Six Machine-Gun Battalion was raised in NSW and was sent to the south coast around Wollongong and Shellharbour to undertake their training and wait for the commanders in New Guinea to call them into action.

      They used the escarpment behind the coastal edge for their toughening up exercises and were occasionally called upon to assist in other areas – such as the night a Hudson bomber crashed.

      One night in 1943 an American cargo ship slammed into the rocks on the nearby coast and the men of 6 MGB were involved in the rescue of the crew by means of a boson’s chair. The crew was rescued but unfortunately several battalion men were swept from the rocks and drowned.

     Finally their time for war arrived and the battalion headed north to play their part. After some effort and a long journey, they found themselves at Gusap, to defend an American airstrip against marauding Japanese.

       They spent much of the time carrying out infantry patrols in the Finisterre Range where cut-off Japanese were still living. 

        With the war again moving north, the battalion was sent home and was disbanded – distributing its men in many directions as they were taken up as reinforcements in various units.

       This book fills an important gap in the total history of Australia in World War Two.