On this Day – 27th Dec 1941 - Prime Minister Curtin announces that Australia looks to America 1943 - 7th Division capture The Pimple, Shaggy Ridge, New Guinea Prime Minister John Curtin Five Prime Ministers served Australia during the war years. 26 April 1939 - Robert Menzies 29 August 1941 - Arthur Fadden 7 October 1941 - John Curtin 5 July 1945 - Frank Forde 13 July 1945 - Ben Chifley “If ever a man was born to lead this nation into a time of peace and in the paths of peace it was John Curtin. If ever a man was born to apply his vision of what Australia at peace could be, his vision of what Australia at peace should become in his time, he was John Curtin.” - Former Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam In the darkest days of World War II John Curtin rose to become Australia’s fourteenth prime minister. A Victorian by birth, he was the only prime minister to represent a Western Australian seat in the House of Representatives. Curtin led his country through extremely difficult times, which took a toll on his personal health. Today he is regarded as one of Australia’s most successful leaders and a great hero. John Curtin, the son of working-class Irish immigrants, was born in 1885 in Victoria. He grew up in an era of increasing social unrest, when workers were beginning to assert their rights to decent pay and working conditions. His background, with its poverty and struggle and the influence of socialists like Tom Mann and Frank Anstey, led to Curtin’s involvement in the Labour Movement and politics. Curtin became prime minister on 7 October 1941 at a time when Australia had deployed most of its trained troops to defend Britain. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked the American base at Pearl Harbour and war began in the Asia-Pacific area. As prime minister, Curtin then faced what no other Australian prime minister before or since has faced: enemy attacks on the Australian mainland and the possibility of invasion. Curtin’s subsequent actions changed the foreign policy of Australia and signalled a fundamental shift in the way Australians regarded themselves and their country’s place in the world. The traditional allegiance of Australians to the British Empire shifted in the face of the practicalities of alliance with, and reliance upon, the United States in their battle for survival against the Japanese. Curtin was not only a great wartime leader – he also formulated policies for Australia’s post-war reconstruction, including planning for full employment, assisted immigration and improvements in social security. Under his leadership, the Australian Parliament passed landmark legislation, including an Act which established a uniform taxation scheme and removed the power of the states to collect income tax. His government also ratified British legislation establishing the independence of Dominion parliaments. Curtin died in office on 5 July 1945, six weeks before the Japanese surrender and the return of peace and security to Australia. Shaggy Ridge Operations Shaggy Ridge is a six-and-a-half kilometre long razor-backed ridge that is the highest feature in the Finisterre Mountains in north-eastern New Guinea. The ridge rises between the valleys of the Mene and Faria Rivers and ends at Kankiryo Saddle - a bridge of land separating the Faria Vallyey from the Mindjim River Valley. In 1943 Shaggy Ridge was the site of the main Japanese defensive position blocking access from the Ramu Valley to the track and road network that joined it with the north coast. Operations by the 7th Australian Division in September and October 1943 had caused the Japanese to withdraw from the Ramu Valley and the lower features of the Finsterres and consolidate their defences around Shaggy Ridge. The ridge was named after Captain Robert Shaggy Bob Clampett of the 2/27th Battalion whose company was the first to reconnoitre its approaches. Initially, orders from II Australian Corps for 7th Division to limit its operations to a scale that could be maintained by the limited supplies available prevented action being taken to capture Shaggy Ridge, but by late December sufficient supplies were available to conduct a limited operation to secure a foothold on the southern end of the ridge around a knoll called the Pimple. B Company of the 2/16th Battalion attacked just after 9am, following an intensive aerial and artillery bombardment of the Japanese positions. Clambering up the precipitous slopes, still supported by artillery fire, the Australians quickly captured the Pimple and pushed on for another 100 metres to capture the next knoll along the ridge. B Company was subsequently relieved by D Company, which renewed the attack the next day and captured the next two knolls along the ridge, the last being named McCaugheys Knoll after the commander of the leading platoon. The Japanese counter-attacked that afternoon but were beaten off and thereafter were content to shell the Australians newly-won position with a mountain gun.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 20:23:44 +0000
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