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Shadows on the track : Australia's medical war in Papua 1942-1943 : Kokoda - Milne Bay - the Beachhead battles / Jan McLeod.

Shadows on the track : Australia's medical war in Papua 1942-1943 : Kokoda - Milne Bay - the Beachhead battles / Jan McLeod.
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ISBN 9781925675900 (hardback)
Author McLeod, Jan (author.)
Title Shadows on the track : Australia's medical war in Papua 1942-1943 : Kokoda - Milne Bay - the Beachhead battles / Jan McLeod.
Portion of title Australia's medical war in Papua 1942-1943
Publisher and/or associated date/s Newport, N.S.W. : Big Sky Publishing, 2019.
Description 395 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Summary At Templeton's Crossing in October 1942, Private Nick Kennedy paused to write in his diary: `One wonders why all this strife should be ... these men in the prime of their life cut down like flowers'. As a young nursing orderly serving with the 2/4th Australian Field Ambulance, Kennedy was unenviably well placed to reflect on the futility of war. The Australian Army was woefully unprepared to fight a medical war in Papua and the soldiers paid the price. Almost 30,000 soldiers suffered from illness and tropical diseases, and an estimated 6000 were killed or wounded during the six-month campaign. These statistics have traditionally been represented as unavoidable consequences of fighting a war in a place such as Papua. This book disputes that narrative. Death and disease were inevitable outcomes, but the scale of the suffering was not. The medical challenges presented in Papua were extreme - they were not insurmountable. Shadows on the Track considers a wide range of issues that impacted on the health of the Australian soldiers before, during and after the Papuan campaign was fought and won. The strengths, successes, shortcomings and failures of the medical campaign are identified, analysed and evaluated. The focus on the front-line medical personnel - the men of the field ambulance units - brings a new perspective to the battles of the Kokoda Track, Milne Bay and the Beachheads. Shining a light on these Australians who tended the sick, mended the wounded and buried the dead in Papua makes stepping out of the shadows a little easier.
Subjects World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Papua New Guinea
Australia -- History, Military -- 20th century
Australia -- Armed Forces -- Medical personnel
Papua-New Guinea -- History -- 20th century
Call number 2019.137
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Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date
A00933861 2019.137
 General Collection   . Available to Museum Staff .  
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