 First image | |
| Author | Tom Hungerford |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Angus and Robertson |
Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print Hardback & Paperback |
| Pages | 220 pp |
| Followed by | Riverslake |
The Ridge and the River (1952) is the debut novel by Australian writer Tom Hungerford. [1] It won the 1952 ALS Gold Medal. [2]
The novel is based on the author's experiences serving with the Australian army fighting the Japanese in Papua New Guinea during World War II. The story follows an Australian patrol of a dozen men sent to reconnoitre a Japanese position on Bougainville Island. An action ensues in which two of the Australians are injured. The patrol must then find a way back to base, through the jungle, evading the Japanese and ensuring their wounded reach safety. [3]
“I wanted to record what it was like to be a soldier in the Australian army in the Islands at that time; I wanted to express the immense admiration I had then for the Australian fighting man.” [3]
"When I wrote Ridge, I wrote it so that someone a thousand years from now could pick it up and know what that jungle fighting was like. I was in New Britain, New Guinea and Bougainville during the war-and the book could have been set in anyone of them, but the Bougainville campaign was the basis for it. It was a very dramatic period in my life-in anyone's life who went through it. I was in a commando group. We did map-making. We harassed. We captured prisoners, set up a lot of ambushes, gathered information. I can read passages from The Ridge and the River now that were written straight from experience-and they can make my hair curl. They can fill me with a dreadful nostalgia for the men who died or who have come back and changed." [4]
Ainslie Baker in The Australian Women's Weekly noted that the author "...has written a book that is utterly without pretension. The result is a vigor and authenticity that lifts the work far above the average war story. Its mateship is never mawkish, its disenchanted soldier humor never forced, nor its emotion debased to sentimentality." [5]
In a survey of Australian war novels from the 1950s Rick Hosking wrote in 1985: "By 1954, several possible ways of using the past, of reworking subjects from the war, must have been apparent to intending ex-servicemen-novelists: the novel with the strongly-felt anti-war theme, the novel of apprenticeship, with war making Bills out of Billys, the novel describing the exploits of the 'terrible laughing men in the slouch hats', or the novel based on real, dramatic events. T. A. G. Hungerford's The Ridge and the River, published in 1952, offered one more alternative, one that, in the long run, proved the most enduring. He chose to limit the scope of his novel, taking what must have been reasonably typical experiences of jungle warfare, and concentrating on character types not normally found in war fiction, ordinary but complicated human beings. In other words, Hungerford chose not to depict the digger of legend and myth, nor did he set out to describe the great battles where wars are won or lost, nor did he rework heroic or dramatic real events. Instead he deliberately confined his attentions to several days in the life of a commando patrol on an un-named island (no doubt Bougainville) at the very end of the war, with the Hiroshima bombing only days away." [6]
In The Australian Collection: Australia’s Greatest Books, Geoffrey Dutton describes how, “The survival of humanity in wartime is the deep, sad subject of The Ridge and the River, indicated in the end by stoicism rather than heroism.” [3]
Edward 'Weary' Dunlop described the novel as capturing "the essence of jungle warfare as it was fought by Australians". [7]
The novel was serialised in condensed form, in 9 parts, in the following Australian newspapers:
Dhan Gopal Mukerji was the first successful Indian man of letters in the United States and won a Newbery Medal in 1928. He studied at Duff School, and at Duff College, both within the University of Calcutta in India, at the University of Tokyo in Japan and at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University in the US.
The Bougainville campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan, named after the island of Bougainville. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied grand strategy in the South Pacific.
The Raid on Choiseul was a small unit engagement that occurred from 28 October to 3 November 1943, during the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific War. The raid was launched to divert the Japanese from the Allied landings at Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island.
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The 29th Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Australian Army that was raised for service during World War II. Formed in late 1941 as part of the Militia, the brigade was initially formed for home defence in response to Japan's entry into the war. Composed of three Queensland-based infantry battalions and various supporting elements, the brigade initially undertook defensive duties around Townsville in 1941–1942 before deploying to New Guinea in 1943. There, the brigade undertook garrison duties before taking part in the Salamaua–Lae campaign. After a period of almost 18 months overseas, the brigade's elements were returned to Australia for a period of rest and reorganisation before later being assigned to the Bougainville campaign in 1944–1945. After the war, the brigade was disbanded in December 1945, along with its component units.
The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the Australian Literature Society, then from 1983 by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, when the two organisations were merged.
Thomas Arthur Guy Hungerford, AM was an Australian writer, noted for his World War II novel The Ridge and the River, and his short stories that chronicle growing up in South Perth, Western Australia during the Great Depression.
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The 2/11th Commando Squadron was a commando unit raised by the Australian Army for service in World War II. Raised in 1944, the unit saw action late in the war against the Japanese during the Borneo campaign in 1945. As a part of this campaign the squadron undertook landings on Labuan Island and at Brunei Bay. Following the end of the war, the squadron returned to Australia and was disbanded in early 1946.
The 31st/51st Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army, which served during World War II. Raised for service as part of the Militia in 1943 through the amalgamation of two previously existing battalions, the 31st/51st Battalion undertook garrison duties in Dutch New Guinea in 1943–44 before taking part in the Bougainville Campaign in 1944–45. Following the end of the war, the battalion served in the Pacific overseeing the transfer of Japanese prisoners of war and re-establishing law and order until mid-1946 when it returned to Australia and was disbanded.
The 24th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally raised in 1915 for service during World War I as part of the 1st Australian Imperial Force, it was attached to the 6th Brigade, 2nd Division and served during the Gallipoli campaign and in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium. Following the end of the war the battalion was disbanded in 1919, however, in 1921 it was re-raised as a unit of the part-time Citizens Forces in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1927, when the part-time forces adopted territorial titles, the battalion adopted the designation of 24th Battalion (Kooyong Regiment). In 1939, the 24th Battalion was merged with the 39th Battalion, however, they were split up in 1941 and in 1943, after being allocated to the 15th Brigade, the 24th Battalion was deployed to New Guinea before later taking part in the Bougainville campaign. Following the end of the war, the battalion was disbanded in 1946.
The Battle of Pearl Ridge was an engagement of the Second World War fought between Australian and Japanese forces on Bougainville Island. Part of the wider Bougainville Campaign, the battle took place in the central sector of the island, shortly after the Australians had taken over responsibility from the Americans. Believing that the ridge was held by less than a company of Japanese, on 30 December the Australian 25th Infantry Battalion launched a four-pronged attacked the ridge. The defending force, however, had been greatly reinforced by elements of the 38th Independent Mixed Brigade and was closer to a battalion in strength. After being held up on the right of their advance, the Australians dug in overnight and repulsed a strong Japanese counterattack before resuming the attack on 31 December. By late in the afternoon, the Japanese had been swept off the ridge. The Australians later established an observation post on the ridge, which had commanding views of the whole island, and throughout the remainder of the campaign used it to control artillery fire as they advanced towards Japanese enclaves in the north and south of the island.
The Battle of Tsimba Ridge was an engagement of the Second World War involving Australian and Japanese forces. Part of the wider Bougainville campaign of the Pacific theatre, the battle occurred in the northern sector of Bougainville Island between 17 January and 9 February 1945, when the lead battalion of the Australian 11th Brigade—the 31st/51st Infantry Battalion—advanced towards the Genga River as part of a drive north to the Bonis Peninsula.
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The 59th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Initially raised for service during World War I, the battalion fought on the Western Front in France and Belgium between 1916 and 1918, before being disbanded in 1919. In 1921, it was re-raised as a part-time unit of the Militia in Victoria. They remained in existence until 1942 when, due to a manpower shortage in the Australian economy, the decision was made to amalgamate the battalion with the 58th Battalion to form the 58th/59th Battalion. Together they remained linked throughout World War II, serving in New Guinea and Bougainville in 1943–1945. In 1952, the 59th Battalion was re-raised and subsequently was absorbed into the Royal Victoria Regiment in 1960.
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Colonel George Radford Warfe, was an Australian Army officer who commanded several Australian commando and infantry units during the Second World War. He later served in staff and training roles in the post war period, which included service during the Malayan Emergency and then as a civilian advisor during the Vietnam War following his military retirement. He was active in the civil defence organisation in Victoria and in the business community before his death at the age of 63 in November 1975 from cancer.
The Japanese occupation of the Solomon Islands was the period in the history of Solomon Islands between 1942 and 1945 when Imperial Japanese forces occupied Solomon Islands during World War II.