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For the first time since its establishment in 1917, the Imperial War Museum has produced a substantial, fully illustrated volume of largely unpublished material from its almost endless reserve of pictures, posters, postcards, art, photographs, films, pamphlets, books, diaries, letters, and documents that detail the massive British effort to fight and win 'the war to end all wars'. This is the voice of the individual caught up in this cataclysmic conflict: the vivid experiences of the fighting fronts and the home fronts from soldiers, factory workers, nurses at the Front; early pilots, civilians in the Zeppelin raids, the gunners behind the howitzers, prisoners of war, sailors, the bereaves, the wounded, the brave, the bemused and much, much more. Illustrated with colour and black and white photographs and art. -
Cry Crucify: Verdun Walsh
$105.00This is the story of an ordinary soldier, his experiences and those of his mates during the Malayan campaign and subsequent life as a P.O.W. in Changi, Singapore and Japan. At the time of publication (1991) it was the first and only book to tell the story of G Force and their experiences in Changi, Osaka, Takefu and Akenobi. It was typed on the reverse side of Naval Message S1320B forms on an hour-to-hour basis from January 1, 1942 - February 16, 1942. A carbon copy, typed on the same paper, was buried in a cylinder with a detailed account of the murders of Cpl. Breavington, Pte Gale and two British soldiers which brought to an end the Selerang Barrack's Changi Incident - where all P.O.Ws were herded into a square until they signed a 'Non-Escape Form'. The cylinder and its contents were retrieved after the war. The fate of the original is unknown. The story of G Force, from Changi to Japan, back to Manila and repatriation via H.M.S. Formidable - a British aircraft carrier - is supported by diaries kept by two members of G Force. Cry Crucify has been written to maintain fact from fiction and to give a balanced account of the war in Malaya and Japan, interspersed with accounts of the lighter side of P.O.W. life, together with the compassion, faith, hope and comradeship in the life of the prisoners. -
To many people the most glamorous of aeroplanes is the fighter, by the idea of men flying alone high above the earth in the open cockpit of First World War aircraft, as they fought the gaily-coloured Fokker, Albatross and Pfalz of the German Air Service. This 'feeling for the fighter' was strengthened in 1940 when the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Royal Air Force saved Britain from German invasion. This book describes the fighters of both wars; there is also the entire development of the fighter from its primitive beginnings up to the supersonic age. The most significant fighters of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Japan and the U.S.S.R. are among those featured. Illustrated with black and white photos. -
Tobruk: Peter Fitzsimons
$15.00In the dark heart of World War II, when Hitler turned his attentions to conquering North Africa, a distracted and far-flung Allied force could not give its all to the defence of the key city of Tobruk in Libya. So the job was left to the roughest, toughest bunch they could muster. Tobruk is the story of an incredible battle in excruciating desert heat through nine long months, against the might of Adolf Hitler's formidable Afrika Korps. This force's defence of Tobruk against the Afrika Korps' armoured division is one of the great battles of all time, yet rarely talked about. Drawing on extensive source material - including diaries and letters, some never published before - this extraordinary book is the definitive account of this remarkable battle. With black and white photographs. -
Frank Dell's experience as a Second World War pilot with the Royal Air Force's Light Night Striking Force took an even more dramatic turn when his Mosquito was shot down over Germany on the night of 14/15 October 1944. Frank recounts his escape from the disintegrating aircraft, his descent by parachute, and how, battered and bruised, he finds himself in a field adjacent to a German V2 rocket launch pad. Determined to avoid capture Frank crosses Nazi Germany and finds refuge in Holland with a Dutch Resistance group. A schoolboy when the conflict broke out, Frank Dell's extraordinary war takes him from a Home Guard unit defending the English coast against enemy invasion in 1940, to a tragic incident leading to the execution of Dutch civilians only weeks before the end of the hostilities. Frank's observant eye gives insight into what it is like to train and fly operationally with RAF Bomber Command, followed by the even greater challenges he confronts as he narrowly escapes capture while on the run from the Germans. -
What possessed the German people to embrace Hitler and his politics of mass murder? The author, an eminent historian, points to Goebbels' brilliant manipulation of the mass murderer as the key to the Fuhrer's success. Goebbels' diabolical propaganda machine exploited all communication: radio, posters, magazines, documentaries, brochures and spectacular films in the drive to capture the minds of millions. By the use of patriotic myth and tradition, a nation fell under a mass hypnosis on a scale never before paralleled. Illustrated with black and white photos. -
Bletchley Park was where one of Word War II's most famous and crucial achievements was made: the cracking of Germany's Enigma code in which its most important military communications were couched. This country house was home to Britain's most brilliant mathematical brains - including Alan Turing - and the scene of immense advances in technology...indeed, the birth of modern computing. The military codes deciphered there were instrumental in turning both the Battle of the Atlantic and the war in North Africa. Plenty has been written about the scientists and the code-breaking, in both fact and fiction, from Robert Harris and Ian McEwan to Andrew Hodges' biography of Turing. But what of the thousands of men and women who lived and worked there during World War II? This is not only a history of life at Bletchley Park; this is also an amazing compendium of memories from people now in their eighties of skating on the frozen lake in the grounds and the high jinks at nearby accommodation hostels - and of the implacable secrecy that meant girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent huts knew nothing about each other's work. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
Nancy Wake: Peter Fitzsimons
$15.00In the early 1930s, Nancy Wake was a young woman enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. By the end of the Second World War, she was the Gestapo's most wanted person. As a naïve, young journalist, Nancy witnessed a horrific scene of Nazi violence in a Viennese street. From that moment, she declared that she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazis. What began as a courier job here and there became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, perfectly camouflaged by Nancy's high-society life in Marseille. Her network was soon so successful - and so notorious - that she was forced to flee France to escape the Gestapo, who had dubbed her "the white mouse" for her knack of slipping through its traps. But Nancy was a passionate enemy of the Nazis and refused to stay away. Supplying weapons and training members of a powerful underground fighting force, organising Allied parachute drops, cycling four hundred kilometres across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio - nothing seemed too difficult in her fight against the Nazis.Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
World War I saw a significant and tragic change to the prosecution of war. Allied passenger and merchant ships were blatantly attacked by the enemy, resulting in dreadful civilian losses. The mystery ships were then created - they were disguised as peaceful merchant ships, but which were equipped with guns hidden until a few seconds before opening fire on enemy submarines. They cruised on the trade routes, hoping to encounter enemy submarines and attract them to attack, and when the submarine came to the surface, bombard her with heavy armament. The guns had to be accurate, necessitating rigid drill and discipline - one officer or man making an error would give the show away and risk the ship and crew. This book, first published in 1928, is the first to tell the real story of life on board and the stories of attacks on and by submarines as well as describing the life on board - the discomforts, difficulties and dangers of this method of fighting back. There was also an explanation of the attraction this form of service has for men who were independent and courageous with a strict sense of moral duty. The crew were constantly on alert: one false step could lead to the ship being torpedoed, with those left to try and save themselves or being taken prisoner; discipline and readiness for immediate action were strict from the moment of leaving harbour until safe within the harbour on return. Campbell served on the mystery ships from 2015 to 2017, beginning as a Lieutenant-Commander R.N., and ending that part of his naval career as a Captain R.N. with a V.C. and three D.S.O.s. A little-known and over-looked part of war history. With illustrations by Lieutenant J.E. Broome, R.N. -
Hackett's first book, The Third World War: August 1985 sold 3,000,000 copies world wide and received great critical acclaim. This new book tells the rest of the story, using much new material, including declassified NATO reports and many hitherto unexplored episodes. It gives the inside story of how the war was planned in Moscow and experienced on the battlefield by the Warsaw Pact forces. Hackett re-examines his hypothetical scenario for World War III, incorporating the technological advances made in the four years since the publication of his first book. -
The Holy Fox: Andrew Roberts
$95.00The life of Lord Halifax, remembered as the architect of the policy of achievement of Nazi Germany. His meeting with Hitler in 1937 was a milestone in appeasement yet just days before the 1938 Munich conference, Halifax repudiated the policy and demanded the destruction of Nazism. By May 1940, it was he rather than Churchill who was the choice for Britain's war leader. His public life also included Viceroy of India from 1926 - 31 and a deal with Gandhi that ended the Civil Disobedience campaign before it could force the British to quit. -
Kokoda: Peter Fitzsimons
$12.00The Kokoda Track is the symbol of World War II for Australians. This book takes readers up that tortuous track and into battle with the young men who fought there, following in the footsteps of heroes and villains as they climb the endless mountain ranges, dig into defend, charge into battle or begin the long, desperate and bloody trek to safety. Here can also be found the perspective of the Japanese troops and the extraordinary local people who the Diggers called 'angels'.
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For the first time since the early sixties there is widespread and growing concern about the possibility of a Third World War, given the massive stockpile of nuclear armaments and the growing tensions between superpowers. The author, the grandson of Winston Churchill, shows how this situation has arisen and provides the facts and figures to ensure a true understanding of the issues at stake. What is the balance of armed power in the world today? What are the chances of either side winning a nuclear war? How should the Western Allies respond to the growing global challenge from Russia? These and more questions are answered - the answers echo the warnings that were made about the threat from Nazi Germany. Those warnings went unheeded.
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The author assesses and explains the role of Goering, dismissing the popular image of the corrupt and indolent buccaneer in order to show the central and serious political role that Goering played in the Third Reich. He shows all facets of Goering's personality, as well as the political context in which he exercised so much power.
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It was at Dunkirk that Toosey's charisma and fortitude were first noted and in 1941 he was given command of an artillery regiment. Sent to fight in the Far East he and his men were embroiled in the battle for Singapore and were taken prisoner after the island's fall in 1942. The Japanese, scornful of the Allied forces for surrendering, determined to make use of the new workforce now at their disposal. Toosey was sent to Thailand to command the 'bridge camp' at Tamarkan where he was ordered to supervise the construction of two railway bridges over the river Khwae Mae Khlong. Starvation rations and harsh working conditions mean that dysentery and cholera were rife and a quarter of the 60,000 prisoners working on the Burma Railway wold perish. Toosey insisted on high standards of hygiene and discipline, giving back the men their self-respect and making himself a buffer for the cruel excesses if the guards. The author is Toosey's grand-daughter. Illustrated with black and white photographs and sketches.
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Kokichi Nishimura was a member of the 2nd battalion, 144th regiment of the Japanese Imperial Army. In 1942 he fought every foot of the Kokoda Track as the Japanese attempted to take Port Moresby and was the only man from his platoon to survive the campaign. Finally he retreated, wounded and starving, leaving thousands of his comrades buried in shallow graves along the Track. He promised that he would one day return to them and bring them home to Japan for proper burial. He married, had three children and started an engineering business which prospered. But his driving ambition was to return to New Guinea to keep his promise. In 1979, nearing retirement age, he shocked his family by giving his business to his sons, his house and all his assets to his wife and he returned to New Guinea to begin his search for the remains of Japanese soldiers. For the next 25 years Nishimura lived alone in huts and tents along the Kokoda Track and using a mattock, a shovel, a metal detector and an indomitable will, he found the bones of hundreds of his comrades and also forged a new comradeship and new purpose in helping the poverty-stricken Papuans he worked amongst. An incredible story. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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Volume 3 of the award winning series that covers the dynamic history of the railroads during warfare from the American Civil War to World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. Whether under full attack or evacuating the wounded, the trains kept running. -
An on-the-spot record of what the women of England were doing in World War II : The land army, civil defence, munitions, communications, the home war effort and the domestic and economic consequences of women doing jobs that had been in the traditional male domain. Full of handsome colour plates by P.C. Hennel showing this band of determined women: servicing guns on a torpedo boat, dispatch riding, changing sparking plugs on a training aircraft, handling the barrage balloon, fitting the cowling to the motor of a Halifax bomber and extinguishing an explosive incendiary bomb. A real piece of history. -
Cry Havoc! Beverley Nichols
$45.00Written in 1933, this book caused furor in many quarters. It's a far cry from Nichols' usual light-hearted badinage, being a bitter denunciation of the world's attitude toward peace and war and a thorough research into the activities of offensive preparations going on in the armament factories in England and on the Continent. It also covers the ineffectual preparations being made for defensive measures. Faced with the fact that war was brewing, the League of Nations was rendered virtually impotent through the media of the day and public opinion and that the civilian population is certain to be the victim in the next European War, his findings are far from negligible. The last half of the book is a succession of challenging dialogues, in which socialism, capitalism, militarism and pacifism are all given ardent advocates. Time and events demonstrated that Nichols predicted how World War II would proceed with uncanny 99% accuracy. -
Australia was almost defenceless against Japanese attack in 1942. Here it is suggested that vital lessons for today can be learnt from that period. Did the Australian leaders rely too heavily on Britain and were they let down? How much can Australia rely on any country for support in wartime? From the days of the First Fleet it was always accepted that the United Kingdom would send its fleet to defend Australia. For this reason Australia sent troops overseas as early as 1885 to help fight Imperial wars. The situation changed after 1918 for then Japan became a likely enemy. Could Britain defend Australia from attack and conduct a war in Europe? Dr. McCarthy examines both sides of the question and concludes that it was never possible.
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For four years in World War II, out of an unquestioned love for their mother country, the Russian people heroically defended their soil with their blood. Here is the full story of the valor of the sons and daughters, soldiers and villagers, Cossacks and snipers who battled in Moscow and Stalingrad, in the Caucasus and the Arctic, at the Brest fortress and Kursk Bulge. From the account of the aging Russian general who suffered drenchings in ice-cold water rather than collaborate with his Nazi captors to that of the nineteen-year-old private who flung himself on the gun port of a German pillbox so that his comrades could advance, these pages not only chronicle extraordinary selfless acts of heroism but also rectify an astonishing oversight in innumerable histories of World War II. With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs. -
When the author, a wounded veteran of 21, arrived in Rome in 1944, the question most Italians asked him was: 'What took you so long?' What indeed? Were the Allied High Command to blame? Were the generals incompetent? Was the Anzio landing itself a tactical error? In 1956 Raleigh Trevelyan published, as The Fortress, the diaries he had surreptitiously kept in the Anzio trenches and, as a result, made contact with a number of Germans who had been only yards away from him twelve years earlier. Now that statesmen and generals have published their memoirs and official histories of the war have been written, it seems possible at long last to attempt an answer. This is a remarkable book, bringing together the skill and insight of an accomplished historian, the narrative drive of a gifted storyteller, and the rage and terror of a man experiencing at first hand the momentous events from Anzio to Monte Cassino and on to Rome. The reader follows the fate of the 'poor bloody infantry' on both sides of the line; sees a group of Romans adapting to the idea that the Germans are still there; penetrates the secrets of the Vatican; watches the Allied and German generals on the spot fight with their High Commands and hears what Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin thought about it at the time. Illustrated with black and white photographs and even some contemporary cartoons. -
More and more Australians are reflecting on the soldiers who helped shape our nation. Many are choosing to make pilgrimages to the battlefields of our history, to bring to life names like the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres. This is the essential companion for anyone visiting the Western Front, presenting well-illustrated walking tours across fourteen of the most important battlefields on easily accessible walking routes, it points out to readers the battlefield landmarks that still exist - the memorials to the men who fought there and the cemeteries where many of them still lie. There are moving quotes and black and white illustrations revealing the experiences of war from the common Aussie digger together with easy-to-follow- directions that allows anyone to visit the battlefields and walk in the footsteps of the first ANZACS. -
In the darkest days of World War II, this is the true story of ten brave young men flying their twenty-fifth and final bombing mission in the Flying Fortress, Memphis Belle. Some say the team is exceptional; others that the Memphis Belle is the luckiest plane in the war. But this is a mission that can change everything. Only if the men can successfully destroy the munitions factory in the heart of Germany will they get to go home. Dangerous, almost impossible, it is a mission that will test their skill and teamwork to the limit - and each man will become a hero - whether he lives or dies. Monte Merrick also wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros film of the same name. -
On September 11, 1944, the British submarine Porpoise slipped quietly from Fremantle Harbour, bound for Indonesia. It was carrying the 23 Australian and British members of Operation Rimau who, under the leadership of the remarkable Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, intended to repeat the successful Jaywick raid of 1943 by blowing up 60 ships in Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour, 19 days later, the preliminary part of the operation successfully completed, the submarine commander bade farewell to the raiders at Pedjantan Island, promising to return to pick them up in 38 days' time. A handful of Chinese and Malays and the conquering Japanese were the only people ever to see the 23 men again. According to the scant official post-war record, the mission was an utter failure. All of the party were captured or killed - ten of them beheaded in Singapore only five weeks before the Japanese surrender in, it was claimed, a ceremonial execution. The fate of eleven of the others remains officially unknown. After a 31 year search, Major Tom Hall, with the assistance of the author, has overturned the official version and uncovered the truth. Aided by thousands of Japanese and Allied documents and by the first-hand accounts of several Indonesians and Malays, sole witnesses to the events of 1944, they have established the fate of every member of the party and unravelled the story of The Heroes of Rimau - a story that has for 45 years been all but lost, distorted by hearsay and fantasy, by military cover-ups and conspiracy, by official bungling, ineptitude and apathy. This book not only chronicles a feat of extraordinary daring in the face of overwhelming odds - it also exposes the appalling sequence of events which has, until now, resulted in the shameful suppression of the truth about one of the most amazing stories to emerge from World War II. Illustrated with Black and white photographs. -
Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage. In performance and character, he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go, he had one serious problem. No one could ride him but one man, Major Michael Shanahan. Some even thought Bill took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust. This is a remarkable tale of a bond between a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together. They depended on each other for survival. And when the chips were down, Bill's heroic efforts and exceptional instincts in battle saved the lives of Shanahan and four of his men. By September 1918, 'Bill the Bastard' was known by the entire Light Horse regiment, who used his name not as an insult, but as a term of endearment. Bill had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzac mounted force. There was no other horse like Bill the Bastard. -
In 1999, General Peter Cosgrove was thrust into the full glare of the nation's spotlight following his appointment as Commander of the International Forces in East Timor. (INTERFET) Always in his slouch hat, he was a reassuring figure and we watched with pride the professionalism and concern of our peacekeeping forces who under his direction helped lay the foundations of a new nation. In his subsequent rise to Chief of Army and then, in July 2002, to Chief of the Defence force, the General cemented his reputation as a modern-day warrior chieftain as he displayed those characteristics we value most as Australians - strength, determination, intelligence, compassion and humour.
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