The Big Book of Australia's War Stories

The Big Book of Australia's War Stories
Author: Jim Haynes
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1760872660

A unique collection of poignant, horrific, sad and sometimes dryly humorous stories and tales about wartime experiences of Australian's on the front lines, in the air and on the sea. 'The bravest thing God ever made,' said a British officer of the insubordinate Aussies at Gallipoli. And before the Normandy invasion, Field Marshal Montgomery's chief of staff remarked, 'I only wish we had the Australian 9th Division with us this morning'. But there is more to the Australian experience of war than heroic endeavour and bravery. Jim Haynes has rediscovered stories that are as harrowing as they are uplifting, as strange as they are brutal and as heart-breaking as they are humorous. From Federation to the Vietnam War, from our first VC winner to our hundredth, this sweeping overview of Australia's military adventures both overseas and at home is a guide to understanding how this nation's role in the twentieth century's major conflicts unfolded as each war ebbed and flowed. These stories have formed Australia's collective memory of war. Some battles and campaigns are household names, although their historical significance may have been lost. Others are barely remembered now but are part of our history and deserve to be retold. These are the accounts, recollections and legends that explain Australia's wartime reputation. They demonstrate the extraordinary courage, resilience, stoic humour, personal heroism and sacrifice that created the mythology of the Aussie 'digger' - the soldiers, sailors, nurses and flyers who did things their own way and earned the undying respect of both their allies and their enemies.

Australia's War 1914-18

Australia's War 1914-18
Author: Joan Beaumont
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2020-07-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000256308

Australia's War, 1914-18 explores Australia's involvement in the First World War and the effect this had on the nation' s society. In this very accessible book, Joan Beaumont, Pam Maclean, Marnie Haig-Muir and David Lowe focus on: where Australians fought and why; the tensions and realignments within Australian politics in the period of 1914-18; the stresses of the war on Australian society, especially on women and those whom wartime hysteria cast in the role of the 'enemy' at home; the impact of the war on the country's economy; the role played by Australia in international diplomacy; and finally, the creation and influence of the Anzac legend. Once dominated by the battlefield and official accounts of the war correspondent and official historian, C.E.W. Bean, Australian writing on the war has acquired a new depth and sophistication. Studies of the home front reveal a society riven by divisions without precedent in the nation's history. This single volume will be invaluable to tertiary students and of enormous interest to the reader concerned with the social, political and military history of Australia.

The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Volume XI - Australia During the War

The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Volume XI - Australia During the War
Author: Ernest Scott
Publisher: Naval & Military Press
Total Pages: 1020
Release: 2017-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781783313488

The eleventh volume of The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 is a companion to the earlier volumes that dealt with Australia's military operations. Scott's work covers the early unanimity with which the war was greeted, the growing unease at the cost of war, the anguish of the conscription referenda and the political turmoil that followed. Scott discusses censorship, the internment of aliens, the formation and equipment of Australia's forces and the development of a war economy. The Outbreak of War. The Political Scene. The Censorship. The Censorship (continued). The Enemy Within the Gates. The Governor-General. The Formation of Armies. The Formation of Armies (continued). The Equipment of Armies. Matters of Policy. Matters of Policy (continued). The First Conscription Referendum. Political Metamorphoses. Political Metamorphoses (continued). The Second Conscription Referendum. The Last Months of the War. Finance. Finance (continued). Australian Trade During the War. Australian Trade During the War (continued). Metals. The Wool Purchase. The Wheat Pool. Shipping. Pricing and Price Fixing. Labour Questions and the Industrial Ferment. Labour Questions and the Industrial Ferment (continued). The Patriotic Funds. The Peace Conference. The Peace Conference (continued). The Treaty and its Ratification. Repatriation. Repatriation (continued). Epilogue. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 is a 12-volume series covering Australian involvement in the First World War. The series was edited by C.E.W. Bean, who also wrote six of the volumes, and was published between 1920 and 1942. The first seven volumes deal with the Australian Imperial Force while other volumes cover the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force at Rabaul, the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Flying Corps and the home front; the final volume is a photographic record. Unlike other official histories that have been aimed at military staff, Bean intended the Australian history to be accessible to a non-military audience. The relatively small size of the Australian forces enabled the history to be presented in great detail, giving accounts of individual actions that would not have been possible when covering a larger force.

Australians and the First World War

Australians and the First World War
Author: Kate Ariotti
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2017-08-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 3319515209

This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies by exploring Australians’ engagements with the conflict across varied boundaries and by situating Australian voices and perspectives within broader, more complex contexts. This diverse and multifaceted collection includes chapters on the composition and contribution of the Australian Imperial Force, the experiences of prisoners of war, nurses and Red Cross workers, the resonances of overseas events for Australians at home, and the cultural legacies of the war through remembrance and representation. The local-global framework provides a fresh lens through which to view Australian connections with the Great War, demonstrating that there is still much to be said about this cataclysmic event in modern history.

Our Forgotten Volunteers

Our Forgotten Volunteers
Author: Bojan Pajic
Publisher: Australian Scholarly Publishing
Total Pages: 1046
Release: 2019-03-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1925801446

Australian and New Zealand volunteers were already in Serbia, treating wounded Serbian soldiers and fighting a typhus epidemic, before the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli in 1915. The Gallipoli Campaign sealed Serbia’s fate, however, as Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria moved to secure a land supply corridor to Turkey through Serbia. Australians and New Zealanders accompanied the Serbian Army on a deadly retreat over wintry mountains to the Adriatic coast. When the fighting shifted to the Salonika or ‘Macedonian’ Front, many served there with the British Army, the Royal Flying Corps, two AIF units and six Royal Australian Navy destroyers in the Adriatic and Aegean Seas. Some died in action, others from disease. Several hundred doctors, nurses and orderlies treated the wounded and sick in an Australian-led volunteer hospital and in British and New Zealand Army hospitals. The author Miles Franklin was a medical orderly supporting the Serbian Army; her little-known memoir is quoted extensively in this book. Fifteen hundred Australians and New Zealanders served on this little known yet crucial battlefront. Now for the first time we have an engaging and comprehensive account of what they experienced and achieved in the Great War.

Serving Our Country

Serving Our Country
Author: Joan Beaumont
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Aboriginal Australian soldiers
ISBN: 9781525274374

The Australian Army at War 1976–2016

The Australian Army at War 1976–2016
Author: Leigh Neville
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472826302

Since the end of their involvement in the Vietnam War, the Australian Army has been modernized in every respect. After peacekeeping duties in South-East Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the 1980s–90s, 'Diggers' were sent to safeguard the newly independent East Timor from Indonesian harassment in 1999, and to provide long-term protection and mentoring since 2006. Australian Army units have served in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Special Forces are currently operating alongside US and British elements against ISIS in northern Iraq. During these campaigns the Australian SAS Regiment and Commandos have fully matured into 'Tier 1' assets, internationally recognized for their wide range of capabilities. The book, written by an Australian author who has written extensively about modern warfare, traces the development of the Army's organization, combat uniforms, load-bearing equipment, small arms and major weapon systems using specially commissioned artwork and photographs.

The Australian Army in World War I

The Australian Army in World War I
Author: Robert Fleming
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-06-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781849086325

The Australian contribution to the Allied war effort during World War I is worthy of celebration. Some 400,000 Australians volunteered for active duty, an astonishing 13 per cent of the entire (white) male population, a number so great that the Australian government was never forced to rely on conscription. Casualties were an astonishing 52 per cent of all those who served, ensuring that the effects of the war would be felt long after the armistice. In particular, their epic endeavours at Gallipoli in 1915 became the nation's founding legend, and the ANZACs went on to distinguish themselves both on the Western Front, and in General Allenby's great cavalry campaign against the Turks in the Middle East. Their uniforms and insignia were also significantly different from those of the British Army and will provide the inspiration for a unique set of artwork plates.

Fighting Australia’s Cold War

Fighting Australia’s Cold War
Author: Peter Dean
Publisher: ANU Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 176046483X

In the first two decades of the Cold War, Australia fought in three conflicts and prepared to fight in a possible wider conflagration in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. In Korea, Malaya and Borneo, Australian forces encountered new types of warfare, integrated new equipment and ideas, and were part of the longest continual overseas deployments in Australia’s history. Working closely with its allies, Australia also trained for a large conventional war in Southeast Asia, while a significant percentage of the defence force guarded the Papua New Guinea–Indonesian border. At home, the Defence organisation grappled with new threats and military expansion, while the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation defended the nation from domestic and foreign threats. This book examines this crucial part of Australia’s security history, so often overlooked as merely a precursor to the Vietnam War. It addresses key questions such as how did Australia achieve its security goals at home and in the region in this new Cold War environment? What were the experiences of the services, units and individuals serving in Southeast Asia? How did this period shape Australia’s defence for years to come?