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.