GREEN ARMOR

An Australian newspaperman writes of the South Pacific show in terms of the merciless enmity of the country, the costly debacle of the early days of fighting, the terrible laboratory that eventually developed the basic formula for meeting the double enemy of geography and Japanese. In spite of previous books covering the same territory and same period, this is of special interest both as personal history and stirring recounting of the nerve-wracking days of near-static defence, the particular horror these terrible battlefields have bred. From notebooks, diaries and filed dispatches from February 1942 -- April 1943 (headquarters forbid release of his later material), here is the story of the evacuation of Rabaul the moves toward Australia as experienced in Port Moresby the crisis in Australian defense. Travel through jungles and mountains -- patrols against enemy penetration -- annihilation of raw soldiers before they could be indoctrinated in junglecraft -- the courage of the common man -- the contribution in reconnaissance made by veteran islanders -- the Navy in tropical warfare -- the testing of new materials and methods in New Georgia -- grim pictures of New Guine the Solomons, in savage detail -- little D-Days of action unnoted in overshadowing of bigger events-- all combine to make this deserving of attention and appreciation.