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Table 3: 7th Brigade Incidence of Disease Causing Evacuation, Bougainville,November 1944–May 19459th Battalion 25th Battalion 61st BattalionDiarrhoea 28 2 20Skin 81 22 56Malaria 7 3 12Total all types 116 27 88Source: Appendix KKK to ‘7 Aust Inf Bde Report on Operations 26 Oct 44 to 16 May 45’,7 Infantry Brigade War Diary, August 1945, Appendices, AWM 52, Item 8/2/7.He added later, ‘I am not satisfied that, apart from his mental condition, he hasexercised the functions of CO efficiently and in a manner which commands therespect and loyalty of his officers and men’.172 Faults he listed to justify this conclusionincluded Dexter’s ‘inefficient use of his 2IC in the forward area in respect tomaintaining touch with the critical situation’; his over reliance on his adjutant;recommendations on officer management that ‘suggested a lack of measuredjudgement’ and, most damning of all, ‘insufficient personal contact with Companiesin their operational localities’. With respect to this last point it was stated:One Company was not visited by the CO for 5 weeks, and the others infrequently inthe period preceding the withdrawal of the Battalion. They were all within easy walkingdistance. The effect of this on morale has obviously been highly detrimental.173Aspects of this criticism were corroborated by others. The battalion’s RMOconcluded in his April medical report on the battalion: ‘I consider that very firmhandling is the only [emphasis added] treatment these men need, and a new attitudeof mind needs to be instilled into the troops’.174 Ewen related in mid-March that‘This CO is well named “Dugout Dexter”. I’ve only seen him down here forward172 Letter from Field to Bridgeford, 14 April 1945, AWM 3DRL6937, Item 32, sub folder‘W.R. Dexter’.173 Draft report, ‘VX5172 Lt Col W.R. Dexter 61 Aust Inf Bn’, 9 April 1945, p. 2, AWM3DRL6937, Item 32, sub folder ‘W.R. Dexter’.174 ‘Medical Report on 61 Aust Inf Bn, 10 April 1945’, p. 2, AWM 3DRL6937, Item 32,sub folder ‘W.R. Dexter’.A tale of three battalions — 41