The Barbarians

Australian author Peter Pinney is now largely unknown sadly. He is mainly known for his travel writing. I have read The Road to Anywhere and was impressed enough to start looking out for Pinney's works. They are hard to find and so far have only been able to secure his wartime trilogy and Dust On My Shoes.

This book, The Barbarians, is in fact the first part of his wartime trilogy Signaller Johnston's Secret War. Pinney was an active diary writer all his life and these three books are the result of that activity. The keeping of a diary was a military offence in WW2 by Australian soldiers hence the title. This novel has a biographical feel to it. To say this book reeks of authenticity would be an understatement. Written in true strine we are presented with a foot soldiers view of the war in Papua New Guinea in 1943 and what a warts and all account. With nothing but contempt for the vast majority of the officers and the Japanese enemy, Signaller Johnston gives us his contribution to a little known war zone.

Johno observes his peer group. “Well, there's some pretty hard cases in our mob too; and some are as old as twenty-seven, twenty-eight” he says. One of his mates, Wacker, he describes as “pretty old”. Over 25 and you are old! Johno writes about food a lot. Soldiers dream of food. An old Women's Weekly is a treasured item where the recipe section gets a good look when the boys are eating their sparse rations. Rather a roast than Betty Grable muses Johhno at one point. The cultural reference brought back memories of my youth as a young apprentice working with old soldiers. Corked tipped Adaths are the cigarette of choice, I recall an old bloke smoking these as he told me a few tales. At one point an officer is reading a Pix magazine. Now long gone it had pinups galore.

The attitude of Johnno and his fellow soldiers towards the Japanese is a regular discussion. At one time he asks if the Japanese are genuinely human and that though history would judge the war as just it “....may consider out attitudes as malign, vindictive and unfeeling” That the men who would have once “grieved” the death of a sparrow now had a “casual, inanely grinning” genocidal attitude towards their enemy. Contempt about officers is prevalent. At one point a seconded Johnno has an officer on his tail over solo attacks on the enemy position and sarcastically retorts to the officer as to what the penalty is “in your outfit for shooting at the Japs”

The battle scenes are some of the best I have read. We are even given maps to assist the reader with the troop movements. This is a top of the shelf read.
Problems? I suspect that the language of this book may not assist with a wider reading audience. The narrative make use of racist language. Not just towards the Japanese but also the local people who have been caught up in this war not of their making and that can make uncomfortable reading. In my opinion a modern audience may not be keen on this but the truth is that this was the way of the world in those times. The language of this book was the language of the older workers in my youth.

This is as good as the brilliant The Long Green Shore by John Hepworth. These two books are the best Australian War novels I have read. Highly recommended.