Author Talk with historian Dr Mark Johnston

Historian Dr Mark Johnston will join us at the Memorial to discuss the experiences of Australian servicemen at the front line in the last year of the Pacific campaigns.

Date: Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Time: 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm

Location: Theatre, Australian War Memorial

About Dr Mark Johnston

Mark is an expert on the experience of Australian soldiers during the Second World War.

He is the author of 12 books, with two more due out in 2025. His publications include histories of the 6th, 7th and 9th Australian divisions, Whispering Death (a history of the Royal Australian Air Force in the Pacific)(2011), and An Australian Band of Brothers: Don Company, Second 43rd Battalion, 9th Division (2018). Most recently he edited Derrick VC in his own words (2021). He has written numerous articles and five booklets for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs series “Australians in the Pacific War”. He is currently Head of History and Classics at Scotch College, Melbourne.

"Last words in a long war: Australians in the Pacific in 1945"

Australia's Pacific campaigns of 1945 were controversial. Their strategic value was questioned then and has continued to be interrogated. The demands on the Australian servicemen who fought were high, and although senior officers tried to protect their men from excessive losses, those at the sharp end had to fight a famously determined opponent.

Mark Johnston has written about the campaigns of 1945 in most of his books. In this talk he will discuss the experiences of men at the front line, especially on the ground and in the air, in the last year of the war. Those experiences include fighting in northern New Guinea, where starving Japanese resorted to cannibalism while fighting hard to the end; the campaign on Bougainville, in which Militia units won universal praise while operating in terrible conditions; on New Britain, where Australians held their own despite being vastly outnumbered; and in Borneo, where amphibious landings gave way to battles against entrenched and determined foes.

The Australians at the front and in the air knew that their efforts were not central to winning the war. That knowledge made their self-sacrifice more remarkable and poignant. Mark will talk about researching and writing about the Australian servicemen of 80 years ago.