The island of Bougainville in the South Pacific was the site of one of the largest and most gruelling campaigns fought by Australian forces during the Second World War. During the offensive against the Japanese from November 1944 to August 1945, more than 500 Australians were killed and two Victoria Crosses awarded. A veteran later described Bougainville as 'one long bloody hard slog'. Despite this, little is known about the campaign, which was dismissed as an unnecessary and costly operation. In the first major study of the Bougainville campaign since 1963, Karl James argues that it was in fact a justifiable use of Australia's military resources. Drawing on original archival research, including wartime reports and soldiers' letters and diaries, James illustrates the experience of Australian soldiers who fought. Generously illustrated with over forty photographs, this important book tells how this often overlooked battle played an important part in Australia's Second World War victory.
Expertise, Authority and Control charts the development of Australian military medicine in the First World War in the first major study of the Australian Army Medical Corps in over seventy years. It examines the provision of medical care to Australian soldiers during the Dardanelles campaign and explores the imperial and medical-military hierarchies that were blended and challenged during the campaign. By the end of 1918, the AAMC was a radically different organisation. Using army orders, unit war diaries and memoranda written to disseminate information within the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) and between British and Australian soldiers, it maps the provision of medical care through casualty clearance and evacuation, rehabilitation, and the prevention and treatment of venereal disease. In doing so, she reassesses Australian military medicine and maps the transition to an infrastructure for the AIF in the field, especially in response to conflicts with traditional imperial, military
Lieutenant General Sir Frank Berryman is one of the most important, yet relatively unknown officers in the history of the Australian Army. Despite his reputedly caustic personality and noted conflicts with some senior officers, Berryman was crucial to Australia's success during the Second World War. But did the man known as 'Berry the Bastard' deserve his reputation? Bold, calculating and talented, Berryman was at the forefront of operations that led to the defeat of the Japanese, and his operational planning secured Australia's victories at Bardia, Tobruk and in New Guinea during the Pacific War. With access to rare private papers, Peter Dean charts Berryman's special relationships with senior US and Australian officers such as MacArthur, Chamberlin, Blamey, Lavarack and Morshead, and explains why the man poised to become the next Chief of General Staff would never fulfil his ambition.
In 2002, Governor General Michael Jeffrey stated that 'we Australians had everything under control in Phuoc Tuy Province'. This referred not only to military control, but to the policy of 'pacification' employed by the Republic of Vietnam and external 'Free World' allies such as the US and Australia. In the hopes of stemming the tide of Communism, pacification aimed to win the allegiance of the populace through political, economic and social reform. In this new work, Thomas Richardson explores the 1st Australian Task Force's (1ATF) implementation of this policy in Phuoc Tuy between 1966 and 1972. Using material from US and Australian archives, as well as newly translated Vietnamese histories, Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966–1972 challenges the accepted historiography of the Western forces' fight against insurgency in Vietnam.
Stretcher-bearers is a compelling account of the experience of Australian stretcher-bearers during the First and Second World Wars. Respected military historian, Mark Johnston traces the development of formal stretcher-bearing from its origin in the early nineteenth century under Napoleon to the Second World War. Johnston draws on accounts by stretcher-bearers who worked on the front line, as well as tributes from rescued soldiers, to deepen our understanding of the crucial role these soldiers played in Gallipoli, Palestine, the Western Front in World War I, and in the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II. The narrative is further driven by rich imagery, featuring over 130 full-page photographs. This book provides a generously illustrated, engaging and moving account of the history of the stretcher-bearer, a figure praised by countless Diggers but never previously the subject of a book.
The fighting on the Kokoda Track in World War II is second only to Gallipoli in the Australian national consciousness. The Kokoda campaign of 1942 has taken on mythical status in Australian military history. According to the legend, Australian soldiers were vastly outnumbered by the Japanese, who suffered great losses in battle and as a result of the harsh conditions of the Kokoda Track. In this important book, Peter Williams seeks to dispel the Kokoda myth. Using extensive research and Japanese sources, he explains what really happened on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Unlike most other books written from an Australian perspective, The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and reality focuses on the strategies, tactics and battle plans of the Japanese and shows that the Australians were in fact rarely outnumbered. For the first time, this book combines narrative with careful analysis to present an undistorted picture of the events of the campaign. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in
