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The Long Green Shore
Australia's version of "All Quiet on the Western Front"--from the last Christmas of the Second World War, until that war ended, two brigades of the Sixth Australian Infantry Division fought an obscure but at times bitter and bloody campaign along the savage north coast of New Guinea.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
John Hepworth
10 books2 followersJohn Hepworth was an Australian author and journalist, best known for his "Outsight" column in Nation Review magazine, which he edited for several years.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 4, 2024
Author John Hepworth wrote this novel after he returned from a stint in Papua New Guinea towards the end of World War 2. Lloyd Jones writes in the introduction that he won an award in a literary competition in 1949 but was later rejected by one publisher, so he put the manuscript away and got on with his life. Jones states that Norman Mailer persisted with The Naked and The Dead and as they say the rest is history. I read The Naked and The Dead for the first and only time in 2015 and could not work out the praise. It seemed so forced. Long pages of fairly meaningless banter between the two major characters, and the end just seemed ridiculous.
Years later, this novel The Long Green Shore was published not long after the author's death in 1995 and to some much acclaim, deservedly so in my opinion. As Lloyd writes in his Introduction, “Between moments of barbarity and banality are occasions of great beauty, and for much of the time The Long Green Shore is young solders paean to the puzzling thrill of being alive.” I got that while reading the book. The Australianness of the banter between mates, the way they articulated “the puzzling thrill” of both the fun times and the bad times. It all came together in mostly short vignettes that seamlessly led us through these young men’s lives in a pointless action at the end of WW2.
At one point, the boys discuss foreigners of the allied type.
“There was a good deal of discussion about the Yanks. They are all right – they fight well, when they can throw a couple of hundred tonnes of high explosive into a position. They live too well – compared to us, that is. They get too much money – compared with us. They talk as though no one else was fighting the war. They take our girls. ‘Over-dressed, over-paid, over-sexed and over here’”
Foreigners of the enemy type.
“The enemy is always strange and there is a faint awfulness about the place he has been. For you can never imagine the enemy as just a man – if you could, perhaps you would never kill him.”
Being attacked and watching a mate get hit.
“The innocent, pattering of rain run across the water and patters over Fluffy’s body. He is still laughing – he drops his rifle- it splashes into the river – he is holding his stomach with both hands – laughing or screaming - he staggers on – laughing or screaming. He falls as he tries to run up the muddy bank – his hands still under him, the mud – the mud is in his mouth, but he is still laughing – or screaming…it goes on and on.”
How their war is viewed by those not there.
“You who know war in a romantic dream, or in the sob stories of newspapers, might imagine it is only the thunder of bombardment or the terrors of the charge which breaks a soldiers will and manhood; but the slow burning acid of monotony and sterile days can be bad, or worse. You live constantly with a small fear that can never be spoken, and never become real, but can never be dispelled.”
Watching someone lose their mind.
“He moaned and cried…. on and on it went…. you couldn’t shut your ears to that sound-it seemed to swell somewhere from inside you, yourself, and on and on, horribly, inanely, and forever.”
It is a novel that packs a punch. It is beautifully written, it has its moments of humour and profound sadness, it is the right length at only 183 pages, it does not overstay its welcome, it is highly recommended.
Years later, this novel The Long Green Shore was published not long after the author's death in 1995 and to some much acclaim, deservedly so in my opinion. As Lloyd writes in his Introduction, “Between moments of barbarity and banality are occasions of great beauty, and for much of the time The Long Green Shore is young solders paean to the puzzling thrill of being alive.” I got that while reading the book. The Australianness of the banter between mates, the way they articulated “the puzzling thrill” of both the fun times and the bad times. It all came together in mostly short vignettes that seamlessly led us through these young men’s lives in a pointless action at the end of WW2.
At one point, the boys discuss foreigners of the allied type.
“There was a good deal of discussion about the Yanks. They are all right – they fight well, when they can throw a couple of hundred tonnes of high explosive into a position. They live too well – compared to us, that is. They get too much money – compared with us. They talk as though no one else was fighting the war. They take our girls. ‘Over-dressed, over-paid, over-sexed and over here’”
Foreigners of the enemy type.
“The enemy is always strange and there is a faint awfulness about the place he has been. For you can never imagine the enemy as just a man – if you could, perhaps you would never kill him.”
Being attacked and watching a mate get hit.
“The innocent, pattering of rain run across the water and patters over Fluffy’s body. He is still laughing – he drops his rifle- it splashes into the river – he is holding his stomach with both hands – laughing or screaming - he staggers on – laughing or screaming. He falls as he tries to run up the muddy bank – his hands still under him, the mud – the mud is in his mouth, but he is still laughing – or screaming…it goes on and on.”
How their war is viewed by those not there.
“You who know war in a romantic dream, or in the sob stories of newspapers, might imagine it is only the thunder of bombardment or the terrors of the charge which breaks a soldiers will and manhood; but the slow burning acid of monotony and sterile days can be bad, or worse. You live constantly with a small fear that can never be spoken, and never become real, but can never be dispelled.”
Watching someone lose their mind.
“He moaned and cried…. on and on it went…. you couldn’t shut your ears to that sound-it seemed to swell somewhere from inside you, yourself, and on and on, horribly, inanely, and forever.”
It is a novel that packs a punch. It is beautifully written, it has its moments of humour and profound sadness, it is the right length at only 183 pages, it does not overstay its welcome, it is highly recommended.
April 10, 2021
A slender but serious book loosely based on the author's experiences in the New Guinea campaign at the end of the Second World War.
Ignoring the larger geopolitical issues this spartan novel tells the simple story of a small group of men, an Australian Infantry Platoon, fighting their way through the New Guinea jungle at the tail end of the war. The campaign they are fighting is in actual fact pointless. The Japanese are being defeated further north in the Pacific as the Americans take island after island and start bombing the Japanese mainland with deadly effect. They are basically "mopping up" Japanese units left behind. A thankless and pointless task which will nonetheless get some of them killed.
This novel captures the lives of these men, their fears, their hopes and their thoughts of loved ones back home, in a way that only someone who was there really can.
A brilliant novel and a dead set Aussie classic that should be more widely read.
Ignoring the larger geopolitical issues this spartan novel tells the simple story of a small group of men, an Australian Infantry Platoon, fighting their way through the New Guinea jungle at the tail end of the war. The campaign they are fighting is in actual fact pointless. The Japanese are being defeated further north in the Pacific as the Americans take island after island and start bombing the Japanese mainland with deadly effect. They are basically "mopping up" Japanese units left behind. A thankless and pointless task which will nonetheless get some of them killed.
This novel captures the lives of these men, their fears, their hopes and their thoughts of loved ones back home, in a way that only someone who was there really can.
A brilliant novel and a dead set Aussie classic that should be more widely read.
June 1, 2016
these vignettes tell the story of Australian soldiers in combat during WWII. the introduction talks about the futility of these deaths in a region where the battles really had no serious impact on the outcome of the war, so I had that in mind while I was reading. it's very sad, elegant writing. the characters feel real.
April 17, 2017
One of the best books about war from the soldier's perspective which I have ever read. The writing is at times poetic and an Australian take on an American accent is too funny for words.
March 22, 2016
After the Battle of Kokoda and the subsequent battles of Buna–Gona in 1943, the Australian Army was left to a series of garrison like duties while the US forces gained glory throughout the Pacific. Towards the end of WWII, the Australian forces were sent on a series of campaigns to remove the Japanese from various enclaves in New Guinea and Indonesia. None of these campaigns were needed nor had any impact on the end of the war. Yet 100s of Australians (and many more Japanese) were killed and wounded.
This novel is a fictional account of some of the military actions that occurred in New Guinea. It starts with the men on board ships and gives a great portrayal of Army life - as the men try to fight boredom waiting for the order to go into battle. The second half of the book consists of some great and almost poetic descriptions of what life was like in the jungle - wet, dark, dangerous, hot, cold - and the dangers from the environment and the enemy.
It is an anti-war book. It is respectful to the soldiers but also questions why they were there.
This novel is a fictional account of some of the military actions that occurred in New Guinea. It starts with the men on board ships and gives a great portrayal of Army life - as the men try to fight boredom waiting for the order to go into battle. The second half of the book consists of some great and almost poetic descriptions of what life was like in the jungle - wet, dark, dangerous, hot, cold - and the dangers from the environment and the enemy.
It is an anti-war book. It is respectful to the soldiers but also questions why they were there.
May 9, 2025
There are a number of books which should never have been published for a variety of reasons. And then there are some that should have been in print but weren’t. Some of those never see the light of day, but occasionally some just fight their way to the surface and finally are seen by the reading public, as is their due. This novel by Australian author John Hepworth is one such book.
Originally written in 1948, just after the Second World War, it couldn’t find a publisher as the general feeling at that time was there were already too many war books. Presumably the publishers thought that readers wanted something else. And that is a huge pity, as being published in the late 1940s might well have given the book a chance to shine as it should, and given hope to its author. But it sat in Hepworth’s bottom drawer for close to fifty years before he was persuaded to re-submit it in the mid-1990s and it was published by Picador in 1995, just before the author’s death. This edition is one of Text Publishing’s Australian Classics, and I have to say that it fits very nicely in that company.
The novel follows the war adventures of a group of Australian soldiers fighting against the Japanese on the north coast of New Guinea in the dying days of the war. The men are tired, sick of the war, sick of the mud and insects and the heat and the food and their officers. They just want it all over. They write letters home, or try to and fail. They drink too much and get into trouble and look after each other. But mostly they wait. The Japanese are in retreat but have left behind a force in New Guinea that now seems to be cut off. At the beginning of 1945 the Allies are pushing towards Japan and the men here land in New Guinea, and wait, and wait. Rushing headlong towards a landing after which they just sit about. The Germans surrender in Europe and still the men sit about, playing cards and two-up, raiding the leftover supplies of the American who have left and battling malaria and their officers who insist on marching drills in the heat.
Finally the order comes for the men to push on up the coast, for them to take one hill, and then wait and rest while another company pushes past them to take the next hill and so on. And the list of men we’ve met during the waiting periods slowly diminishes as one by one they are killed and buried where they fall, or wounded and sent back to be evacuated. Then there are rumours that a big bomb has been dropped in Japan (“one bomb, one city”) and still they push on, and on.
This is a story of Australian men at war, not so much men in combat, though there is some of that, but rather of how men live and survive in war conditions, looking out for each other, helping each other get through the good times and the bad. It reminded me somewhat of The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle, though that was about the Vietnam War some thirty years later. There are parallels between the sentiments expressed, and also the structure of the books, with more emphasis being put on the times of relative quiet than on those of fire and death.
It is a pity that this book took so long to be published, though we should be grateful that it was finally made available. For a debut novel it is a very good piece of work, flowing and very readable. It certainly deserves to have been selected for the Text Classics line.
R: 4.0/5.0
Originally written in 1948, just after the Second World War, it couldn’t find a publisher as the general feeling at that time was there were already too many war books. Presumably the publishers thought that readers wanted something else. And that is a huge pity, as being published in the late 1940s might well have given the book a chance to shine as it should, and given hope to its author. But it sat in Hepworth’s bottom drawer for close to fifty years before he was persuaded to re-submit it in the mid-1990s and it was published by Picador in 1995, just before the author’s death. This edition is one of Text Publishing’s Australian Classics, and I have to say that it fits very nicely in that company.
The novel follows the war adventures of a group of Australian soldiers fighting against the Japanese on the north coast of New Guinea in the dying days of the war. The men are tired, sick of the war, sick of the mud and insects and the heat and the food and their officers. They just want it all over. They write letters home, or try to and fail. They drink too much and get into trouble and look after each other. But mostly they wait. The Japanese are in retreat but have left behind a force in New Guinea that now seems to be cut off. At the beginning of 1945 the Allies are pushing towards Japan and the men here land in New Guinea, and wait, and wait. Rushing headlong towards a landing after which they just sit about. The Germans surrender in Europe and still the men sit about, playing cards and two-up, raiding the leftover supplies of the American who have left and battling malaria and their officers who insist on marching drills in the heat.
Finally the order comes for the men to push on up the coast, for them to take one hill, and then wait and rest while another company pushes past them to take the next hill and so on. And the list of men we’ve met during the waiting periods slowly diminishes as one by one they are killed and buried where they fall, or wounded and sent back to be evacuated. Then there are rumours that a big bomb has been dropped in Japan (“one bomb, one city”) and still they push on, and on.
This is a story of Australian men at war, not so much men in combat, though there is some of that, but rather of how men live and survive in war conditions, looking out for each other, helping each other get through the good times and the bad. It reminded me somewhat of The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle, though that was about the Vietnam War some thirty years later. There are parallels between the sentiments expressed, and also the structure of the books, with more emphasis being put on the times of relative quiet than on those of fire and death.
It is a pity that this book took so long to be published, though we should be grateful that it was finally made available. For a debut novel it is a very good piece of work, flowing and very readable. It certainly deserves to have been selected for the Text Classics line.
R: 4.0/5.0
April 10, 2023
What a pity this sat in a drawer unpublished for fifty years because it's an important part of Australia's wartime experiences. as told by and experienced by Australians. This is the author's memories of a brutal campaign in northern Papua New Guinea towards the end of World War II in the Pacific, after the guns had fallen silent in Europe. The 'characters' are remembered comrades, by nicknames, with some backstories included. Is it dated in the way it refers to the indigenous Papuans or to women, yes, but it is also a better reflection of the Australian experience than some of the more well-known Americanised stories. I'm glad I happened across thi and I'm glad this is now part of my memorialising, that I will think of at the upcoming (and future) ANZAC Day services and at Remembrance Day.
Les We Forget.
Les We Forget.
July 5, 2024
I read this following on from the historical novel, ‘ To sing of war’. Written in 1946, the author was on this battlefield throughout the war. This is a fictional account of life as a soldier in WW2 PNG. They were terrible times, the dangers were all around them. Highly descriptive writing about the jungle environment.
Read
September 14, 2015An interesting view of the war in PNG, the writing is at times beautifully crafted at others brutally straight forward giving it an authenticity that is perhaps unmatched in similar works. War is a senseless waste of life carried out by those who are sent to their deaths by the whims of the day, your average foot soldier doesn't look for insight and meaning in the death that surrounds them but rather looks for a way to make it through until the next morning alive. The soldiers here are not heroes but rather ordinary people pushed into extraordinary circumstances, their enemy invisible as they face day after day of death and destruction. I think we expect the emotional manipulation of recollection of events at such a distance but in truth through the eyes of those that were actually there the reality is far more ordinary than one might ever imagine, people adapt even to the worst of circumstances and learn to make it through by turning the horrific into a twisted version of reality. The author takes us into his own personal heart of darkness choosing not to reveal some mythical beast or profound purpose in this destruction but rather how it is part of our nature whether we choose to admit it or not.
June 3, 2014
A difficult book to rate, on the one hand it is beautifully written, on the other it is difficult to follow what is happening. It certainly does a good job of recounting the lives and deaths of the young Australian soldiers who fought in the jungles of northern New Guinea, but it does not seem to provide enough detail of the campaign they fought.
January 24, 2017
‘Australia’s All Quiet on the Western Front…The timeless record of a generation of men who had it hard and copped it sweet, and went off into battle not knowing what the day would bring.’
Bob Ellis
‘This novel is a masterpiece of war fiction.’
Publishers Weekly
Bob Ellis
‘This novel is a masterpiece of war fiction.’
Publishers Weekly
July 28, 2015
Great book from a grunt perspective that is real. Although thankfully I was never in battle, I can relate to a lot of the aussie'isms and oz Army terminology and rank/class differences. Now that I live in U.S. I particularly enjoyed Hank's character. Really enjoyed thank you,
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews