title: Return to Rabaul
author: Hadley, Peter
description: An epic story of love and war. Intrigue, rebellion, treachery, and political ambition collide in the turbulent war years that shaped modern Australia. The story unfolds through the experiences of a young soldier, Francis Milne, and a cast of characters - soldiers and officers, prime ministers and politicians, nurses, German internees and rebels. The action moves from the steamy jungles of German New Guinea, to the hills above Gallipoli, the subterranean world of radical politics in 1916 Sydney and the trenches and hospitals of northern France. Settling in New Guinea after the war, his peaceful life is shattered by the Japanese invasion and capture of Rabaul in 1942 which leads to one of Australia's worst military defeats and the destruction of the Australian settler society in New Guinea.