A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua [Paperback]

Peter Brune (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005

The story of the five battles that changed Australia forever, this compelling narrative incorporates hundreds of interviews with the soldiers who fought at Kokoda, Milne Bay, Gona, Buna, and Sanananda in 1942 and 1943. Revealed are the very real and engaging experiences of Generals MacArthur and Blamey and other senior Australian commanders who sacrificed many of their senior field officers as scapegoats to protect their own positions, assisted in the making of false legends, and lied about the outcome of the men who fought the battles.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Brune is the author of The Spell Broken, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, and We Band of Brothers, and is the coauthor of 200 Shots: Damien Parer and George Silk and The Australians at War in New Guinea.

Product Details

• Paperback: 724 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741144035
• ISBN-13: 978-1741144031
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania > Papua New Guinea

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Definitive Account, August 10, 2004

By 

James Wackett "Zed" (Sydney) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua (Paperback)

"Few Australians have heard of Gona, Buna and Sanananda - or for that matter Milne Bay. In commemorating the Papuan campaign we have, as a nation, got lost on the Kokoda trail" - Peter Brune.

I have never read a book that focuses completely on the Australian campaign in Papua (or part thereof) before, but only works that include the campaign as part of a more broad assessment of the whole South West Pacific Theatre of Operations. That said, I think it would be hard to find a better book on the Papuan campaign than Peter Brune's `A Bastard of a Place'.

The premise of Brune's book is that... "Kokoda's glory constitutes but one-fifth of the Australian legend of Papua during 1942. It is an integral part of that legend, but not its whole.

"...also, it is the sad saga of a nation still ignorant of this great Australian legend, still largely unaware of the feats of some of its most deserving military commanders and the soldiers they served. In some measure, regrettably, it is the story of others who have been accorded undue praise."

First and foremost in Brune's assessment of those who have received undue praise are Generals Douglas Macarthur and Thomas Blamey. Brune is scathing in his criticism of Macarthur's role as Supreme Allied commander in the South-West Pacific.

In Brune's assessment, Macarthur firstly was ignorant of the potential impact of a Japanese incursion into Papua and eventually was focused purely on achieving a quick land victory before his rival Admiral Nimitz could achieve a land victory on Guadalcanal in the neighbouring South Pacific Theatre of Operations, thus winning for himself the confidence of General George Marshall and the US Joint Chiefs and a greater share of US resources in the Pacific.

Macarthur's failure to understand the terrain and constraints in which the 2nd AIF's 7th Division and the AMF Militia Brigades in Papua faced, and the pressure he placed on Australian commanders in the field to achieve a quick victory, led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of Australian soldiers in `Flanders-style' infantry assaults on heavily fortified and defended Japanese positions during the `Battle of the Beachhead' (Gona, Buna and Sanananda).

Blamey and a number of senior Australian commanders are willing accomplices in this process. While Brune acknowledges Blamey's successes as a leader and commander during World War One and in the Middle East in 1940-42, (as well as his many personal deficiencies), Papua is definitely the low point of Blamey's career and a period for which Brune finds little excuse - his notorious Koitaki address adding insult to the injury of the disloyalty he showed to senior Australian commanders in New Guinea including MAJ GEN Arthur `Tubby' Allen, MAJ GEN Cyril Clowes and BRIG Arnold Potts.

Potts is singled out as the unsung hero of the fighting withdrawal from Kokoda, beloved by the troops who served under him, `Pottsy' was sacrificed by Blamey on Macarthur's alter. MAG GEN Cyril Clowes, the victor of Milne Bay, is also singled out as a great unsung hero of the Papuan campaign, and yet another victim of Blamey's betrayal of his commanders.

But while the story of the commanders, both the heroes and the villains, is an important part of this book, it is by no means the focus.

Brune's work is meticulously researched - and much of the material he draws on is from the countless interviews and correspondence he has personally had with hundreds of veterans of the Papuan campaign over the last 15 years from Privates to senior officers. Along with the diaries and letters of the time, they paint a vivid and terrifying picture of what happened between July 1942 and January 1943.

It is these voices, of the men who fought the Japanese as well as the jungle, the swamps, the mountains, the disease and the climate who are the heart of this book and help to make it a definitive account, and Brune the definitive authority, on the Papuan Campaign.

The work, influence and legacy of wartime journalists and photographers like Chester Wilmot, Osmar White, Damien Parer and George Silk are also examined at some length in the book, (as well as the challenges they faced getting their work to the outside world), and some of the book's most interesting passages include the stories behind some Silk's incredible photos of the fighting at Buna, (unfortunately only a few of which are reproduced in the book).

One down side to the book are the maps. They aren't nearly detailed enough and given the detail which Brune goes into about the different phases of each battle, the maps are inadequate and horrendously over-simplified. As so much of the Papuan campaign hinged on the impact of the terrain contested, it seems a shame not to do that terrain more justice.

I also feel that while Brune justifiably seeks to address the glaring deficiencies in some of the official US accounts of the campaign, he goes a little too far with some of the swipes he makes at the Americans.

I would also have liked to see more about the Japanese side of the story. His excellent chapters on the Battle for Milne Bay included some diary extracts from some of the Japanese `marines' with the Naval Landing units which provide a fascinating insight into their perceptions of the Australians they were fighting. How we are viewed by an enemy will always shed some interesting light on how we view ourselves. It would also have been great to learn a little bit more about Major General Tomitaro Horii, who commanded the Japanese Forces during the Kokoda fighting and later died during the Japanese retreat - his background, personality, strategic grasp etc...

As far as I'm concerned, Brune has achieved his objective with `A Bastard of a Place'. Kokoda justifiably holds a high place in the Australian psyche, but it is not fully appreciated until it is understood within the broader Papuan campaign - and the battles at Gona, Buna, Sanananda, and particularly Milne Bay are just as much a part of the legend.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important WW II Battle Little Known in the United States, April 21, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua (Paperback)

This book belongs in any library of books on World War II.

At the beginning of World War II the Australians sent the cream of their army to fight in North Africa. And they did a supurb job there. The stories of Montgomery's success over Rommel is filled with the Australians did this, and the Australians did that.

But then came Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion to the south and east. The Japanese expanded to the Solomons in the east. To the south the Japanese landed on and controlled the northern coast of the island of Papua New Guinea. Their intent was to have their army march southward to meet a naval force going around the island. From there was the possibility of invading Australia.

To the east the Americans drew the line by establishing a series of bases in the New Hebrides. First the American Navy fought a battle with this Japanese naval force, it is called the battle of the Coral Sea. Then the Americans invaded the Japanese conquered Solomon Islands to prevent the Japanese from building an air base at a place called Guadalcanal. The Japanese got no further east.

No less important, but almost unknown here in the United States was the fighting in The Australians held the southern. In between lay the Kododa trail. It was indeed a Bastard of a Place. It's still a bitch of a place just to walk it without being burdened with equipment and someone trying to kill you.

The Australians wanted their army back from North Africa, the British said "No." So the Australians had to fight the battle with militia and conscripts. They did, and they won. They pushed the Japanese back to the northern coast and with a series of other battles kicked them off of the island completely. From here the march northward began.

During this time Dougout Doug MacAuthor was in Australia issuing press releases about how great he was doing. There was almost nothing in the American press about the Kokoda trail.

This book, written in Australia, is very well researched and very well written. It deserves wide distribution in the US to bring an understanding that the entire Pacific was wasn't won entirely by the U.S. Marines.