Militaria

//Militaria
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  • An oral history of D-Day where the stories of that long and violent day on the Calvados Coast of Normandy are told in the words of the men who were Americans, British, Canadians, French and German. Follow these men ashore, up the beach, and into the battle for Normandy. The men who landed on UTAH and OMAHA beach, cracked the Atlantic Wall at Arromanches, parachuted into Carantan or Ste Mere Eglise, or stormed Pegasus Bridge and the Merville battery, tell the reader what it was like to be there, in the midst of the most important single battle of World War II. The view from landing ship, tank turret, parachute harness or infantry fox hole has never been better told than in the pages of this absorbing book. Illustrated with archival photographs.
  • Two true war time stories of Australia: Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour in 1942, stunning Australia with their preparations, strategy and the aftermath - an attack that could have paved the way for the first wartime invasion in Australia's history. The greatest mass escape of prisoners-of-war in British milirtary history took place in the small country town of Cowra in 1944. The attempt was hopeless - 231 Japanese and 4 Australians were killed.  Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • Toward the end of 1977, articles appeared in Australian newspapers about a remarkable 97 year-old Australian who had just died in Khartoum. They told of an heroic figure who had been with General Freyberg, then a junior officer, when he made his daring Dardenelles swim before the landing at Gallipoli; who had been mentioned in dispatches at the Battle of Beersheba; who had been with Lawrence of Arabia and who had won several decorations, including the George Cross  for bravery under fire when he was chauffeur to the Governor-General of the Sudan at the time of his assassination in Cairo in 1924. He was one of the few Australians ever to win the coveted Serbian Eagle.  This incredible Australian was Frederick Hamilton March.  The newspaper articles so intrigued Sekuless than he began keeping a file on Fred March. Eventually, he travelled to Khartoum, Cairo, Gallipoli and London in a quest for information about this elusive and unknown Aussie hero to piece together the fascinating story of Fred March.   Illustrated with black and white archival photographs.
  • The story of the famous Polish Squadron stationed in Britain in Word War II. Their hearts are with their families and loved ones at home but their fears and feelings must be put aside when the German offensive intensifies and they are called up to defend Britain from Hitler's Luftwaffe. Also starring Cara Theobald, Anna Prus and Andrew Woodall.
  • Red Morgan's story begins in the great depression of the thirties to the forties, when Morgan and his sisters had to line up at the cake shop for stale cakes and then scavenge through the market garbage tips for enough food to survive on. It takes the reader through his service in the Royal Navy Cadets at the age of twelve then into the Welsh Home Guard at the age of fourteen. England was under threat of being invaded by the Germans and his home town of Swansea was being bombed every night. At fifteen he tried to join the British Merchant Navy but was told he was too young. He then joined the Norwegian Maritime Service which requested a letter and signature from his father and proof of age. He wrote a note, forged his father's signature and was on a Norwegian tanker the very next day. The war was raging now, and ships were being sunk faster than they could be built and at fifteen, Morgan was right in the middle of it all. Life at sea was hell and there are tears, laughter and one hell of a lot of loving going on during the war years as he served on petrol tankers, the most dangerous ships afloat. The story moves from ports in America, Iran, Iraq, Durban, Cape Town, India, Lorenco Marques, Italy, Alexandria and many more around the world - and many nights spent in the lockups in some of these ports. This book is a true story, written in a manner which makes the readers feel that they are in the book with the author and in his exploits around the world, written as it happened with no punches pulled, warts and all. Illustrated with black and white photographs.  
  • In October 1943 Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin signed a solemn pact that once their enemies were defeated the Allied powers would 'pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done'. Nowhere did they say that justice would be selective. But it would prove to be just that. This book outlines the treachery of the British, American and Australian governments who turned a blind eye to those who experimented on Australian prisoners of war with details on how Nazis hired by ASIO were encouraged to settle in Australia and how the Catholic Church, CIA and MI6 helped the worst Nazi war criminals escape justice. While our soldiers were asked to risk their lives for King and country, Allied corporations traded with the enemy; Nazi and Japanese scientists were enticed to work for Australia, the US and UK; and Australia's own Hollywood hero Errol Flynn was associating with Nazi spies...What else did they hide?
  • Who is Captain Sir Tom Moore? You've seen him on the television walking the length of his garden. A frail elderly man, doing his bit at a time of crisis. But he wasn't always like this. From a childhood in the foothills of the Yorkshire Dales, Tom Moore grew up in a loving family, which wasn't without its share of tragedy. It was a time of plenty and of want. When the storm clouds of the Second World War threatened, he raised his hand and like many of his generation, joined up to fight. His war would take him from a country he had never left to a place which would steal his heart, India and the Far East, to which he would return many years later to view the sight he had missed first time around: the distant peak of Everest.  Captain Tom's story is our story. It is the story of our past hundred years here in Britain. It's a time which has seen so much change, yet when so much has stayed the same: the national spirit, the can-do attitude, the belief in doing your best for others. Illustrated with photographs.
  • Shot down in 1942, young Australian fighter pilot John Williams DFC became a POW in the notorious Stalag Luft III camp in Germany. John had joined the air force shortly before the outbreak of war and, in the larrikin tradition, led his squadron into air combat over the deserts of Libya and Egypt dressed in sandals and shorts. John and his best mate Rusty Kierath were among the 76 POWs who tunnelled their way out of the supposedly escape-proof camp under the noses of their German guards in what later became the Hollywood blockbuster, The Great Escape. Their families never learned what really happened once the pair made it out into the forest. John's niece Louise Williams has pieced together his life, from his upbringing in a tight-knit family hit hard by the Depression, to his exploits in the air, and the many missing details of the tragic escape. It is a powerful and intimate story of one of the most dramatic episodes of World War II. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • As we crowded the decks off Gallipoli and watched the first shells crash into Turkish soil... Trooper Ion L. Idriess of the 5th Australian Light Horse began keeping a diary. Over the next three years as the regiment moved onto Palestine, stormed Beersheba and pushed into the Sinai, his diary grew and became one of the most vivid pieces of war narrative ever written. Unconcerned with grand strategy or moralisations, Idriess records the realities of his war - maggot-ridden trenches crowded with the corpses of his mates, the good friendships, the bad tucker, the heat, the dust, the boredom of desert patrols - and always the fighting and his reactions to it, which reveal far better than mere description, since he was there. The rifle fire grew to a roar that drowned the voice of the man next to me. I felt as a stone age man might feel if volcanoes all around him suddenly spat life and roared...Believed to be Idriess' earliest work.
  • Blitzkrieg: Traces the origins of the war starting with the Armistice at Compiègne in 1919, covering the rise of totalitarianism in Europe, the first terrible months of the Blitzkrieg, the imperialistic aggression  of Japan in the Far East, the period of Allied appeasement, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the fall of France. Siege: Begins with the dogged and courageous stand of the British against the onslaught of the Nazi war machine, the war in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, the invasion of the Balkans and Greece, the harsh and brutal war in the North African desert, the suicidal German attack on Russia, the cruelty of the winter war and the attack on Pearl Harbour. Counterattack: The initial period of the Axis reversals and the first steps on the Allied road to victory; the three great turning points of the war ( Stalingrad, Midway and El Alamein) Rome has fallen; the Nazis are reeling under the Russian counter-offensive and the first of the costly, bloody Pacific campaigns. Victory: The last stages of the war in both the European and Pacific theatres; the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, the battle of France, the Red Army offensive, the Yalta conference  and the capitulation of the Third Reich, concluding with the bitter Pacific Island campaigns, MacArthur's retrurn to the Philippines, the dropping of the atomic bomb and Japan's surrender. Each volume contains rare photographs; over four volumes, 500 photographs and 100,000 words.
  • A detailed history of the World War II American B-29 Enola Gay, its crew, and the controversial mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Painstakingly researched, the story behind the decision to send the Enola Gay to bomb Hiroshima is told through firsthand sources. From diplomatic moves behind the scenes to Japanese actions and the US Army Air Force’s call to action, no detail is left untold. Touching on the early days of the Manhattan Project and the first inkling of an atomic bomb, investigative journalist Gordon Thomas and his writing partner Max Morgan-Witts, take WWII enthusiasts through the training of the crew of the Enola Gay and the challenges faced by pilot Paul Tibbets.  Illustrated with black and photographs.
  • With the Australian Army at Home and Overseas.  Published for the Australian Military Forces by the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1943.  With news and information  - literally - as it happened from the Middle East and the South West Pacific. Chapters and writings include: Alamein Christmas Shops; Luck and Gus; I Saw a Panzer Attack; The Log Which Wasn't; Moon Madness; Survival of the Fairest; No Mates in the Army and much more, all written by Australia's Own. With stories, yarns, cartoons, poems, fabulous colour plates, black and white illustrations and photographs. Real war history.

  • Australian soldiers of World War II tell their stories in their own words; too often the personal history of ordinary people goes unrecorded, and this book captures the memories of 3700 Australian men who served at that time. Each one filled in a long questionnaire and encouraged to think back, to search back, to feel back - however painful it was - to the days when they were young and growing up in a world that was still retarded by economic depression, yet which was lurching towards a global conflict. They described their boyhoods, their reasons for joining up, their reactions to army life, life after the army and the consequences of their service. These are not dry statistics, but poignant and often moving anecdotes and vignettes.  From NX43929: Before the war I worked 17 ours a day...I slept in barns with fleas, rats, you name it. Why wouldn't anyone want to join the army? From C.J.: A little Chinese boy clung to me throughout an air raid. When it was ended he hugged and kissed me, then shook my hand and wandered off down the road. That made me feel as big and strong as the SYdney Harbour Bridge. And from 'Rusty': You haven't asked 'Did you cry?' Well, we did, and more than once...
  • The author has written the full length story of the Malayan campaign of World War II from the 'sharp end' of the fighting and as a prisoner-of-war, one of thousands who suffered for three years. He takes the reader through bewildering, disordered days and nights of fighting to  humiliation at the hands of the Japanese, versed in all the arts of abasing and breaking prisoners by starvation and neglect. The illustrations by fellow prisoner Ronald Searle (St. Trinians, Down With Skool,Whizz For Atomms, How To Be Top, etc.) are poignant, forceful and make reality even more real. This really is war and imprisonment as it happened.

  • Most dramas end in anti-climax, but not in Nazi Germany. Everything about its demise was tragic crescendo. This is a dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, bringing to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred people - from Hitler’s personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici; from underground leaders to diplomats; from top Allied field commanders to brave young GIs. When it was first published, The Last 100 Days made history, revealing after-action reports, staff journals, and top-secret messages and personal documents previously unavailable to historians. Illustrated with black and white archival photographs.
  • Illustrated with over 1300 photographs, some never previously published, this military  journey begins with the build up to war and the invasion of Poland to ultimate victory over Japan. Immensely readable, it brings the events and the people of those turbulent times into sharp focus for those who lived through the conflict as well as those born during the fifty years that have elapsed since the war's end.
  •  A new look at the old legend of Anzac - an account of how ordinary blokes from many different countries coped in extraordinary circumstances not only in battle but back in the trenches. These men, whose fingers were too frozen to pull the trigger, buried their best mates, slept in holes in the ground and struggled with lice infested clothes. This book presents a remarkable and absorbing series of photographs from Australia's major archival collections, many previously unseen. These images often taken by the soldiers themselves, combined with illustrations created for the newspapers, were the images responsible for creating the public memory of Gallipoli back in Australia. The commentary of historian, Dr Richard Reid of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, together with moving extracts from soldiers letters and diaries, along with the official dispatches of war correspondents present at Gallipoli, paint an unforgettable record of the sacrifices, courage and determination embodied in the Anzac legend.
  • No surrender...no retreat.  When the 9th Division of the AIF withdrew into the desert fortress town of Tobruk in April 1941, a  siege began that would make its mark on the course of World War II and the popular memory of  a nation. The siege was intended to last no longer than two months, but ultimately extended to eight. Under the command of Morshead, the Allied troops employed an aggressive, daring defence that put a sizeable dent ion Rommel's aura of invincibility. The defiant Aussie diggers distinguished themselves through their determination and unquenchable cheerful spirit. The success of the Rats of Tobruk inspired hope for the possibility of effective resistance in the midst of the darkest days of the war. Illustrated with archival black and white photographs.
  • A fascinating, unsettling and unforgettable view of one of the most compelling events in modern history. For all the significance attached to the doomed heroism at Gallipoli, the Western Front was the single greatest wartime tragedy that elicited the greatest sacrifice. Of the 61,720 who died in the course of the war, 46,319 were lost at the Western Front. In a matter of weeks, more Australians were slain in or or two battles than in the entire eight months at Gallipoli. Those terrible years, 1916 to 1918, represent the whole panoply of modern warfare. This is an examination of  the record of official and unofficial images in unexpected ways. It looks at the major battles of the campaign, the grim conditions endured by the soldiers, the workers of the massive support system, the valiant efforts of stretcher-bearers and medical workers and, finally, the run of victories under Monash in which Australian soldiers distinguished themselves above and beyond their numerical presence. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • Time-Life series Australians At War, Volume 1. In South East Asia the European colonists lived an indolent life while to the north, the Japanese marched hungrily to war. In Singapore and up-country Malaya, there was still time for socialising and for serving officers to deck themselves out in their mess-dress finery for balls and dances, and for their wives to enjoy all the comforts that colonial service and a strong pound sterling could bring. Garrison life was an endless round of parties, parades and presentations at Government House. But with the splendour, there was a blind refusal in London and the Far East to see just how expansionist and bellicose the Japanese really were. Lavishly illustrated with archival black and white photographs and colour reproductions of contempory art.
  • By 194o, the isle of Jersey was well and truly under the Nazi jackboot. The legitimate authorities collaborated with the occupying power.  For islander Anthony Faramus, this would have horrific consequences. When the local police reported him to the Germs for possession of a British leaflet, Faramus was jailed for one month. Then the Jersey authorities prosecuted him for defrauding his employer of 90 Occupational Marks. His employer was the collaborationist state, which put him to work in a motel commandeered by the Germans. This time he got six months' hard labour. Shortly after his release, Faramus was sent to Occupied France as a political prisoner. The authorities had sent young Anthony Faramus on the first stage of a journey into the dark heart of Nazi tyranny - but to begin with, imprisonment in France's Fort de R9omainville was surprisingly enjoyable, with fellow prisoners, men and women, from a fascinating cross-section of society. But after Romainville came selections... transports...and the death camps of  Buchenwald and Mauthausen...
  • An account of Churchill's voyage in August 1941 on the Prince of Wales and his meeting with President Roosevelt, the outcome of which was the Atlantic Charter.
  • Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. Inspiring, outrageous, brave, egotistical... A thundering paradox of a man. Douglas MacArthur, one of only five men in history to have achieved the rank of General of the United States Army. He served in World Wars I and II and the Korean  War, and is famous for stating that "in war, there is no substitute for victory."  This is an examination of an exemplary army career, the stunning successes (and lapses) on the battlefield, and the turbulent private life of the soldier-hero whose mystery and appeal created a uniquely American legend. Illustrated with black and white photos.

  • After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners - including 15, 000 Australians - are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen - led by the indefatigable and popular `Chicken' Smallhorn - created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of the one and only season was between `Victoria? and the `Rest of Australia', which attracted 10, 000 spectators and a unique Brownlow Medal was awarded in this unlikely setting under the curious gaze of Japanese prison guards.  Meet the main characters behind this spectacle: Peter Chitty, the farm hand from Snowy River country with unfathomable physical and mental fortitude, and one of eight in his immediate family who volunteered to fight and serve in WW2; `Chicken' Smallhorn, the Brownlow-medal winning little man with the huge heart; and `Weary' Dunlop, the courageous doctor, who cares for the POWs as they endure malnutrition, disease and often inhuman treatment. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • June, 1942. Johnnie Houlton has arrived in Britain from New Zealand under the Empire Training Scheme only a few months before.  From then on and for the next few years, he was almost constantly in action or seeking action with  485 (NZ) Spitfire Squadron. He volunteered for service in Malta and sharply describes the drama of the convoy that took him there and the five months of siege conditions on the island. Houlton vividly recalls the atmosphere and the incidents of the air war from a pilot's-eye view, together with the development and technique of fighter operations - covering daylight bombing missions, low-level bombing and strafing and the formation of the Second Tactical Air Force in  support of land forces. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • Believed to be the first guide to the battlefield written in English by an English writer, who is probably also the greatest living expert on Waterloo. There's descriptions of the battle location, weaponry and tactics that were all implement in a few hours on June 187, 1815. Illustrated.
  • "Learn all you can about the German Army and one day you will be a valuable man to your country." These words were spoken to young Alexander Scotalnd by Major Wade, a British liaison officer in German West Africa in 1904. He never forgot those words. This book covers how much he learnt and how valuable were his services to his country. This young man served in the German Army - at the suggestion of the Germans - for the duration of the Hottentot Rebellion, thereby gaining an intimate knowledge of the organisation and strengths of the German military machine. He grew to know, by close contact, the habits, language and mental outlook of the German soldier. This knowledge was the basis of his achievements in espionage, interrogation and undercover work in two world wars. His reputation led to a strange meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1937, at the home of a mutual friend. His career reached its zenith in 1947 when - as Chief Officer of the War Crimes Investigation Unit, he played a decisive role in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. Illustrated with black and white photographs.