Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

9 Feb, 1943. During this day’s fighting Private McGuigan was wounded about1 PM by a bullet which passed entirely through his upper abdomen. He was reported to have been last seen crawling through the bush. At 5 PM Corporal Dowd of Captain Quinn;s Regimental Aid post staff and Private Lemmer (of the light section of the 2/2nd Field Ambulance assisting Quinn) set out through the darkening bush to find him with two infantry men as escorts. They searched well below the many Jap Track Junction and disregarding the danger from the many Japanese in that much fought-over area, called McGuigan’s name again and again through the gloom. They found him at 7 PM and carried him then in the darkness for over an hour, on a blanket slung between two rifles. The night and the mountains temporarily defeated them and they camped forward of the Junction and far from the nearest Australian positions. With the following dawn they carried the wounded man for another three hours before native bearers met and relieved them. True story. This was extracted from “Australia in the war of 1939-1943 Kokoda to Wau.