a small hole when he saw the muzzle of an automatic poke out and wave slightly. Unpinning a grenade, he held it for two seconds, and then hurled it into the opening. Later in the day he found another pill box, into which he fired two rounds from the Bren gun, but he did not examine it to see whether there were any Japanese inside. Private Ron McAulay, of Queensland, was also under shell fire all day. Most of the, time he was working forward toward pillboxes to throw in grenades. 'We did not see many Japanese as they were all well dug in,' he said, 'but we certainly heard' them. Two tried to climb up the slope through heavy timber but we lobbed grenades on them and did not hear from them .again.' Private Noel Oxlade, of Brisbane, said  the approach to the ridge was so steep that they had to pull themselves up the sides on ropes. The positions the Japanese had left were still full of gear and ammunition and appeared to have been vacated very hurriedly. When the Japanese began shelling Oxlade jumped into a foxhole but discovered he had left his Owen gun outside and went out to retrieve it: When he returned he found a man who was wounded in the leg in his foxhole and Oxlade lay in the mud alongside the foxhole until the shelling subsided. Private Arthur Sheehan, of Queensland, had a narrow escape when a Japanese gun opened up. He was carrying ammunition forward when he heard a shell whistling towards him. He threw him self to the ground as the shell passed within inches and exploded down the side of the ridge.

Source: A history by recollection, diaries and written materials of the 2/7th Aust
Divisional Cavalry 1940 - 1943 
http://www.2nd7thcavalry.com/
 
 
Herrmann, Christie
Syria
I put a Vichy France flag on the truck.  It nearly caused another shoot out.
Butch (Noel) Oxlade got into a British overcoat, which had brass buttons.  The
men saw him coming and called out the guard.  When he got closer they saw who
it was and they nearly killed him.

Peter Hooke
Came back from Cyprus, on our way to the border, and stayed in an olive grove
outside Beirut.  The local women were allowed to do our washing.    Most of these
people seemed to be very religious and when Christian adhered to the Roman
Catholic faith.  Butch lay on a ground sheet with a blanket over him.  We were all
wary about waking him unexpectedly as he had a temper.  One day one of these
washing women tapped him on the shoulder: “George do a washing”.  He did not
stir.  So she peeled off the blanket which was on top of him.  “Jesus Christ, piss
off” Butch yelled.  The washing women called out:  “He Roman Catholic like us,
lookie! lookie!.

Lionel Oxlade
We cross the Euphrates River in a punt that took a three ton truck, it was where
Alexandria the Great had crossed. We camped out in the Red Desert. We used
the tarpaulins off the trucks as cover. I put my head out at some stage and it was
all white. The guy next to me was from Cowra and he popped his head out and
said: “ you silly bastard, it is only snow.”
At the Barracks at Aleppo I was Sgt of the Guard and Stacey Barlow was in
charge of the guard as Lieut. It snowed and was very cold. Major Rose, the 2I/C
of the Regiment would sometimes inspect the guard, which he did this night.
Every post we went to we could not find anyone. Rose would call out and they
would appear. Rose would then blow the hell out of them, when he had finished
he would give them a swig of rum to keep warm. We got around to the back of the
Barracks and there was a great big fire. My brother Noel and Charlie Thiel had
smashed the sentry box up the sentry box for firewood and lit it to keep warm.

From Tobruk to Borneo: memoirs of an Italian-Aussie volunteer By Frank G. Perversi

Rosenberg, 2002 - Biography & Autobiography - 188 pages
Written not for publication but at the insistent request of the author's youngest daughter, this book is a deeply reflective record of Frank Perversi's four years and nine months in the Second AIF, most of them as a private and then NCO in Intelligence. During that time he saw service in England, Tobruk and EI Alamein, the Middle East, New Guinea and Borneo. Because of the nature of the Field Security Wing's role, Perversi was engaged in more actions than most soldiers. Apart from the range of activities, this book differs from many war memoirs because of the particularly analytical nature of the author's mind. The Australian-born son of Italian migrants, his motivations for enlisting were complex and received with some ambiguity by family and friends. From that decision to volunteer onwards, Perversi examines from sometimes unconventional angles many aspects of life in the services: discipline, boredom, heroism, shared experience. Frank Perversi is now eighty-two years of age. He retired from his real estate agency nearly twenty years ago, spent the first fifteen months touring Australia by caravan, sold the large home at Diamond Creek in which he and his wife had raised six children and now lives near Bendigo, Victoria. Every year he and his wife migrate north for two or three months. He loves the bush, fishing, reading, most music particularly classics and opera, wining and dining and good conversation. He hates war. Passionately.
 

 ...we simply slept in the water, on the ground, fully clothed as usual. Butch OXLADE curled up behind me as married couples do in order to keep warm. Sensing my ill concealed reluctance, he reassured me, "Don't worry, I am not going to slap a Blossom, on you."