-
Australian Richard Hillary joined RAF Fighter Command’s 603 Squadron in July 1940, then based in Scotland and flying the new Supermarine Spitfire. On 27 August 1940 the squadron moved south to London, the epicentre of the Battle of Britain, and within a week Hillary had shot down five Messerschmitt 109s, becoming an ‘ace’. But on his last sortie he was shot out of the sky over Dungeness, the cockpit of his Spitfire became engulfed in flames and Hillary was grievously burned as he desperately tried to bale out. Hillary was soon to become the most famous patient of the RAF’s pioneering plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe, and member of his ‘Guinea Pig Club’. He would endure months of painful surgery in an attempt to repair the damage to his hands and face, and allow him to return to active duty. Originally published in 1942, just months before he died in a second crash, The Last Enemy recounts the struggles and successes of a young man in the Royal Air Force. -
The appointment of Major-General H.L. Ismay to the Chiefs of Staff Committee was made on May 1st, 1940, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty. On May 10th he succeeded Chamberlain as Prime Minister and Ismay's position at once became of the first importance. His functions were ill defined. He liked to call himself Churchill's "agent"; but he was very much more than that term usually implies. Out of his close association with the Prime Minister there grew a deep understanding and friendship. Accompanying him everywhere from blitzed areas in London to major conferences all over the world, or sharing with him his moments of relaxation after the heat of the day, Ismay had unique opportunities to observe the Colossus who was his master and his memoir paints a full portrait of Churchill. In 1925 Ismay was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial defence. By the outbreak of the Second World War he was very experienced in committee work. The waging of total war in a democracy is a complex business: committees and conferences have to do their work, temperaments have to be reconciled and methods of implementing decisions arrived at. It is this aspect of the war covered by Lord Ismay. He was important as a peacemaker and mediator; there was no lack of potential friction between the Chiefs of Staff and their political superiors in World War II and the fact that this friction remained largely potential was largely due to Ismay. After his years in India, Somaliland and Whitehall and his work in World War II, he returned post-war to India as the personally invited advisor to the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, to contribute to the settlement of Partition, and after its successful conclusion Lord Ismay crowned his career of public service as the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) where he strove to prevent a future war with the same energy as he had helped to win the past one. -
Vietnam: Alan Watt
$15.00This Australian analysis was the fourth in a series of background books sponsored by the Australian Institute of International Affairs. This book dispassionately consider the much-discussed factual and legal consequences of the 1954 international agreements with an appraisal of the circumstances of Australian and American intervention as well as the arguments for and against involvement. -
Being Reports on Various New Zealand Towns and Country Places and On Some of the Doings of Their People as Described in Korero, Magazine of the Army Education Welfare Service. Korero was an illustrated troop magazine, a fortnightly bulletin that contained articles, sketches and verse of interest to members of the Armed Forces. Contributions were sought from individuals within the New Zealand Armed Forces and were intended to give New Zealanders serving overseas a brief survey of the towns and districts they had left. A maximum of £3 in canteen orders was made as payment. The surveys are not profound social studies nor are they superficial - but they are observant and sympathetic. Drawings were used rather than photographs as photographs did not reproduce well on newsprint. Illustrated with excellent black and white sketches. Korero is Maori for talk, discussion or meeting.
-
Ken Bartlett, an Australian sailor in a corvette in the Atlantic, took on a cloak-and-dagger mission into Nazi Germany. It was the start of a long and dangerous trail that led him to suspect that Allied firms traded with Germany and Japan during World War II. After arduous service in corvettes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, he returned to his job as a journalist and followed the scent of the treason trade. This proved even more hazardous, with the FBI, CIA and thugs hired by the double-dealers out to get him. He achieved a victory - yet it was bitter.
-
The Von Bock memoirs allow the reader to see the entire drama of the Second World War through the eyes of one of Germany's most important military commanders. After the attacks on Poland and Western Europe, campaigns that he helped bring to a successful conclusion, Von Bock became Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center which carried out the main drive on Moscow during Operation Barbarossa and brought the Red Army to the verge of collapse. Hitler relieved Von Bock when the German offensive bogged down during the winter of 1941/1942. After he returned as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group South, Von Bock was eventually placed in temporary 'retirement' when he critised Hitler's division of forces against Stalingrad and the Caucasus - and the road to catastrophe began. Army commanders like Hoth, Guderian, Kluge and Paulus served under Von Bock, while at his side was his nephew Henning von Tresckow, who led the most active resistance movement against Hitler, and Carl-Hans von Hardenberg, a friend and advisor of Von Stauffenberg. Their efforts to win him over to the resistance failed, yet Von Bock the pronounced resistance sentiments among his staff, and even became privy to the attempted assassination of Hitler on July 20, 1944. This book allows us to reassess Fedor Von Bock, whose complex personality is revealed by his diary entries. -
Subtitle: A True Story Of Adventure From The Arctic To The Argonne. Described as the biography of a common soldier with thirty three years of service in the American Army, this 'uncommon' soldier distinguished himself in the Argonne in World War I and several other conflicts. Samuel Woodfill was regarded as being a true American frontiersman who seems to have had many and varied adventures, given such chapter headings as: I Was Born with a Gun in My Hands; A Surprise Attack and Escape Over A Precipice; Out of Company C Only Four Men Survived; The Tragedy of A Medicine Man; The Strange End of Sam Gowler and many others just as intriguing. Illustrated with black and white photographs. -
An Australian soldier's letters to his friends from World War II. When written, these letters did not mention place names other than those permitted by the censor. In order to make a continuous and intelligible narrative, these place names (now permitted) have been inserted. A rare glimpse from the war front.
-
Published for the Royal Australian Navy buy the Australian War Memorial, Canberra in 1944. A book chockful of fabulous artwork, sketches, photographs, poems, writings and memoirs of the serving personnel of the Royal Australian Navy and their service in World War II - the men who were there as it all happened. A must for any real war buff. Illustrated in black and white and colour.
Featured Book
-
DVD SALE! All These Titles $1.00 EACH
$2.00$1.00