The part played by Australians in fighting aggression during a century of conflict is a proud chapter in our history. Remote from the world’s storm centres, Australian have nevertheless been quick to respond to the call of duty. They have fought in two World Wars, from the Arctic Circle to the Pacific, from the muddy battlefields of France to the deserts of the Middle East and the jungles of New Guinea--and in the port-War years from Korea and Vietnam to Timor and Afghanistan--earning a reputation unequalled in the world for spirit and stamina.
In 1914, the great volunteer army of Australians seemed the least likely troops to make reliable soldiers, British Generals were shocked by these amiable, disorderly giants who were contemptuous of parade-ground discipline, and seldom saluted. But from the first hours of the Australian and News Zealand Army Corps’ dawn landing on Gallipoli, the ANZACS proved themselves, in the words on an English historian, ‘perhaps the finest natural fighters the world has ever seen;. By war’s end in 1918, the Diggers of the Australian Corps in France, fighting side by side with the New Zealanders, were acclaimed by the French as ‘Lords of Battle’ and by another historian as ‘the spearhead of the British army’.
The Anzac tradition in a later war, in myriad battles on land, sea and air--from Lybia to Greece and Crete, from Syria to El Alamein, from the nightmare jungle battles of Malaya, the Kokoda Track and Buna-Gona to victory in New Guinea, the Islands and Borneo. Australian airmen fought in the Battle of Britain, in Coastal Command over the Atlantic, in the Bomber Offensive over Germany and in the war against Japan, suffering grievous losses. The Royal Australian Navy served on every ocean of the world, and Australian nurses saw duty from the Middle East to the Pacific. Few who served alongside the Australian ever forgot them.
This magnificent edition, illustrated by maps and nearly three hundred photographs from the nation's archives, vividly describes the Australians’ battles and actions--from the first skirmishes in the Boer War to the present. It is a moving tribute to the men and women of our armed services and to those on peacekeeping duty in remote corners of the world.
Contents:
The Long March Begins
The First World War, 1914-18
- Gallipoli, 1915
- 1916, Deadlock
- 1917, War of Attrition
- 1918, Year of Crisis, Year of Victory
Between the Wars
The Second World War, 1939-45
- Part 1: The Limits of Endurance, 1939-42
- Part 2: Hard Road to Victory, 1943-45
- Victory in Europe, 1943-45
- The Pacific Victory, 1944-45
Uncertain Peace
- Korea, 1950s
- Malaya, 1950-53
- Vietnam, 1965-72
- Keeping the Peace
Acknowledgements
Index
