The Inevitable Hour is the sixth and final volume of the “Australian Doctors at War” series, covering the period from January 1943 to the disbanding of the Second Australian Imperial Force in April 1947. Even after, the Japanese had been driven from Papua and New Guinea, they still retained most of the archipelago. The threat to Australia was great, and despite being a then small nation, the country mobilised quickly to disrupt Japenese holdings in Madang, Wewak and Wau. Heroic and heavy fighting ensued. Overcoming the constant influx of wounded men needing treatment, suffering themselves from afflications such as hepatitis, dysentery and depression, aggravated by extreme and tropical climates, Australia’s medical officers were under considerable pressure, during the war and in the monumental demobilisation of the 2nd AIF that followed Japanese defeat.
