Darwin was a battle Australia would rather forget. Yet the Japanese attack on 19 February 1942 was the first wartime assault on Australian soil. The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier. There was a difference. More bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk.

The raid led to the worst death toll from any event in Australia. The attackers bombed and strafed three hospitals, flattened shops, offices and the police barracks, shattered the Post Office and communications centre, wrecked Government House, and left the harbour and airfields burning and ruined. The people of Darwin abandoned their town, leaving it to looters, a few anti-aircraft batteries and a handful of dogged defenders with single-shot .303 rifles.

Yet the story has remained in the shadows. Drawing on long-hidden documents and first-person accounts, Peter Grose tells what really happened and takes us into the lives of the people who were there. There was much to be proud of in Darwin that day: courage, mateship, determination and improvisation. But the dark side of the story involves looting, desertion and a calamitous failure of leadership. Australians ran away because they did not know what else to do.

Absorbing, spirited and fast-paced, An Awkward Truth is a compelling and revealing story of the day war really came to Australia, and the motley bunch of soldiers and civilians who were left to defend the nation.

Anzacs at War

When the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces landed at Gallipoli in 1915 they had no idea that they had taken their first steps in creating what would become known as the Australian and New Zealand national character and a legend that would forever define them.
Through over 15 beautifully recreated facsimile documents, including maps, diaries, official reports, telegrams and personal letters, ANZACS at War shows why, more than any other fighting force in history, ANZACs have been praised for their courage, endurance, skill, good humour and comradeship. Beginning with the bloody battles of the First World War, and continuing through the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, up to the present century's War on Terror, this book explores how bitter conflicts shaped the national character and reveals the vital nature of the ANZAC's role in all the major conflicts of the twentieth century and beyond.

In 1942 and early 1943 Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place' to fight a war. Peter Brune gives us the final, all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever.
Peter's compelling narrative resonates with the voices of both the well-trained AIF volunteer, and the young Militia conscript who triumphed together. He interviewed hundreds of these soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many of their mates perished. Peter reveals the inside story of how Generals MacArthur and Blamey sacrificed many of the senior Australian field commanders as scapegoats to protect their own positions.
A Bastard of a Place restores Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda to their rightful place beside Kokoda to what they should collectively be for all Australians sacred ground.

Peter firkins. The story of Dr James P Taylor surgeon to Australian POWs during their internment in Borneo. 150 pp.

Viet Nam was Australia's longest war. What was it really like for the 50,000 Australians who served between 1962 and 1972? Bullets, Beans and Bandages is a unique collection of impressions, reactions, feelings and fears - the often spellbinding personal experiences of Australians who saw active service in the Viet Nam War.

Gary McKay conducted extensive interviews with over a hundred veterans and their families in order to build up a picture of their war. He spoke to nurses and doctors, Qantas cabin crew and pilots, men who had served with the Army, Navy and Air Force in helicopters, armoured units, maintenance division, destroyers on the gun lines, units attached to American forces and ships carrying troops.

Bullets, Beans and Bandages goes beyond the combat and into the many units and organisations that fought with and supported the 'grunts' - the infantrymen. This story has long needed to be told; it gives recognition to those who made the infantryman's job - and his survival - possible.

24.95

Vivian Bullwinkel survived the Japanese attack on Singapore but was captured, tortured, starved and is the sole survivor of a Japanese massacre. See also White Coolies book and audio.

Caldwell was Australia's highest scoring fighter pilot in World War 2. Detailing his rise from a raw pilot to dedicated Wing leader and covers his exploits away from flying that led to a court martial.

Convoys up the Track' is the story of 121 Australian General Transport Company (AIF) which served a vast expanse of Australia from Adelaide to Eucla, Mount Gambier to Oodnadatta, Alice Springs to Larrimah and Darwin from Truscott in North-West Australia to Mount Isa in Queensland from 1941-1946.

Early in World War II Australia and no east-west or north-south trunk roads; its rail system was hampered by breaks in rail gauges; there was no continuous rail connection between the southern states and Darwin and coastal shipping services were slow, inefficient and vulnerable to Japanese attack. Army transport units were responsible for the mammoth haulage of essential supplies, equipment and personnel. They were the vital link between the railheads of Alice Springs , Mount Isa and Larrimah. Their work has been hailed as one of the greatest transport efforts of World War II.

The book tells the life of the convoys drivers, the north-south and east-west roads, black American drivers, loads carried (including troops-in-transit), the progression from petrol-driven trucks and semi-trailers to Mack-Lanova diesels and more. There are humorous tales, names of all Unit members and over 300 photographs of historical interest.