Page 50 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2019

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WOMEN TO THE FRONT
THE EXTRAORDINARY AUSTRALIAN WOMEN DOCTORS OF THE GREAT WAR
By Heather Sheard
and Ruth Lee
Published by Ebury/ Penguin Randomhouse
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9780143794707 Heather Sheard and Ruth Lee have compiled a meticulously researched account of the work of the Australian women who served as surgeons, pathologists, anaesthetists and medical officers in the Great War. At the outbreak of the war,
HONEYSUCKLE CREEK
THE STORY OF TOM REID,
A LITTLE DISH AND NEIL ARMSTRONG'S FIRST STEP By Andrew Tink Published by Newsouth Books
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781742236087
In the Australian movie The Dish, the radio telescope based at Parkes Observatory was portrayed as the central player in covering the first moon landing walk by
Neil Armstrong. However, Andrew Tink reveals in this fascinating book, it was in fact the tracking station at
129 women were registered
as medical practitioners in Australia. Many of them were eager to contribute to the
war effort. For the military establishment, however, the notion of women doctors serving on the battlefield
was initially unthinkable. Undaunted, at least 24 Australian women doctors ignored official military policy and headed to the frontlines. Yet acknowledgement of their contribution is almost totally absent from official military records, both in Australia and Great Britain. The skills and courage displayed by this group are remarkable. At the end of the book, biographical notes give the reader an insight into each of the women’s
lives. Without exception,
they each made a significant contribution, not just during the war, but afterwards as they resumed their careers and re- established their lives.
Honeysuckle Creek situated near Canberra, one of three new stations built by NASA
to track the Apollo program, that was instrumental in transmitting some of the most-watched images in human history. The movie, it seems, was great to watch but hardly accurate. The success of the Honeysuckle Creek facility was largely due to
Tom Reid, who had served in both the British and Australian navies. Reid was drafted in to head up the facility. He was a no-nonsense Scotsman who did not suffer fools, yet he was admired and respected by his team. But this book is more than just the personal history of one man. It is a book about an event that inspired a generation and the pivotal role Honeysuckle Creek played in communications with Apollo 11 at the critical time of the moon walk in 1969. It is a story that deserves to be more widely known.
SHADOWS
ON THE TRACK AUSTRALIA’S MEDICAL WAR IN PAPUA
1942-1943
By Jan McLeod
Published by
Big Sky Publishing
RRP $34.99 in
paperback
ISBN 9781925675900 Historian Jan McLeod acknowledges her great uncles who both served
in the 2/4th Australian Field Ambulance. My father Frank Masters also served in New Guinea around this time in the 2/6th Field Ambulance,
D-DAY NEW GUINEA
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE BATTLE
FOR LAE AND THE GREATEST COMBINED AIRBORNE AND AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION OF THE PACIFIC WAR
By Phillip Bradley Published by Allen & Unwin RRP $32.99 in paperback ISBN 9781760632588 According to noted historian Phillip Bradley, the capture of Lae was the most complex and the most successful operation for the Australian Army in the Pacific. In
an effort to bring some perspective to the enormity
so I am grateful for the insight into the role of the field ambulances in New Guinea.
She exposes Australia’s
lack of preparedness to
fight a ‘medical war’ in a hostile environment and
the almost total lack of tropical medical training given to the men prior to their departure. Illnesses and tropical diseases were rife, particularly malaria.
As a result, almost 30,000 Australian soldiers suffered from illness
and disease.
As McLeod concludes, ‘the men of the field ambulances bore witness to the best and worst of the campaign.’ For the first time we are seeing the action, not from the front line of the fighting, but from the point of view of those who came behind
to deal with war’s terrible consequences.
of the operation, he compares Operation Postern, the plan to capture Lae in September 1943, with Operation Overlord, the invasion of France on 6 June 1944, more commonly known as the D-Day landing. He contends they had much in common, despite the vast difference between the two locations. He writes in detail about the campaign and illustrates
the narrative with detailed maps. Its success had a major impact on the outcome of the war in the Pacific. Sixty years after the event, then Chief
of Army LTGEN Peter Leahy described it as a ‘successful exercise in complex operational planning’ and that he could not think of a better example than Lae. It demonstrated the capability of the Australian Army who fought side by side with their American counterparts to rout the Japanese and turn the tide of the war.
50 | June 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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