{"id":3302,"date":"2024-02-02T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T23:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=3302"},"modified":"2024-01-19T06:49:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T19:49:45","slug":"war-letters-new-guinea-1-2-feb-1944-guys-post-shaggy-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=3302","title":{"rendered":"War Letters – New Guinea: 1-2 Feb 1944; Ramu Valley, Guy’s Post & Shaggy Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Red Cross Society letterhead
\nW.E. Pidgeon
\nc\/o P.R. Unit
\nN. G. Force
\nMoresby<\/p>\n

Tues 1 Feb [1944]<\/p>\n

Sweetheart,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Advanced Dressing Station, Guy’s Post, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Am writing from an Advanced Dressing Station i.e. a base where surgeons work closest to the front line.\u00a0 Fortunately for the troops there is only one wounded casualty here at the moment, and from all information on the state of the war up here there are not likely to be any more.\u00a0 The Jap is definitely on the way out.<\/p>\n

\"\"
W.E. Pidgeon (WEP) at work in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea – Published in The Australian Women’s Weekly, 18 March 1944, p9 – The watercolour sketch appears to be the preliminary layout for Evacuating Wounded – Ramu Valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m somewhat limp after an afternoon stroll (?) up a mountain 200 ft higher than the spot where I now sit.\u00a0 All in all that damned ridge is about 4000 ft above sea level.\u00a0 God knows how the soldiers carried their packs (and the boongs the supplies for them) up these exhausting peaks.\u00a0 They must have been superhuman \u2013 it was all I could do to cart myself up.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Study for Evacuating wounded-Ramu Valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scenery round here is really magnificent.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing like it in Australia.\u00a0 Clouds encircling the mountains half way and passing fogs crown the peaks up to 4000 ft.\u00a0 The hills are treeless except for dark writhing tangles which follow the eroded creek beds slashing down the sides.\u00a0 Imagine the hills of Picton much more precipitous, higher & sharp edged on top \u2013 so sharp are some that only one man could cross the saddle at one time \u2013 as green or greener than those I painted.<\/p>\n

\"\"
W.E. Pidgeon (WEP) takes time for a cuppa on a ridge line in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After struggling to the top of this bloody mountain I came across some of the lads coming down.\u00a0 We sat & had a cigarette \u2013 they said they were Pioneers.\u00a0 I asked about Lloyd Martin1<\/a><\/sup>Pvt. Harold Lloyd Martin known as Lloyd, Service Number – NX96972, 2\/2nd Aust. Pioneer Bn<\/span> and blow me down if he didn\u2019t come round the track.\u00a0 I introduced myself.\u00a0 He was camped right on the top and all around were the most magnificent views.\u00a0 We had a cuppa which seemed to help me along.\u00a0 Then down the hill in practically a straight line & at a 45\u00ba angle.\u00a0 God! Did my legs wobble at the bottom.\u00a0 Unbelievable that I should really come across anyone in such a casual fashion in such a hell of an area as N. Guinea.\u00a0 However, it happened.\u00a0 He said that he had had a letter but two days before from his sister2<\/a><\/sup>Mrs Joyce Elizabeth Farrar (nee Martin), Flat 1, 103 Northwood Road, Northwood<\/span> saying that I was on my way.\u00a0 The family resemblance is unmistakeable.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Unidentified War Correspondent, possibly a photographer, joins Wep in a a cuppa on a ridge line in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tomorrow I am on my way up an even higher mount to a Ridge that has been well in the news.\u00a0 Heaven help me, even though I shall have a boong3<\/a><\/sup>Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels were native Papua New Guineans who assisted the Australian war effort. They carried stretchers, stores and sometimes wounded diggers directly on their shoulders over some of the toughest terrain in the world. – Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. (2024, January 17). Retrieved from https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fuzzy_Wuzzy_Angels<\/span> to carry my paint box.<\/p>\n

\"15\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a picture to delight your heart. \u201cSquire Pidgeon and Boong ascend the Hairy Mount.\u201d\u00a0 The password for tomorrow is \u201cExcelsior\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m definitely & most positively NOT looking forward to it.\u00a0 But the show must go on \u2013 albeit over my wracked & blistered body.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A native Fuzzy Wuzzy in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the way, I am not the least less on the nose!\u00a0 The ground is wet with my honest sweat.<\/p>\n

I think this hurricane lamp I\u2019m using is about to give up the ghost any tick of the clock!<\/p>\n

Will soon retire to my stretcher.\u00a0 I\u2019m sleeping under native built grass roof in the malarial ward.\u00a0 I am not a patient.\u00a0 It is merely that I have been offered the hospitality of the base.\u00a0 The food here is the best that I have had in N.G.\u00a0 The cook was a chef at Scott\u2019s of Melbourne so I guess he knows how to put even tinned meat & vegetables together.\u00a0 And have I had beans?\u00a0 Am not really eating well \u2013 don\u2019t seem to be able to muster up any enthusiasm for the same damned stuff.\u00a0 Had alleged fresh meat the other day.\u00a0 Tasted (which word is an euphemism for it) like well worn saddle leather.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t make the grade.<\/p>\n

Have been taking my prophylactic daily dose of anti-malaria pills.\u00a0 In time they dye the old bod a fine shade of tangerine with the exception of the finger nails which appear to become whiter.\u00a0 Generally, a very smart effect, especially on persons of sallow complexion which acquires a rare old mahogany hue.\u00a0 I am approaching a very delicate pale primrose on the hands.\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019ll give you some real colour on my return.\u00a0 The boys say it has the same effects on the old doings as quinine.\u00a0 But what do I care \u2013 I aint goin\u2019 no place.<\/p>\n

I do hope you are really looking after yourself \u2013 eating, drinking moderately & keeping the old clods up on a chair or something, or anything that does for something.<\/p>\n

Hope the family are still pottering along alright.<\/p>\n

Regards to the Hunter Hillbillys [friends from Hunters Hill – King Watson and other drinking partners].\u00a0 Even a schooner of Tooheys would cause a riot up here.\u00a0 N.G. is absolutely dry.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t had a drink since Townsville.\u00a0 The boys at Moresby took a dim view of my alcoholless arrival.<\/p>\n

Lots of love darling, Bill<\/p>\n

P.S. The tea guzzling up here is staggering \u2013 every few minutes someone is making tea \u2013 if you\u2019re not in the camp drinking the fairly lousy stuff you\u2019re drinking it at a Salvation Army or YMCA inn along the road somewhere.<\/p>\n

More love XXX<\/p>\n

\"\"
Evacuating Wounded-Ramu Valley, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
W.E. Pidgeon (WEP) at work in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
W.E. Pidgeon (WEP) at work in the Upper Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wed.\u00a0 Feb 2 6.30 pm.<\/p>\n

Jaysus! Do I feel sick!\u00a0 Have just done a very rough and very wobbly sketch of a fellow having his knee opened up by two field surgeons.\u00a0 Do they cut \u2018em up!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Knee operation at an Advanced Dressing Station at Guy’s Post in the upper Ramu Valley, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve seen all the operations I want to for many a day.\u00a0 It was touch and go whether I would make a ninny of myself by throwing up on the spot!\u00a0 The day was saved by my extra rapid scrawl and an attempted wise look indicating the completion of my sketch.\u00a0 Phew!\u00a0 I bet I dream about it.<\/p>\n

All that on top of tea which made me belch like hell & a slight sickness of exhaustion.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Shaggy Ridge, Ramu Valley, Papua New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve been up and own the blasted mountains today my love.\u00a0 Started at 8.30 am & didn\u2019t return to the camp till nearly 5 pm.\u00a0 Felt completely buggered and far from home.\u00a0 My knees are like jelly \u2013 my heels are sore from the thumping I gave them on the way down the mount.\u00a0 Banged all the nails through into my anything but calloused heels (incidentally it’s dammed cold at the moment \u2013 and raining too \u2013a perfect setting for a first class whinge).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Study – On Shaggy Ridge, looking across to the Pimple, 5600 feet above sea level, dominating the Ramu Valley, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well I have at least seen Shaggy Ridge and what a hell of a place it is. Heaven only knows how the boys took it over from the Jap.\u00a0 On either side of a track only wide enough for one.\u00a0 The earth face walls near sheer nearly 200 or 300 ft & the top of it was riddled with fox holes.\u00a0 It is all beyond me I\u2019ll have to get hold of one of the crowd that did\u00a0 it to tell me all about it.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Study for Ascending the Pimple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don\u2019t think I\u2019ll write anything more tonight darling.\u00a0 Am feeling too depressingly tired.\u00a0 Keep a couple of gals4<\/a><\/sup>Gallons of petrol<\/span> for picking me up at Martin Place.\u00a0 I aim to be home this month via Flying Boat.<\/p>\n

Hope you are OK.<\/p>\n

I might get a letter\u00a0in a few days \u2013 hope so.
\nLots of love \u2013from<\/p>\n

Plugga Pidge
\nthe boy wit de\u00a0wobbly knees.<\/p>\n

\"13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I really think my\u00a0mountaineering\u00a0days are over.<\/p>\n

Moderation <\/span>is the\u00a0keyword for today.<\/p>\n

love XX<\/p>\n

Bill<\/p>\n

\"Squire<\/a>
Squire Wep and faithful ‘boongs’ ascend Shaggy Ridge; reproduced The Australian Women’s Weekly, 18 March 1944, p9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
On Shaggy Ridge – Reproduced, The Australian Women’s Weekly, June 10, 1944, p40<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Ascending the Pimple – Reproduced, The Australian Women’s Weekly, June 10, 1944, p40<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notes:<\/h3>
  • 1<\/span>
    Pvt. Harold Lloyd Martin known as Lloyd, Service Number – NX96972, 2\/2nd Aust. Pioneer Bn<\/div><\/li>
  • 2<\/span>
    Mrs Joyce Elizabeth Farrar (nee Martin), Flat 1, 103 Northwood Road, Northwood<\/div><\/li>
  • 3<\/span>
    Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels were native Papua New Guineans who assisted the Australian war effort. They carried stretchers, stores and sometimes wounded diggers directly on their shoulders over some of the toughest terrain in the world. – Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. (2024, January 17). Retrieved from https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fuzzy_Wuzzy_Angels<\/div><\/li>
  • 4<\/span>
    Gallons of petrol<\/div><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019m somewhat limp after an afternoon stroll (?) up a mountain 200 ft higher than the spot where I now sit. All in all that damned ridge is about 4000 ft above sea level. God knows how the soldiers carried their packs (and the boongs the supplies for them) up these exhausting peaks. They must have been superhuman \u2013 it was all I could do to cart myself up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1656,62],"tags":[2198,2199,1890,1892,137,1889,2252,1896,1895,136,1894,1070,1891,1784,1898,1897,65,1984,245,1789],"class_list":["post-3302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-guinea-jan-feb-1944","category-war-letters","tag-80yearsago","tag-otd","tag-advanced-dressing-station","tag-aif-pioneers","tag-field-hospital","tag-guys-post","tag-harold-lloyd-martin","tag-hunters-hill","tag-malaria","tag-new-guinea","tag-paint-box","tag-salvation-army","tag-scotts-of-melbourne","tag-shaggy-ridge","tag-the-pimple","tag-tooheys","tag-war-correspondent","tag-war-letters","tag-wep","tag-ymca"],"yoast_head":"\nWar Letters - New Guinea: 1-2 Feb 1944; 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