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2nd/5th Australian General Hospital (WW2)

The 2nd/5th Australian General Hospital (AGH) was a major 1,200-bed medical unit formed by the Australian Army in mid-1940.  It saw extensive, intense service treating battle casualties and tropical diseases across the globe, including in Palestine, Greece, Crete, Eritrea, New Guinea, and Morotai.

During the ill-fated 1941 Greek campaign, code-named Operation Lustre, the unit was overwhelmed by the rapid German advance. When evacuation was ordered, Senior Matron Kathleen Best had to evacuate only a portion of the women. Volunteers remained behind in Greece to stay with and treat the wounded, ultimately becoming Prisoners of War (POWs).  Many of those men were accommodated at Stalag XXA in Poland for the duration of the war.

Key milestones of the 2/5th AGH included:

1940: Formed in Greta, NSW, and sailed to the Middle East in September.
1941: Deployed to Greece as part of Operation Lustre.  Treated sick and wounded in Greece and Crete. Detachments also served in Darwin and Eritrea.  

As German forces advanced rapidly down the Greek peninsula in mid-April 1941, the matrons of the 2nd/5th and 2nd/6th AGH were ordered to execute a swift, immediate evacuation of female medical and nursing staff.
Due to severely limited transport, the female nurses and physiotherapists were rushed south via trucks and trains.
The female staff of the of the 2nd/5th and 6th AGH successfully boarded the destroyer HMAS Voyager at the port of Nafplion on 20 April 1941, escaping safely to Crete and then back to Egypt.
The 2/5th AGH was cut off in Athens and captured almost in its entity, less their evacuated nurses. Small detached elements, drivers, and male medical teams supporting the 6th Division from the 2/5th and 6th AGH were also swept up in the final retreats and held in transit camps like Corinth and Salonika before being sent to stalags in Germany Austria and Poland.  One of the POWs, QX9755 Corporal Leonard Barker (/explore/people/660273), has left detailed accounts of life as a 2nd/5th AGH soldier who became a POW.
1943–1944: After repatriation to Australia in March 1942 it re-organised at Armidale and by late 1942 in the aftermath of the Japanese drive over the Owen Stanley Ranges towards Port Moresby, the hospital deployed to Bootless Bay near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, supporting the 2nd/9th AGH already there.  their main patient load involved malaria outbreaks and combat injuries.
1945: The Hospital redeployed to Morotai (Indonesia) where it treated thousands of Allied troops and hundreds of Japanese POWs, later helping process recovered Allied POWs. 

For an detailed nominal rolls, honour roll, and stories of their service, you can explore the 2nd/5th Australian General Hospital history archive at the Australian War Memorial. 

We would particularly like to encourage individual historians, researchers or members of unit associations and families to contribute to the development of a more detailed history and photographs pertaining to this unit and its members.

Please contact [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for details on how to contribute.

Compiled by Steve Larkins July 2026

Sources: 

Various online resources - see sidebar

McKenzie-Smith, Graham 2018 "The Unit Guide The Australian Army 1939-45 Vol 2 of 6 Medical and Signals Units" Big Sky Publishing ISBN 978-1-925675-14-6