HEALTH ON KOKODA 1942

Health and hygiene has scarcely rated a mention in the Kokoda

campaign and elsewhere in New Guinea but it must have been a

major debilitating factor.

We read of diarrhoea at Isurava. We also read that in withdrawal,

Australian soldiers were resupplied with clothing from an airdrop

at Lake Myola.

Soldiers had not removed their boots in over a month and found

that the soles of the feet came away once their socks were taken

off. This has to be the bacterium commonly called trench foot.

This bacterium exists on the track even now and has infected the

occasional trekker who does not remove boots daily, washes and

dries feet and wears clean and dry socks.

The infection with trench foot must have been almost 100% among

the soldiers of the 39^th and 53^rd. We are not told of precautions
put in place by Lt Col Honner.

Trench foot would have almost crippled soldiers. With the soles of

their feet dropped away, they must have found difficulty in walking

and climbing. Infections would have been great. Key item in the air
resupply would have been penicillin powder.

We are also told of diarrhoea that caused soldiers to cut the seat out

of their shorts. To check the photographs in the military history record

by Dudley McCarthy, we find soldiers with complete trousers and no

adjustments to the seats.

But photos were of the 2/27^th in retreat and 16^th Brigade in advance.

There were no photographs of the 39^th and 53^rd. A clothing resupply

would have given new clothes to the soldiers in the famous Menari

photograph.

We read the Brigade commander declared that both militia battalions

were not fit to fight and had to be taken out of battle. This may have
been the result of dysentery and trench foot as much as fighting skill.

Conditions of battle at Isurava would have exacerbated the diarrhoea

among soldiers to the point of a local dysentery epidemic. This would
have been a matter that soldiers were too modest to talk about.

My AIF father would not even say “bullshit”. He would say “bullshine”
or “bulsh”. He was a gentleman of the 1930s.

They would find much difficulty in walking to the latrine under the battle
conditions and would have remained in their trenches. Dysentry would
have spread within a short time.

We read a report of  arrival of the 2/14^th with a militia soldier saying

that the 39^th was filthy and emaciated. The 2/14^th looked like gods.

That sounds like the effects of diarrhoea.

Emaciation comes with dehydration and inability to hold down their
food. Isurava battlefield must have been a filthy place unfit for human
habitation. Did soldiers wash each day in the back creek? Did they
have soap? We read of one officer having a shave in the creek.

The 39^th would have been hit harder than the 53^rd as they were in
the north for a longer period. Soldiers may have come up the track
from Port Moresby with diarrhoea if we take into account that the

pilots of 75^th Squadron suffered at Jackson’s strip.

We read that in the advance, Australian soldiers were ordered not
to drink the water from Eora Creek at the crossing. They had to take
water from the small creek that comes down from the Abuari side.
This was said to be due to contamination by corpses.

It may have also been the result of dysentery. After all, Eora Creek
comes down from Lake Myola and flowed within 200 metres of the
hospital set up on the Myola slopes. It would have been a washing
point for soldiers not yet evacuated.

Then there was malaria. Many Australian soldiers may have been
unconcerned with malaria in the early stages. My AIF father used to
tell the story of soldiers given their pills as they stood on parade.

Many would spit the pill out as the sergeant passed down the line. In
the afternoon rain, the parade ground would have streaks of yellow.

Malaria would have hit the soldiers on both sides. The only report of
malaria I have read was the attack on Brigadier J.E. Lloyd of the 16^th
Brigade in advance to Oivi-Gorari. He had cerebral malaria, according
to the report.

I had an attack of cerebral malaria in 1998. I was taken to Port Moresby

General Hospital not knowing who or where I was. A man at the hospital

had advanced cerebral malaria and become spastic. He stayed there for
over two years as no one knew who he was.

I will never forget an old documentary showing Japanese prisoners of
war taken from the battlefield in New Guinea. They were emaciated to
the extreme and appeared spastic, probably from cerebral malaria. Many
sick Japanese soldiers retreated from Lae and died in the mountains. War
is cruel.

There would have been many other sicknesses that hit soldiers. Tropical

ulcers would take little time to develop and become chronic infections.

The ulcer will reveal white bone within two days. A neighbour in Brisbane

was a soldier of the 2/2^nd battalion. He had tropical ulcers on both ankles

for 20 years and more after the war.

This would have been caused by rubbing of boots. Modern antibiotics

would have done the trick. Bacterium got down among ankle bones.

I wonder if tropical ulcers can be caused by trench foot bacterium.

With diarrhoea would come gut parasites from Australia and New

Guinea. These would have passed from infected soldier to infected
soldier through eggs in infected faeces. A common parasite in this
country is the round worm Ascaris lumbricoides.

There have to be reasons why many returned soldiers died within a
decade or more of the war.

For some, the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to accept that
their incapacity was caused by the war.

A SHIT OF A WAR

The visit of the family of Sqn Ldr John Jackson has stirred memories

of the past. As a teenager in Australia, I would sit glued to the television

set after the ANZAC marches were over to watch war documentaries.

We young people of the 1950s became experts in many aspects of the

wars, particularly having listened to serials on Saturday nights on the

large walnut radios.

There was a story of “Tinlegs” Wing Commander Douglas Bader who

lost his legs in an aircraft accident only to go on to be an air ace in the

war against Germany. His story was relayed to the young people in a

serial “Reach for the Skies”.

Then there was the story of the “Great Escape” where about a hundred

prisoners of war escaped from a German prison of war camp. As a boy,

I knew all the stars personally week by week and was horrified to find

many were killed by German machine gun in the back of a truck.

We listened to nurses at war in the serial “White Coolies”. Many of

them died in a Japanese prison of war camp. That was a real story

of courage that was part of the growing up of Australian kids.

Then we saw movies “The Man who Never was” and “ The Bridge on
the River Kwai”. Some things stay in the memory, one being that the
Japanese CO of the camp attended the funeral of the British CO in
London many years later.

We may never forget the movie “The Cockleshell Heroes” who sailed

to Singapore Harbour aboard the boat the Krait.

Then one ANZAC Day, there was a story of war in Port Moresby

and Australian pilots who fought dog fights against the Japanese.

One pilot told an unforgettable story that intends no disrespect to the

men who fought. On the contrary, it was all part of their courage.

Pilots of 75^th Squadron stayed at Jackson’s airport and suffered

chronic diarrhoea and dysentry. They spent much time in latrines

until the call came to scramble.

Those with diarrhoea would climb aboard the aircraft and head for

the skies. In dogfights, they would climb to high altitudes and then

dive down on the Japanese bombers and fighters.

They would fire and then pull out of the dive. Inertia of this would

cause the diarrhoea and dysentery in their bowels to explode.

They would spend the rest of a dogfight sitting in a stinking cockpit,

probably too preoccupied to notice. But they may well have been

weak, dehydrated and lacking concentration.

The ones to really suffer after that were flight crew on the ground

whose job it was to clean out the cockpits time after time.

That puts the pilots of the RAAF on a similar basis to the soldiers

on the Kokoda Track. Diarrhoea was so bad at Isurava and down

the track that soldiers had to cut the seat out of their shorts for
ease of exit.

That is why Damien Parer only took photographs from the front.
The mums and dads in Australia had to feel that all was well.

Many of us looking back may feel that these young boys are our

sons. But no. They are our fathers and grandfathers.

SQN-LDR JOHN JACKSON

Post Courier 11 May 2011

Family of heroic Australian WW2 air force commander John

Francis Jackson nick named old John paid tribute and visited

the land where their father and grandfather died.

Last weekend, his daughter Patricia and his son Arthur and

grand-daughters Diane and Angela flew from Australia to set

foot on the very place their father and grandfather lost his life.

The bravery shown by Jackson has led to the country’s biggest

airport the Jackson International Airport being named after him.

He fought in the war in various places in the world before he lost

his life during the battle of Port Moresby in 1942.

Jackson was the leader of the Australian Air Force 75 squadron

when his plane was shot down in a dog fight in Port Moresby.

LATOSOLIC CLAYS OF KOKODA

The latasolic soils of the tropical rainforests protect the

ecosysytem from damage with a high very rate of break

down of humus and waste material.

The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua New ...

The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua,

New Guinea. Geoderma, 8: 191-205. The clay, fine-silt and

sand-mineral fractions of eight ....
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/... - Similar

　

Latosolic clays of the Kokoda Track and the mountains

through to West Papua protect against erosion. These

are the red-orange-yellow clays that are so well known

among PNG mountain people and trekkers on Kokoda

Track.

　　

There are those who claim trekkers damage the Kokoda

Track. This is not possible with such a thick blanket of

latosolic soil. The track is quite indestructible if the only

attack comes from boots.

　

We see why the villagers in this country dig the gardens

on the mountains facing downwards. If the gardens were

dug across the slope like the Chinese terraced gardens,

there would be no run-off in the latasolic soils.

　

The latosolic substratum consists of a deep layer of clay

decomposed over millions of years from basalt rock. We

see basalt rock on the Kokoda Track in the face of the

waterfall below Abuari village and the huge boulder on

the track between Isurava battlefield and the rest house

above.

　

Clay is covered with tropical jungle and a deep layer of

humus decomposed into a layer of soil.

　

On the Kokoda Track and other such tracks in Asia,

Europe and the Americas, the substratum of soil and

humus has eroded down to the clay and held in place

by a latticework of tropical tree roots.

　

The substratum off the track can remain untouched with

the thick layer of humus and soil permanently in place but

disturbed by agriculture and logging.

　

The trekking industry is important to PNG and the lives

of villagers of the track. Those who carry out ecosystem

surveys have to understand that trekkers have a minimal

effect on the Kokoda Track while they attack the track

only with boots.