During July to September 1942 the Japanese set about the capture of Port Moresby by an overland crossing of the Owen Stanley Range, and a landing in Milne Bay. To oppose a force of 10,000 crack Japanese troops on the Kokoda Trail, the Allies committed one under-trained and poorly-equipped unit - the 39th Battalion, later reinforced by Veterans of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division AIF. These were then men of Maroubra Force.The Australians put up a desperate fight. They withdrew village by village, forcing the Japanese to fight for every inch of ground. Finally at Ioribaiwa, the Japanese turned away, beaten and exhausted. The Australian soldiers' reward for their remarkable achievement was denigration by the High Command - General Blamey called them 'running rabbits'.Then in December 1942 when the fighting at the beachheads had produced little success, the former members of Maroubra Force captured Gona after heavy fighting - but at tragic cost.

The Strength of a Nation

A compelling and passionate account of Australians in World War II, both on the home front and on the battle fronts.
These victories in battle were only made possible by their support from home. Still recovering from the First World War and the Great Depression the Australian population rallied to make these achievements possible.
This is the story of Australia and Australians at war at home and abroad in the six years, 1939 to 1945.

Tracker dogs in Vietnam. 

Trackers is a gritty and moving account that reveals the Australian army's little known use of combat tracker dogs during the Vietnam war. A war veteran tells his story with vivid and compelling immediacy, blending the terror of hunting the elusive Viet Conk with the tender relationship between him and his larrikan labrador-kelpie cross.

212 pages

Jimmy Thomson with Sandy MacGregor

'All I could do was prod the earth with my bayonet and shine the light to see if I could find anything. It doesn't matter how small the tunnel is you never know what's around the bend ... You don't know if it's abandoned, you don't know if it's booby trapped and you don't know why the tunnel is there in the first place.'
They were young, they were Australian, they were Army engineers and they were the first allied soldiers to risk their lives in the darkness of the Vietcong tunnels of South Vietnam. Staring death squarely in the face every day, not only did they follow their enemy down into these unknown underground labyrinths, but matched the Vietcong's jungle warfare skills and defused thousands of their clever booby traps.
Off duty, it was a different story. The bad boys of 3 Field Troop were a boozing, brawling, bonking bunch of larrikins, who cut a swathe through the bars and brothels of Saigon, fought American Military Police to a standstill, built a secret casino and booby-trapped their own HQ to teach their officers a lesson.
Thrilling, inspiring and action packed, this is the true story of the unsung heroes of Australia's war in Vietnam. Living up to their motto of 'We Make and We Break', they created the legend of the Tunnel Rats.

The moving experiences of the families of men missing in action in New Guinea

Three brothers wrote home from the filthy trenches and bloody battlefields of Gallipoli, Palestine and the Western Front.

Drawn from engagements ranging from World War I through to operations in East Timor and Iraq, the stories are taken from the Australians at War Film Archive, a collection of the memories of over two thousand Australians who have served, both on the front line and at home.Some are unbelievably, unbearably tragic, even after sixty or seventy years, others are the golden memories of happy, albeit unusual, times. And, more often than not, they are stories which have never been shared with others, even family members. There are stories from winners of the Victoria Cross; stories from the POW camps of Asia and Europe; from the patrols of Vietnam, through to those who served as peacekeepers in Rwanda and Somalia.There are stories from nurses, from those who have volunteered to serve with aid agencies and stories of ordinary Australians caught up by circumstances and by duty, in wartime. These are their words.

(The) War Chronicles

In the modern era, warfare entered a new phase. Technological innovation yielded evermore destructive weaponry, international communications and alliances greatly extended the reach of conflicts, and military strategists increasingly targeted infrastructure and civilians, while new media - first photography, then film and television - conveyed the horror and brutality of industrialised comabt to those who had the good fortune to live beyond the battle zones.
The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns adopts the innovative and accessible format of its predecessor, which spanned the period from 500 BC to the American Revolution, to chart the astonishingly rapid evolution of modern warfare. In doing so, it traces the transformation of battle tactics, from the prearranged set-piece encounters of the Napoleonic Wars to the massive naval landings and aerial bombardments of World War II, explains the scientific innovations that yielded the machine gun, the tank, and the atom bomb, an vividly renders the key victories that turned the tide of war, from Waterloo to Gettysburd to D-Day. At the same time, it reiterates the constants of conflict: the slaughters and massacres, including the Holocaust and the little-known Taiping Rebellion, which killed up to forty million Chinese; the personal sacrifices made by those battling tyranny, among them the rebels of revolutionary France, Greece and Mexico; and the extraordinary influence of charismatic leaders, ranging from Napoleon and Pancho Villa to Mao Zedong and Hitler.
Sweeping in its scope, yet intimate in its insights into the motivations of politicians, strategists, commanders, and soldiers, this is a collection that will enhance your understanding of the modern world and your own place in it.

By Fred Lasslett. Fred was taken prisoner after he sinking of HMAS Perth. This book covers his initial capture, escape and re-capture, Changi, and the highs and lows of everyday prisoncamp life.

This extraordinary first-hand account of Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop's experiences as senior medical officer in the infamous prisoner-of-war camps in Java and on the Burma-Thailand Railway, is not only an account of great historical significance but also a testament to the ability of the human spirit to overcome the most unbearably cruel conditions.

504 pages

Much-loved actor  flew Spitfires and Mosquitoes for the air force during World War II. In Charles `Bud' Tingwell's War Stories, Bud recalls his 75 sorties over the Eastern Mediterranean taking reconnaissance photographs of enemy targets. Follow Bud's journey from his early days as a young radio announcer in Sydney to his training and voyages across the oceans to Canada, Europe and the Middle East, to his experiences flying aircraft and dodging ground fire while doing his part in providing a valuable service to the Allied war effort. This is not just a book about Bud, however. Charles `Bud' Tingwell's War Stories is also about the heroes who served Australia with honour and courage. Featured are biographies of all World War II recipients of the highest award for bravery in war, the Victoria Cross, and of recipients of other distinguished awards. Each individual has a fascinating story detailing his or her courage in the face of extreme adversity. This publication marks the 70th anniversary of the declaration of World War II on 3 September 1939. 360pp.

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Throughout the 1990s our government and its partners in the UN stood by and watched whilst thousands of people were slaughtered. From the war zones of Somalia and Haiti to Rwanda , a lack of resources and trained troops, and the disregard of governments such as our own, ensured the UN peacekeepers were unable to halt murder and genocide. Time and again Linda Polman was witness to these failures. From the terrifying ordeals of the unsupported blue helmets on the ground to the cynical way resolutions are made and undermined by the Security Council, Polman devastatingly shows how and why the UN fails those whom it is charged to protect.

Mark Johnston

In Whispering Death, Mark Johnston, one of Australia's leading experts on World War II, explains vividly how more than 130,000 Australian airmen fought Japan from the Pacific War's first hours in 1941 to its last in 1945. They clashed over a vast area, from India to Noumea, Bass Strait to the Philippines. Merely flying over that region's boundless oceans and wild weather was dangerous enough for Australia's fliers, but their formidable enemies made it much more perilous. In their Zero fighters and Betty bombers they were initially too numerous, experienced and well-armed for the few Australians who opposed them in Malaya, the Northern Territory and New Guinea.
February 1942 brought the RAAF its darkest hour: the bombing of Darwin, which no Australian fighter planes contested. But in the months following, Australian aircrew won or contributed to great aerial victories in the air over Port Moresby, Milne Bay, the Papuan beachheads and the Bismarck Sea. The American air force grew to dominate both the Japanese and their Australian ally, but until war's end Australian aircrew continued to battle in Pacific skies, and to die in flaming aircraft or at the hands of vindictive captors. Some pilots, such as aces Clive 'Killer' Caldwell and Keith 'Bluey' Truscott became household names. Certain Australian aircraft caught the public imagination too: the Kittyhawk, the Spitfire and the plane dubbed 'Whispering Death' for its eviscerating firepower and deceptively quiet engines - the Beaufighter.
Australia's flight to victory was never smooth, thanks to internal squabbling at the RAAF's highest levels and a difficult relationship with the allies on whom Australia depended for aircraft and leadership. So controversial were the RAAF's final operations that some of its most prominent pilots mutinied. Based on thousands of official and private documents, Whispering Death makes for compelling reading.

53 nurses survived the bombing of the ship evacuating them from Singapore. 21 were murdered, the remainder suffered incredible deprivation. 

Don Lee. While much has been written about sheep production in Australia, there has been very little written about the marketing of the golden fleece. The author worked in that field in Western Australia and abroad for fifty years, interrupted by serving in the AIF for five years of which three and a half years were spent as a P.O.W. of the Japanese. This section of the book is an equally valuable record. 157 pp.

Zero Hour in Broome includes much original research of academic standard, while at the same time it will appeal to a wide audience and contains many colour illustrations.  The lead author, Dr Tom Lewis, OAM, has first class credentials.  He is a serving naval officer in Darwin and a nationally recognised expert on the war in northern Australia. For the first time, Zero Hour in Broome examines the actions of senior officials in connection to the second most deadly air attack on Australian soil. This occurred when Zero fighters destroyed 15 flying boats at Broome, some of them packed full of women and children evacuees from Java. Sadly, they made up most of the casualties. At the same time as this horror was unfolding, other flying boats were landing safely in Exmouth Gulf, many miles to the south. So why were all of the flying boats not diverted there? This is just one of the many fascinating questions raised by this publication. The book also profiles the many different aircraft types used during the Broome operations. Other unique reference material includes a list of all of the Broome pearling luggers and their fates as a result of the “scorched earth” policy imposed by the Japanese threat.