The Battle for Shaggy Ridge: The extraordinary story of the Australian campaign against the Japanese in New Guinea’s Finisterre mountains in 1943-44

‘You climb and climb … This is the field of battle … tonight some of us will be dead … You’ll never forget Shaggy Ridge.’ - Shawn O'Leary

From the killing ground of Kaiapit to the treacherous heights of the Finisterre Range, for four months in 1943-44 the Australian army fought to drive the Japanese from their mountain strongholds. The most formidable position was the fortress-like Shaggy Ridge, its steep sides rising sharply to a knife-edge crest where battle was joined on a one-man front.

Based on the accounts of over a hundred Australians, Americans and Japanese who served on, around and over the ridge, The Battle for Shaggy Ridge tells the story of this extraordinary struggle for control of the Ramu Valley in New Guinea.