Doc’s War – New Guinea – The Final Campaign

Tom McSweeny

In October 1941 a 25-year-old student graduates in Medicine. The next day he enlists in the Australian Infantry Forces. Dr Anthony McSweeny would spend five years in the Army and would keep a diary of his experiences from December 1942 to September 1945.

His story is a fascinating account of a young doctor’s journey from middle-class life in Brisbane to the enormous military camps in Far North Queensland and eventually the battlefields of New Guinea.

Doc worked through one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific – the Aitape-Wewak campaign. Australia lost 442 men while 9000 Japanese were killed with over 14,000 dying of illness and starvation.