![]() Painter, Illustrator, Cartoonist, War Correspondent So sharp are some of the peaks that only one man could cross the saddle at one time.’ God knows how the soldiers carried their packs up these exhausting peaks. All in all that damned ridge is about 4000 feet above sea level. ‘1’m somewhat limp after an afternoon stroll (?) up a mountain some 2000 feet higher than the spot where I now sit. After struggling to the top of this bloody mountain I came across some of the lads coming down – we sat and had a cigarette.’ The top of it was riddled with fox holes. On either side of a track only wide enough for one the earth falls near sheer. Heaven only knows how the boys took it over from the Japs. ‘Well, I have at Ieast seen Shaggy Ridge and what a hell of a place it is. On Shaggy Ridge (Reproduced: The Australian Women’s Weekly,, p40) ![]() By January 23,1944, Shaggy Ridge was in Australian hands. Patrols and bombarding began on October 21,1943 and the first clash on November 11. The three steep elevations rising from Shaggy Ridge were known to the Australians as the Pimple, Intermediate Sniper’s Pimple and Green Sniper’s Pimple. Often the Pimple was a blur, capped by mist and hidden by rain clouds. From the Pimple they found it easy to resist any advance. ![]() The Japanese had established themselves strongly in defensive positions on Shaggy Ridge and both sides flanking it. The Pimple was one of three steep elevations rising from the Ridge and the Advanced Dressing Station at Guy’s Post treated many hundreds of casualties before they could be evacuated over a long and rough trail. Shaggy Ridge in the Finisterre Range, New Guinea, was the scene of a bitter three month long battle between the Japanese who held it and Australian troops. held March 16 – ApAscending The Pimple (Australian War Memorial Collection, Accession No, ART29338, Reproduced Australian Women’s Weekly, 10 June 1944) Excerpts from a Catalogue by Lin Bloomfield produced for an exhibition at The Bloomfield Galleries, 118 Sutherland Street, Paddington, N.S.W.
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