The Devils' Garden: Solomon Islands War Diary 1945

by Peter Pinney

The Devil's Garden, part of a trilogy about the torments of the jungle fighting to our north from 1941 to 1945, presents a realistic soldier's-eye view of the bitterness and the tragedy. It concerns itself also with the impact the strangers' war had upon the natives of the Solomon Islands, whose territory was used as the arena, whether they liked it or not.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Peter Pinney (1922-1992) exemplified the idea of the traveler who carries little, gets by on wits alone, and is willing to forage into the unknown despite all odds. He wrote a series of books based on his diaries, the most famous being Dust On My Shoes, detailing his odysseys around the globe.

https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/pa...

http://www.dustonmyshoes.com/Peter.html

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Reviews

[zed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd Volume of Peter Pinney’s WW2 trilogy sees Johnno near to the end of his secret war.
Author Peter Pinney gives the reader a fascinating insight into the foot soldiers dealing with a pointless campaign. There are still the patrols that give little other than rare action, grim humour and resentment to both the enemy and the brass. The racist language of the common soldier is still heavy but Johnno is getting a bit deeper in his thoughts as to what this all means to the Bougainville Islanders. One of his mates gives over a primus to one of the Islanders who has been a superb guide for the squadron.

“Masta, pight ‘e pinis, true?”
“Pight ‘e pinis true, Kirishu”
“Masta, alla white boss go ‘long sodawater now? ‘Long Australia?
“That’s right sport.”
“Masta I can go too?”

As Johnno writes “No he couldn’t”. Johnno contemplates all that Kirishu had done for them in the fight against Japan but going to “our island was unthinkable. He was not worthy. He was too black, customs would never let him through” “Nice of you to help us. Goodbye.” he writes bitterly.
Johnno wondered about what would happen to the natives and he was troubled by this. For their broken villages and shattered families they deserved more than “ a battered old primus and half a bag of salt” The island was theirs but would the absentee landlords return? Rebuild the ravaged plantations and begin recruiting local labour? “……and will anything have changed?” he thoughtfully writes. Johnno has gotten older and more thoughtful after 27 months in the tropics. He turned 23 in this the end times of the 2nd World War and that was considered middle aged by some of his comrades. Older than the "bum fluffed" officers foisted on these veterans of the jungle wars. But home has become a yearning for him and all his mates. Time to go and let’s do what it takes and do what it takes some of them did. What a terrific trilogy.

[Walter Van Praag · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is proving a tough one for me. I love the Melanesian pidgin regularly used and the other references that I enjoy - having lived in PNG in the past. But for some reason I am struggling turning the pages. It is not compelling reading for me, perhaps lack of story line or I am missing it. This is a great account of what it would've been like in WWII in the Solomons Islands, but it just isn't capturing me. Peter Pinney wrote three books and this is his third. Maybe I would've been well advised to maybe read the first ones first since it is called a 'trilogy' on the back cover.

The last part of the book when the war had ended I became more captivated as a story line developed about plans to go back to Australia illegally - fearing they'd have to stay and look after Japanese prisoners for a long while. The pace of the book picked up for me but left me hanging as it did not quite finish the story. I wanted to hear if they got to Australia and if they got arrested ....