Battlefield, South Bougainville

This picture shows what bombing and artillery fire made the jungle look like, yet our men were living in dug-outs covered with heavy timber and a few painted tent flaps. On the day the artist sketched the scene it was just after a surprise attack by the Japanese. They come down at dawn, sixty men strong, right up to the barbed wire of the camp. Forty-eight were shot, twenty-five were lying in an area of about twenty square yards. Seven men of 15th Battalion 29th Brigade had been shot and some wounded.