While the world watched Iwo Jima and Okinawa, over 70,000 Australian soldiers were fighting and dying in what many would later call the 'unnecessary wars' - the final campaigns in Bougainville, New Guinea and Borneo.

In this powerful episode, Mat McLachlan tells the forgotten story of Australia's last battles of World War Two. From November 1944 to August 1945, Australian forces fought through some of the war's most grueling conditions, losing over 2000 men in campaigns that history has largely overlooked.

Through authentic accounts from the soldiers who were there - including seven Victoria Cross recipients - we experience the mud, monsoons and malaria of jungle warfare. We meet young men like 20-year-old Frank Partridge, who became the war's youngest Australian VC recipient, and veterans like George Palmer, who carried the memory of a Japanese soldier he killed for the rest of his life.

Were these campaigns strategically necessary, or were they, as critics claimed, a waste of Australian lives for political purposes? Mat explores the controversy while never losing sight of the human story - of ordinary Australians who did extraordinary things when their mates needed them most.

A moving tribute to the men who fought on after the world had stopped watching.

"We weren't soldiers, we were heavily-armed civilians... for the most part, we were just ordinary people." - Les Cook, veteran

Episode Length: 21 minutes

Features: Original veteran testimonies, detailed battle accounts and expert historical analysis

Presenter: Mat McLachlan

Producer: Jess Stebnicki

Ready to walk in the footsteps of heroes? Join Mat McLachlan on an exclusive river cruise that visits the battlefields of Waterloo, WWI and WW2 in 2027: https://battlefields.com.au/pre-register-for-2027-battlefield-river-cruises/

Find out everything Mat is doing with books, tours and media at https://linktr.ee/matmclachlan

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