Australiana > Military

In 1942 a small band of young Australian soldiers overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to preserve Australia’s freedom along the Kokoda Track. The Battle for the Kokoda Track is Australia’s Alamo. If Gallipoli symbolised the ANZAC spirit in WWI, then Kokoda is its WWII equivalent. In August 1942 Kokoda was a killing field. Seventy years on, it is hard to imagine what those young men endured for our freedom but the journey gives some clues. The track plays a leading role in the story of Kokoda. It has a character ofits own. It... read more

Australia's long-standing love affair with the Diggers has blinded us to the dark side of the Anzac legend. Bad Characters will tell the story of the Australian soldiers in the Great War who were not heroes. The term 'bad characters' was used by the army to refer to those who caused unrest or were disobedient: their crimes ranged from avoiding battle, absenteeism, desertion, disobedience and self-inflicting wounds and contracting venereal disease, to the more extreme charges of murder and mutiny. Bad Characters travels from the out... read more

The battlefield of Dernancourt on the morning of the 5th of April, 1918 was strewn with the bodies of the Australian dead. It was the final chapter in the story of the 47th Australian Infantry Battalion in the First World War. Though their story is one of almost unrelieved tragedy, it is also story of remarkable courage, endurance and heroism.

A unique literary and pictorial portrait of a tumultuous, exciting and enduringly dangerous part of the world. Armageddon. Nazareth. Damascus. The names of these places come straight from the Bible. They are the lands of the Pharaohs, the Crusaders, Lawrence of Arabia. But the forbidding deserts and mysterious cities of the Middle East were also the lesser-known backdrop for the battles of the Australian men and boys who served there during the First World War. Paul Daley and Michael Bowers follow in the footsteps of the Australian... read more

No Description

No Description

For 39 years the Australian Defence Force strenuously denied a unit called the 2nd Defence and Employment Platoon existed during the Vietnam War.The platoon was a makeshift rapid deployment force of 38 men, all regular troops, based at the Australian Task Force Headquarters at Nui Dat in 1969 from late April to June. The ragtag unit was thrown together with diggers left behind in Vietnam when their regiment returned to Australia. It was so slapdash it didn't even have an officer or sergeant in charge. But a rugged ex-Royal Marine s... read more

Shanghai is a city defined by war. The city and its armed struggles were central to the relationship between China and Australia from the fall of the Manchus in 1912 to the Communist victory in 1949. Yet with the notable exception of George 'Chinese' Morrison, the Australian contribution has been largely neglected and no single volume covers the experiences of the many remarkable Australians caught up in the drama. Set against a backdrop of imperial splendour and abject squalor, Shanghai Fury examines one of the seminal periods of... read more

From the cliffs of Gallipoli, to the jungles of Vietnam, to the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia's short history has been punctuated by war. We define ourselves through our relationship to the battlefield - mateship, courage under fire, larrikinism - but few of us have been firsthand witnesses to these scenes. Soldiers writing from the front and journalists on the ground have shaped the way we think about war, and thereby the way we think about ourselves. In this remarkable collection from author and journalist Mark Dapin... read more

No Description

Australian military history is a landscape of legends. Yet across the length and breadth of our military heritage, accuracy and objectivity are often shunted aside so that tales and myths bent on commemoration, veneration, and the idealisation of 'Australian' virtues can thrive. In Anzac's Dirty Dozen a team of renowned historians resume the battle to expose a host of stubborn fantasies and fabrications that obscure the real story. Did our military history start at Gallipoli? Do we really punch above our weight in military might? A... read more

Contains concise descriptions of all the major battles that have taken place in Australia or in which Australians have been involved over more than 200 years - from frontier clashes between Aborigines and Europeans up to and including involvement in East Timor. Arranged chronologically, over 300 battles are detailed.

No Description

This extraordinary first-hand account of Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop's experiences as senior medical officer in the infamous prisoner-of-war camps in Java and on the Burma-Thailand Railway, is not only an account of great historical significance but also a testament to the ability of human spirit to overcome the most unbearable conditions.

The Korean War was a 20th Century conflict that has never ended. South Korea, a powerhouse economy and dynamic democracy sits uneasily alongside North Korea, the world's most secretive, belligerent, unpredictable and repressive totalitarian state. Today, tensions simmer and occasionally flare into outright violence on a peninsula dense with arms, munitions and nuclear warheads. Cameron Forbes, acclaimed author of Hellfire, tells the story of the war and Australia's involvement in it in a riveting narrative. From the letters and dia... read more

This title explores the recruitment, training, and combat experiences of the famous ANZAC infantry in the opening years of World War I. The decision to employ the ANZACs in the Dardanelles came as a complete surprise, but the events at the Anzac and Suvla beach-heads quickly revealed the discipline and bravery of the men involved. This book takes a close look at day-to-day life in the trenches of Gallipoli, and explores how the wounded were treated. The experience of Gallipoli had a profound effect on its survivors, and it continue... read more

No Description

No Description

A decade on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Australians are embroiled in what they were told was a 'good' war, the nation's longest military conflict - the war in Afghanistan. This book charts for the first time the decisions, motives and influences that carried Australia into Afghanistan. Based on interviews with dozens of key political and military figures in Australia and abroad, the book looks at the role of domestic politics and the decision to also wage war in Iraq, and lays bare the tensions between pol... read more

From battle on the high seas in the 18th century, to the peace-keeping forces in the 21st century, award-winning author Dr Jonathan King describes the battles that have had the greatest influence on Australian history.