'Given a second rate job': Campaigns in Aitape-Wewak and New Britain, 1944-45

Like the other Australian operations in the south Pacific in 1944–45, the campaigns in Aitape-Wewak and New Britain during those years have been tarred with the label of ‘unnecessary’. Certainly, there were soldiers fighting in these campaigns who were frustrated by their circumstances. Some Australian 6th Division veterans felt that they were ‘first rate troops given a second rate job’. Conversely many historians have argued that it is inaccurate and misleading to regard these campaigns as unnecessary (see chapter 1), but leaving aside the debates surrounding ‘mopping up’ at Aitape-Wewak, this campaign was one of the longest fought by Australian troops during the war, in some of the toughest and most unpleasant conditions.