And Fire Falls by Peter Watt

Author:Peter Watt [Watt, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2014-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

14

Although the moon was full, an eerie mist dulled its glow. Sergeant Tom Duffy scanned the open plateau before him at Kokoda village. The young soldier had found himself a spot very close by, and both men waited together in silence. The young soldier was only seventeen and came from a big family in one of Sydney’s inner-city suburbs. He had enlisted, using a forged birth certificate, to help support his impoverished family. His father was violent, and often out of work, which left his family with hardly enough to get by. Although Tom knew he could not favour any particular soldier in his platoon, he did try to ensure he was near the young man whenever the fighting started.

Lieutenant Colonel Owen had correctly anticipated the points of attack on his position and had laid out defences to counter their encircling tactics. Tom and his platoon found themselves facing the edge of steep slopes dropping to the Mambare River below. Trenches had been dug to protect the rear, and the men had made their first contact at last light when a force of around four hundred elite Japanese soldiers had attacked up the slopes from the river valley. They had been met with a withering fusillade of small arms fire and grenades from the defending Australian militia. The enemy had fallen back, leaving many of their comrades dead and wounded on the slopes.

Tom could feel himself shivering, putting it down to the chill of the night rather than his stretched nerves. So many times he had cursed himself for enlisting when he had every excuse to be home on one of his cattle properties instead of looking after a bunch of kids with rifles.

‘How many Nips do you reckon are out there?’ the young soldier whispered, staring wide-eyed towards the edge of the escarpment, where they expected the next attack to come from.

‘I don’t know,’ Tom replied. ‘But there’ll be a few less after we shot them up this afternoon.’

The young soldier fell silent. Tom edged his way to a team of Bren gunners on his left, privates Snowy Parr and Rusty Hollow. ‘You blokes all right?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, sarge,’ they replied, and Tom moved down the trench line to ensure all his platoon were alert. He expected the Japanese to make use of the full moon and attack tonight. When he had finished his inspection he returned to his post.

Late in the evening a crump in the distance signalled the beginning of the attack as a Japanese mortar was dropped down a tube and discharged. Within seconds the explosions had reached the Australian defensive lines, showering the trenches with dirt and shrapnel. The mortar bombardment from across the river continued, and the heavy Japanese Juki machine guns joined in to sweep the defenders. Then the Japanese emerged over the lip of the steep slopes up from the river, and in the light of the moon the slaughter began.

The Japanese attackers faltered under heavy fire from the militiamen, but with

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