The Battle for Shaggy Ridge: The Extraordinary Story of the Australian Campaign Against the Japanese in New Guinea's Finisterre Mountains in 1943-44 by Phillip Bradley

Author:Phillip Bradley [Bradley, Phillip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760878672
Google: UhpzzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2021-08-31T23:32:41.200989+00:00

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Following the move back into the Finisterres, Lieutenant Kumao Ishikawa’s unit reached Irie village where Ishikawa came under the command of the labour company commander, Captain Shimojo. With Shaggy Ridge to the west and the Faria River to the east, the village ‘was an ideal defensive stronghold’. A 75 mm mountain gun was placed under Ishikawa’s command, ‘a priceless artillery piece for our infantry defending Kankirei’. However, when the engineers had constructed the gun position they cut down the trees in a 60-degree arc ahead of the gun, making the location obvious from the air. ‘It was as if the gun position was deliberately let known to the enemy,’ Ishakawa wrote, ‘risking being devoured by machine guns to say nothing of enemy artillery.’ But the Australian patrols ‘did not appear to go beyond threatening reconnaissance’.5

The Australians had only just set up an observation post called River OP at the Mainstream and Faria River junction when six shells from the mountain gun were fired at the position on the morning of 19 October. The Australian forward observers, Lieutenant Ross Macfarlan and Lieutenant Johnny Pearson, then called down counter-fire, dropping 70 shells onto the Irie area.6 The position soon came under ‘a ferocious gunnery attack like never seen before,’ Ishikawa recalled. The first shells exploded in the trees but soon were hitting the ground, endangering the gun. Still under shellfire, Ishikawa pressed Shimojo to move the gun position, knowing how vulnerable it was to observation. Having no success, he went to the signals dugout to contact the regimental commander, only to find the line back to headquarters cut by the shelling. Then there was ‘an ear-splitting big noise’, and ‘a blow as if clobbered by a plank pierced my left shoulder’. Ishikawa was bleeding and feeling faint but a medic got to him and patched him up.7

Ishikawa made his way back to Kankiryo to meet with the commander who was concerned for Ishikawa and also for the mountain gun, which he ordered to be moved. ‘Though not entirely satisfied,’ Ishikawa found a new emplacement for the gun in a densely forested area at Kankiryo. ‘We kept cutting down trees to the bare minimum to keep secrecy from the enemy,’ Ishikawa wrote, because with ‘spotter aircraft flying at will, it was a foregone conclusion that our gun will be annihilated in one attack.’ A sturdy timber frame was constructed over the gun and foliage was laid across this frame to camouflage the position. A reinforced log bunker was also constructed as an observation post with ‘an unobstructed panoramic view’. Ishikawa’s main targets were in the Faria Valley and up on Shaggy Ridge but even with the tenfold magnification of the artillery telescope he had difficulty spotting the fall of shot. Unfortunately for him there were no smoke rounds available for ranging, unlike for the Australians who used them to good effect. Ishikawa had few enough normal rounds and had to be frugal in their use. ‘We could not fire to our satisfaction. But, given the valuable ammunitions transported with immense effort, we had to endure it.

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