Footnotes
*The authors would like to thank the two anonymous referees ofLabour Historyand acknowledge the assistance of the Australians at War Film Archive, the Australian War Memorial, the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and the State Library of Tasmania. The author would also like to thank the University of New England for providing a University of New England Research Seed Grant, and the Australian Army for providing an Australian Army History Unit Research Grant; both of these provided valuable funding assistance for the research undertaken for this paper.
1.Colin Kennedy, World War 2: Campaigning in Papua, unpublished memoir, 37–38, NX190472, PR85/305, Australian War Memorial (AWM).
2.P. FitzSimons, Kokoda(:Hodder Australia, 2005), 360.
3.Ibid.
4.P. Williams, The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and Reality(:Cambridge University Press, 2012), 113.
5.Ibid., 130.
6.N. Wise, “The Lost Labour Force: Working-Class Approaches to Military Service during the Great War,” Labour History, no. 93 (November2007):163–64;D. Blair, Dinkum Diggers: An Australian Battalion at War(:Melbourne University Press, 2001), 8.
7.M. Johnston, At the Front Line: Experiences of Australian Soldiers in World War II(:Cambridge University Press, 1996), 9.
8.Ibid., 9–11.
9.For a list of the units involved, seeThe Corps of Royal Australian Engineers in the Second World War 1939–45(:The Specialty Press, 1946), 27.
10.See for exampleD. McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area, First Year: Kokoda to Wau, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, series 1, Army, vol. 5(:Australian War Memorial, 1959), 261;S. Hawthorn, The Kokoda Trail: A History(:Central Queensland University Press, 2003), 206. Karl James notes that both the term “track” and “trail” were used interchangeably throughout the war and at the time they were not considered to be mutually exclusive. I have used “track” throughout this paper for consistency, and because it appeared more commonly in Australian language at the time.K. James, “The Track”: A Historical Desktop Study of the Kokoda Track, paper commissioned by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (:Australian War Memorial, 2009), 55.
11.Hawthorne, The Kokoda Trail, 207.
12.See for exampleGordon Lloyd Milton, Lloyd’s Story: Up & Down the Track of Life & Kokoda Trail, unpublished memoir, 97, QX22648, MSS1693, AWM; Julian Waters, unpublished memoir, QX21435, PR88/122, AWM.
13.See for exampleThe Corps of Royal Australian Engineers, 7–12;R. McNicoll, The Royal Australian Engineers, Volume 3: 1919 to 1945, Teeth and Tail(:Griffin Press, 1982), 149–67.
14.N. Wise, “‘Dig, Dig, Dig, until You are Safe’: Constructing the Australian Trenches on Gallipoli,” First World War Studies 3, no. 1(2012):51–63.
15.Wise, “The Lost Labour Force”;N. Wise, “‘In Military Parlance I Suppose We were Mutineers’: Industrial Relations in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I,” Labour History, no. 101 (November2011):161–76.
16.E. J. Zürcher, ed., Fighting for a Living: A Comparative History of Military Labour in Europe and Asia, 1500–2000(:Amsterdam University Press, 2014).
17.J. S. K. Watson, Fighting Different Wars: Experience, Memory, and the First World War in Britain(:Cambridge University Press, 2004);P. Way, “Rebellion of the Regulars: Working Soldiers and the Mutiny of 1763–1764,” The William and Mary Quarterly 57, no. 4(2000):761–92;P. Way, “Class and the Common Soldier in the Seven Years’ War,” Labor History 44, no. 4(2003):455–81;H. McCartney, Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War(:Cambridge University Press, 2005).
18.An exception to this is the experience of Prisoners of War, whose labour, often forced, has been well documented by historians. See for exampleP. H. Kratoska, ed., The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942–1946: Documents and Selected Writings(:Routledge, 2006);G. McCormack andH. Nelson, The Burma-Thailand Railway(:Allen & Unwin, 2006);H. Nelson, Prisoners of War: Australians under Nippon(:ABC, 1985).
19.See for exampleG. H. Johnston, New Guinea Diary(:Angus and Robertson, 1943);O. White, Green Armour(:Angus and Robertson, 1945).
20.For example,R. Paull, Retreat from Kokoda: The Australian Campaign in New Guinea 1942(:William Heinemann, 1983);G. Reading, Papuan Story(:Angus and Robertson, 1946);McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area.
21.For general histories of the campaign see for example,FitzSimons, Kokoda;Williams, The Kokoda Campaign 1942;P. Ham, Kokoda(:Harper Collins, 2005);L. McAuley, Blood and Iron: The Battle for Kokoda 1942(:Arrow Books, 1992);P. Brune, A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua(:Allen and Unwin, 2004);P. Brune, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes: From the Kokoda Trail to Gona Beach 1942(:Allen and Unwin, 2005);McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area.
22.Ham, Kokoda, xi.
23.While the Kokoda Campaign is generally considered to have been fought between July and November 1942, for context, this paper also briefly considers experiences in the lead-up to the campaign from January-July 1942, in addition to the Battle of Buna-Gona, which immediately followed the Kokoda Campaign, from November 1942 to January 1943. In addition, references to other campaigns, theatres and experiences in these are referenced when relevant for analysis and contrast. See for exampleJames, The Track, 3.
24.Albert Edward Arthur Long, diary entry, 27 November 1940, VX17841, PR00233, AWM.
25.John Milton Butler, diary entry, 17 April 1941, VX40829, 3DRK/3825, AWM.
26.For a brief example of this, seeG. Long, To Benghazi, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, series 1, Army, vol. 1(:Australian War Memorial, 1961), 72.
27.Peter Hayman, diary entry 6 February 1942, N281927, PR00354, AWM.
28.Ham, Kokoda, 29.
29.Ibid., 33.
30.FitzSimons, Kokoda, 94.
31.Irvine Francis Lloyd, letter, 31 October 1983, V45916, PR00322, AWM. The 39thBattalion was a militia battalion re-raised in 1941. Up to the point of arriving in Port Moresby in January 1942, they had only received minimal training in Australia and they were expected to continue their military training in New Guinea.
32.Reginald Cromwell Markham, diary entry, 8 January 1942, V66783, PR89/87, AWM.
33.Alexander “Jock” Reid, diary entry, 12 January 1942, V5581, cited inV. Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond: The Story of the 39thBattalion, 1941–1943(:Australian Military History Publications, 2007), 29. “Coy” was a common abbreviation of company.
34.See for exampleFitz Simmons, Kokoda, 278–79;Johnston, At the Front Line, 36–40.
35.Harold Percival Spindler, diary entry, 23 October 1942, N268168, PR83/171, AWM.
36.Robert Gartshore Robertson, letter to Bill, 15 December 1942, VX13244, 2DRL/1315, AWM.
37.William Frank Cousens, The Battle of Gona, unpublished memoir, 18–19, WX8340, MSS0659 and MSS0721, AWM.
38.This has also been noted elsewhere of the nature of labour during World War I; seeN. Wise, “A Working Man’s Hell: Working Class Men’s Experiences with Work in the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War”(PhD diss.,University of New South Wales, 2007), 116–18.
39.Most notably by members of the 1stAustralian Corps Ski School, based in Lebanon/Syria.
40.Johnston, At the Front Line, 9.
41.Ernest Charles Ruckley, unpublished memoir, 2, NX163865, PR85/231, AWM. Peter Hayman similarly recalled “digging trenches in solid rock” while based near Port Moresby in early 1942; seePeter Hayman, undated addendum to re-written diary, N281927, PR00354, AWM.
42.Cousens, The Battle of Gona, 14.
43.Ralph Honner, “The 39that Isurava,” Stand-To 5, no. 4(July–August1956):9.
44.Milton, Lloyd’s Story, 99.
45.Spindler, diary entry, 19 September 1942. See also the extracts from Colin Kennedy, World War 2: Campaigning in Papua, unpublished memoir, 26, 34, NX190472, PR85/305, AWM.
46.Transcript of interview with Arnold Forrester, 26 March 2004, time: 05:11:30:00, VX117685, Australians at War Film Archive (AWFA), accessed September 2014,http://www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au/aawfa/transcripts/1384.aspx.
47.Transcript of interview with Donald Daniels, 10 June 2003, time: 02:12:30:18, VX142391, AWFA, accessed September 2014,http://www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au/aawfa/transcripts/1640.aspx.
48.Spindler, diary entry, 13 September1942.
49.Johnston notes that batmen would often dig the dugouts for their officers;Johnston, At the Front Line, 140.
50.William Drayton Jamieson, unpublished memoirs, 1, PR85/234, AWM.
51.Johnston, At the Front Line, 9.
52.See for exampleIbid., 11–13.
53.McNicoll, The Royal Australian Engineers, 155.
54.See in particularA. D. Robertson, “Problems of Supply Encountered by the Australian and Japanese Forces on the Kokoda Trail and the Question of Morale,”(Hons diss.,Melbourne University, 1973), 16–29, MSS0701, AWM. The lack of shovels was by no means unique to the Kokoda Campaign; soldiers noted the lack of shovels during campaigns in the Middle East also. See for example Transcript of interview with James Mackenzie, 5 December 2003, time: 05:15:30:00 and 05:21:30:00, WX5791, AWFA, accessed September 2014,http://www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au/aawfa/transcripts/1985.aspx.
55.McNicoll, The Royal Australian Engineers, 155.
56.Johnston, At the Front Line, 111–12.
57.On this occasion, the digging of graves took place as Australian units crossed back over the range during their advance. Paul Ham interview with Merv Roberts, 24 July 2002, cited inHam, Kokoda, 330.
58.Ham, Kokoda, 61. For other instances seeIbid., 327, 330, 363.
59.R. Kienzle, The Architect of Kokoda: Bert Kienzle: The Man Who Made the Kokoda Trail(:Hachette, 2011), 128.
60.Johnston, At the Front Line, 8.
61.Ibid.
62.Kennedy, World War 2: Campaigning in Papua, 10.
63.For other examples seeBrune, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, 274, 339.
64.Spindler, diary entry, 18 September1942.
65.Kennedy, World War 2: Campaigning in Papua, 18.
66.Ibid., 26.
67.Ibid., 34.
68.Colin Kennedy, personal note made withinR. Paull, Retreat from Kokoda: The Australian Campaign in New Guinea 1942(:William Heinemann, 1983), 98, held in NX190472, PR85/305, AWM.
69.McAuley, Blood and Iron, 256.
70.See, for example, Transcript of interview with Bede Tongs, 23 April 2002, time: 05:26:30:15, NX126952, AWFA, accessed September 2014,http://www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au/aawfa/transcripts/1027.aspx.
71.See, for example,K. J. Baker, Paul Cullen, Citizen and Soldier: The Life And Times of Major-General Paul Cullen(:Rosenberg Publishing, 2005), 141.
72.Spindler, diary entry, 23 October1942.
73.Cousens, The Battle of Gona, 18–19.