Floggings, cannibals, conflict: One man’s tale of trouble in Paradise

CANED or left to the cannibals: this is what happened to enemy troublemakers in a little-known war to our north. Warning: Politically incorrect.

IT was always going to end badly after the Germans beat up a priest.

Tracking down the troublemakers, Ambrose O’Hare and his mates left one man to guard their remote hideaway against cannibal tribes then marched the rest for miles across rugged country, to face humiliating and painful retribution...

Flogging a movie ... Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

Flogging the Germans ... our hero, Ambrose O’Hare.

This is just one part of the gritty, grumpy and — to modern eyes — politically incorrect soldier O’Hare’s account of a little-known tropical conflict just north of Australia.

Of course Ambrose’s island had a volcano ... what tropical adventure would be complete without?

With battles, booze, dodgy dealers, whips and naked natives it reads like the backdrop for an Indiana Jones film.

And while all too real, our brave, modest — and lucky — main man’s recently published diary of bizarre experiences forms an account of WW1 service unlike all others.

In particular, his story of how troublesome Germans got a nasty but non-lethal taste of their own medicine is fascinating, considering recent much-criticised claims that Australian soldiers in the area committed war crimes by shooting prisoners.

This is Ambrose’s account in his own words, warts and all. Take a moment out of today and go back in time with him — click on the image below to begin (it’s even better on a desktop).

Originally published as Floggings, cannibals, conflict: One man’s tale of trouble in Paradise