page_title: Allied logistics in the Kokoda Track campaign
section_title: Medical support
hierarchical_section_title: Allied logistics in the Kokoda Track campaign / Medical support
caption_attribution_description: English: Kokoda, Papua, 1942-11. A United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Stinson L-1 Vigilant ambulance aircraft prepares to take off from the Kokoda airstrip, as a group of Australian soldiers looks on (rear). The aircraft is evacuating two sick or wounded Australian soldiers to Port Moresby from the Main Dressing Station (MDS) of the 2/4th Field Ambulance which is established near the airstrip. The Stinson was capable of carrying two patients, one lying and one sitting, on its evacuation flights. A large Red Cross sign and a USAAF star are painted on the aircraft's fuselage (left), the Red Cross indicating the Stinson's medical function. The nose of the aircraft bears a tally sheet of smaller crosses which records the number of medical evacuation missions it has undertaken.
context_page_description: During the Second World War, Allied logistics in Papua played a crucial role in bringing the Kokoda Track campaign to a successful conclusion. "The great problem of warfare in the Pacific", General Douglas MacArthur declared, "is to move forces into contact and maintain them. Victory is dependent upon solution to the logistic problem."
  Although identified early as a vital strategic outpost, Port Moresby, the most significant Papuan town, had just two airfields and basic port facilities in early 1942. An enormous amount of work was required to transform it into a major base for both air and land operations against the Japanese. This was done in the face of frequent Japanese air raids. During the course of the Kokoda Track campaign, the two original airfields were improved, and five new airfields were developed. To make them operational, the engineers had to construct more than just runways; taxiways, hardstands, facilities and access roads all had to be built. The operation of the base depended on shipping, but the port facilities were limited. To increase the capacity of the port, a causeway was built to Tatana Island, where pontoon docks were emplaced.
context_section_description: The first medical unit to arrive was the 3rd Field Ambulance, which left Adelaide on 25 December 1941, and moved into the Murray Barracks in Port Moresby on 3 January 1942. The base hospital became the 46th Camp Hospital, and moved to King's Hollow, a site on the Laloki River 34 kilometres (21 mi) from Port Moresby. A Red Cross convalescent home at Rouna became the 113th Convalescent Depot. On 3 June the hospital ship Wanganella brought the 14th Field Ambulance and the 5th Casualty Clearing Station.
  The 2/9th General Hospital arrived from South Australia on the hospital ship Manunda on 23 August. It moved to a site at Rouna, 27 kilometres (17 mi) from Port Moresby. It was the only general hospital in New Guinea until the 2/5th General Hospital arrived in January 1943. Due to the prospect that Port Moresby might fall, it was sent without its nurses or Australian Army Medical Women's Service physiotherapists. Staffed as a 600-bed hospital, it held 732 patients on 6 October. Its commanding officer, Colonel A. H. Green, suggested that it be expanded to a 1,200-bed hospital, or that another 600-bed hospital be sent from Australia. Authorisation was given to expand to 800 beds on 29 September, and the nurses and physiotherapists were sent. Between when it opened in September and the end of December, the 2/9th General Hospital admitted 10,083 patients.
  Malaria was a concern, as it was endemic in New Guinea. There was no plasmoquine to cure it, and the main drug used to combat it was quinine, which was not fully effective. The recommended dosage of 0.65 grams (10 gr) per day was found to be insufficient to give protection against the disease in highly malarious areas. Quinine was also in short supply, as Java, which had been overrun by the Japanese, accounted for 90 per cent of the world's supply. Moreover, many failed to take the required dose with regularity, insect repellents were not available or not used, protective clothing was not issued to all the troops, and some still went around at night in short sleeves and shorts.
  Colonel Neil Hamilton Fairley, the Australian Army's Director of Medicine, and Major Ian Murray Mackerras visited Port Moresby in June 1942. Both were experts on tropical medicine. They noted that the garrison had suffered 1,184 cases of malaria, an infection rate of 149 per thousand. They recommended that to conserve quinine, men could be taken off it during the dry season, and observed for relapses. Fortunately, the climate in the Owen Stanley Range was not favourable to mosquitoes, and most cases were relapses by men infected in Port Moresby or Syria. Potts therefore decided on 24 August that anti-malarial precautions were no longer necessary.
  An epidemic of dysentery broke out on the Kokoda Track that threatened the entire force. Some 1,200 casualties, mostly dysentery, reached Ilolo in September. Simple hygiene procedures involving the disposal of rubbish and excrement were required, but were neglected in the early stages of the campaign. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Ford, the Assistant Director of Pathology at New Guinea Force headquarters, arranged for supplies of a new drug, sulphaguanidine, to be shipped from Australia. The widespread use of a scarce drug was a gamble, as it used up all the stocks in Australia, but one that paid off; it arrested the epidemic, and allowed sick men to travel, thereby saving lives. When the Australians advanced on Kokoda in October, special details constructed latrines, buried the dead, and, in extreme cases, burned villages that the Japanese had fouled beyond redemption.
  Scrub typhus is spread by mites that live in the soil. Soldiers walking through mite-infested areas were fairly safe, but if they sat or lay down or stood still for long enough, the mites could attach themselves. Although the incidence of typhus was much less than that of malaria or dysentery, it was more lethal. Of 2,839 Australian servicemen affected in SWPA, 9.05% died. Scrub itch, a skin irritation caused by mite bites, was a more common but far less serious ailment. Tinea was also a problem, due t
caption: A Stinson L-1 Vigilant air ambulance operating at Kokoda, November 1942. The aircraft is evacuating two sick or wounded Australian soldiers to Port Moresby from the Main Dressing Station (MDS) of the 2/4th Field Ambulance near the airstrip.
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