START 10:00:09 The film's opening titles over which it introduces all eight members of an Australian infantry section - Private A N McGregor, Lance-Corporal A C Pierson, Privates F C Northcott, A B Graffin, M J Driver, Corporal R A Box and Privates J H Adams and E Barmby - and the two cameramen - J W Trerise and William Carty (seen here posing with their Bell and Howell 35mm cine cameras) - who record their combat experiences in the frontline. The rolling caption states, "All of this picture was made in New Guinea, most of it in forward battles areas, some of it under fire. It was photographed by the Commonwealth Film Unit which flew with an Australian patrol into the Ramu Valley and walked with it to the outpost of Shaggy Ridge in the Finisterre Range. This was the nearest point to Tokio (sic) so far gained by Allied troops".

10:02:04 The eight riflemen board 'Honeymoon Express', a C-47 Skytrain aircraft manned by a 5th US Army Air Force crew (375th Troop Carrier Group?) which, as the commentary states, took part in the first airborne landing in the South-West Pacific theatre at Nadzab on 5 September 1943. During their air hop from Port Moresby over the Owen Stanley Range to the northern half of the island, the soldiers keep themselves amused by playing cards, playing a harmonica and smoking cigarettes given to them by the American flight engineer. The route taken by their aircraft, flying in formation with other C-47s, transports them over the Kokoda Trail, scene of fierce fighting between Australian and Japanese forces a year earlier (the commentary refers to the fierce fighting that resulted in the recapture of Kokoda by the Australians in October-November 1942). The aircraft passes over Salamaua and Lae (seized from the Japanese just months earlier) before landing at an airstrip at Dampu in the Ramu Valley just ten miles from the frontline.

10:05:44 The eight Australians disembark from the C-47 and make their way on foot through the disease-ridden Ramu Valley, fording the fast-flowing Ramu river and bathing in a rocky pool. After this brief rest, they push on in the tropical heat through ten feet-tall kunai grass and begin their ascent of the steep Finisterre Range. On their way, they encounter local inhabitants in service with the Australians as porters and stretcher-bearers.

10:09:07 On arrival at their battalion's position high up on Shaggy Ridge, the men pitch tent in a tropical shower, eat bully beef and make themselves comfortable as possible by applying foot powder, insect repellent and anti-lice lotion to themselves. While the rest sleep, one section member wearing waterproofs does sentry duty in the rain.

10:10:26 At day break, the men shave, trim their hair and drink fresh water treated with chlorination tablets. The section holds an 'O' group before then setting out on a long-range patrol into the jungle. The patrol is seen making its way along a waterlogged and muddy trail, pausing to radio back to battalion headquarters its position with the help of a US-issued Motorola AM SCR-536 'handie-talkie' and receiving food supplies dropped by a USAAF C-47.

10:12:41 The eight-man patrol continues on its mission, fording a fast-flowing stream, wading through a swamp and pushing its way through kunai grass before they encounter fire from an enemy sniper. A Japanese machine gun crew opens up on the patrol from a bunker hidden in the jungle. The Australians close in on the enemy, firing their SMLE Mk III rifles, Bren light machine-gun and Owen sub machine-guns from the hip before finally destroying the bunker with hand-grenades. Afterwards, they bury the Japanese soldiers they have killed.

10:15:09 A forward artillery spotter climbs up a tree and the final battle for Shaggy Ridge begins with a bombardment by Australian Ordnance QF 25-pounder field howitzers down in the Ramu valley and shorter-range weapons such as a Vickers machine-gun and a two-inch mortar. Artillery rounds burst on a feature of Shaggy Ridge known as 'The Pimple', followed by strafing and low-level bombing by USAAF P-40 fighter-bombers (identified as Warhawks in the commentary). Australian troops (A Company, 2/9 Battalion AIF) are seen in possession of the blasted slopes of 'The Pimple' following its capture on 21 January 1944. A soldier has his head wound bandaged and a victory in this hard-won battle is signalled by a Very flare and a victoy roll by a P-40 fighter-bomber flying overhead.

10:17:48 After Shaggy Ridge has fallen, a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress surveys the cratered mountain battlefield. Over shots showing clouds over the Finisterre Range, Australian infantrymen struggling up a mountain trail, in action against the Japanese and framed heroically on a mountain top surrounded by clouds and mountain peaks, the commentary concludes,"You, the Australian soldier, have sweated some more miles of jungle. You have won another battle. In a year, you've advanced three hundred miles. You've got three thousand miles to go. But when the Allies march into Tokyo, you'll be marching in - with them!"

END 10:18:31

Veterans of the North African and Syrian campaigns see combat in New Guinea with the 7th Australian Division, 1943-44.

Notes

Summary: While the actual combat scenes showing the fighting for 'The Pimple' were filmed sometime between 27 December 1943 and 31 January 1944, the rest of the film was probaly shot on or around 23 March 1944.

The film's narrator, a young Australian actor called Peter Finch, would go on to star in feature films like 'A Town Like Alice', Battle of the River Plate', 'Far from the Madding Crowd', 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' and 'Network'.

In addition to the SMLE Mk III rifle and the Bren light machine-gun, the standard British army infantry weapons of the 1939-1945 war, two of the infantrymen featured in this film (Graffin and Adams) are armed with the Owen 9mm sub machine-gun, an Australian designed and manufactured weapon that proved to be much more robust and reliable than its British counterpart, the Sten.

Remarks: An intelligent and informative short film with a spare and factual commentary about the ordinary soldier's experience of war. The idea of following individual soldiers as they trek into battle was used shortly afterwards by Hollywood director Lewis Milestone in 'A Walk in the Sun', a feature released in December 1945 about an American infantry platoon in Italy in 1943.