Author(s): Tom McSweeny

Australian History

In October 1941 a 25 year old student graduates in Medicine. The next day he enlists in the Australian Infantry Forces. Anthony McSweeny would spend 5 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 on New Guinea.

This is one small but significant account of a time in which the Pacific region exploded into a nightmare of death and destruction.