Jack's Journey : An Anzac's Descent into Death, Disaster and Controversy at Gallipoli by Kit Cullen

$9.99 AUD

Category: Military | Reading Level: General Adult

Jack's Journey is the moving and extraordinary story of an unknown Anzac action at Gallipoli during the period of the Landing on 1 and 2 May, 1915. Kit Cullen began tracing Jack Collyer's story using his three diaries and his service record. The diaries cover the voyage from Australia to training in Egy pt and Lemnos and, finally, landing at Anzac. Unfortunately, the last diary ended as Jack entered the firing line on Bolton's Ridge at dusk on 25 April. He was wounded a week later. Where was Jack and what was he doing when he was wounded? What Kit discovered over ten years of painstaking research is extraordinary. On 1 May Jack and about fifty other members of No. 15 Platoon 4th Battalion were ordered to go to the aid of about 60 Royal Marines who had been trapped for two and a half days in an isolated trench. The Marines were running out of ammunition and water and needed support. Before dawn Jack and his mates entered the valley, which they christened Death Trap Valley, before dawn and positioned themselves in Loutit's Post overlooking the Marines for most of the day under heavy enemy fire. The 4th Battalion's rescue mission was undertaken at the height of the third Turkish counter attack. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the Anzacs were ordered to resupply the Marines with ammunition and water and to reinforce their line. To do so meant running the gauntlet of the death trap - an exposed fifty metre long track, marked by the Turks as a killing ground. As the platoon braved the death trap, one by one, most of them were killed or wounded, including Jack. Snowy Robson carried ammunition and water to the beleaguered garrison without being hit. An hour later he also guided and took charge of No.3 Platoon 4th Battalion which was ordered into the valley to reinforce the isolated trench. In all, Snowy diced the death trap six times - five in daylight - without being hit. The position and the Marines were saved. Five Allied gallantry medals were awarded for the action, including the first Victoria Cross at Anzac. Walter Parker, a Royal Marine stretcher bearer, was the recipient. Snowy Robson was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his feats. The other extraordinary aspect of the 4th Battalion's participation in the action was the corruption of the historical record by Charles Bean. Bean omitted any reference to the 4th Battalion in his telling of the story in the Official History, despite knowing what happened. Instead, he gave the credit for saving the Marines to his brother's unit, the 3rd Battalion, which played a part on 2 May in relieving the Marines and the remnants of the two 4th Battalion parties. Bean misused a letter from the Royal Marine hierarchy specifically praising the 4th Battalion's sacrifice and courage, claiming its sentiments for the 3rd Battalion. The tragic heroism of Jack and his mates, and Bean's historiographical skulduggery, would have remained hidden if Kit Cullen hadn't stumbled on them in the course of his research. ...Show more

History of the Australian Military by Jonathan J. Moore

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

Australia is a remote nation, tucked away in the southernhemisphere with a tiny population compared to their denselypopulated neighbours to the North. Despite this, over the past twohundred years the Austrian military has punched well above itsweight, earning a reputation for bravery and efficiency unri valledin the modern world. Australia has never lost a war and more oftenthan not, fought long and hard to win the peace.'A History of the Australia Military: From the First Fleet to thePresent Day' covers all of the crucial events in Australian militaryhistory and throws light on many of the major moments involving those brave men andwomen who fought in Australia and for Australia. Whether they were aboriginal warriors,marines, soldiers of the crown or members of the army, RAAF or RAN, all have made acontributed to a proud military tradition. ...Show more

GALLIPOLI ; CENTENARY EDITION by PETER PEDERSEN

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

Man Inside by Graham Apthorpe

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

Graham Apthorpe's account of the Cowra outbreak is superb. Narrated in a fresh way, in elegant and original prose, and with a wonderful gift for taking the unexpected angle, it does great service to this astonishing Australian-Japanese event, and will have a honoured place in the canon of fascinating wo rks on the incident. Thomas Keneally The War in the Pacific has turned; thousands of the previously invincible Japanese soldiers are now being captured in New Guinea and interned at the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp. Unlike other POWs, the traditional Japanese Bushido Code and their fanaticism leaves them ill-equipped for surrender and imprisonment. Ashamed, subdued and sullen, one man, Second Lieutenant Maseo Naka is an exception. Obstructing the Australian authorities at every turn, he was the first Japanese soldier to escape from Cowra. This action becomes the precursor for the more than 1000 Japanese prisoners who escape in the bloodiest Breakout of World War II that ultimately saw 234 Japanese and four Australian guards killed. His escape and the defiance, guilt, and shame that motivated it, led to his court-martial. Naka nevertheless stands-out as very human, another tragic victim of the global inferno that was World War II. Adhering to the Samurai Code of Bushido, he doggedly undertakes actions that he views as necessary for the maintenance of his "honour". Through the insights of those around Naka, together with new research including the personal accounts of Australian interrogators, the author shows how this handsome loner provided the impetus for the dramatic events in the early hours of August 5, 1944 where hundreds of Japanese soldiers stormed the Camp defences for honour, or death! ...Show more

Australian Code Breakers: Our Top-Secret War with the Kaiser's Reich by James Phelps

$34.99 AUD

Category: Military

The extraordinary story of a headmaster turned cryptographer, and our top-secret war with the Kaiser's Reich. On 11 August 1914, just days after war had been declared, Australian Captain J.T. Richardson boarded a German merchant vessel fleeing Melbourne's Port Phillip and audaciously seized a top-secret naval codebook. The fledgling Australian Navy had an opportunity to immediately change the course of the war. But what exactly had they found? Enter the Australian code breakers ...Recruited by savvy top brass, maths whizz and German speaker Frederick Wheatley worked night and day to fathom the basic principles of the code and start tracking the German Navy's powerful East Asia Squadron, led by the brilliant Maximilian von Spee. Soon Melbourne was a hub of international Allied intelligence. This is the untold story of how a former Australian headmaster and his mostly female team cracked one of Germany's most complex codes, paving the way for the greatest Allied naval victory of World War I. ...Show more

Crumps and Camouflets - ANZAC Centenary Commemorative Release: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front by Damien Finlayson

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

Below the shattered ground that separated the British and German infantry on the Western Front in World War I, an unseen and largely unknown war was raging, fought by miners, tunnellers as they were known. They knew at any moment their lives could be extinguished without warning by hundreds of tonnes of collapsed earth and debris. ...Show more

Battle Scarred - ANZAC Centenary Commemorative Release: The 47th Battalion in the First World War by Craig Deayton

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

One of the shortest lived and most battle hardened of the 1st Australian Imperial Forces battalions, the 47th was formed in Egypt in 1916 and disbanded two years later having suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any Australian unit. Their story is remarkable for many reasons. Dogged by command and discipline troubles and bled white by ... ...Show more

Game to the Last - ANZAC Centenary Commemorative Release: The 11th Australian Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli by James Hurst

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

Game to the Last reveals the story of the men who would become "one of the finest battalions which served in the war", the West Australian 11th Infantry Battalion, AIF, during the gruelling Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. The narrative follows the battalion members as they leave their homes and lives in Wes tern Australia, embark for overseas, ... ...Show more

Beaten Down by Blood - ANZAC Centenary Commemorative Release: The Battle of Mont St Quentin-Peronne 1918 by Michele Bomford

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

Beaten Down by Blood: The Battle of Mont St Quentin-Peronne 1918 charts an extraordinary journey from the trenches facing Mont St Quentin on 31 August 1918 through the frenetic phases of the battle until the final objectives are taken on 5 September. This is the story, often told in the words of the men themselves, of the capture of the 'unattackable' Mont and the 'invincible' fortress town of Peronne, two of the great feats of Australian forces in the First World War. The Author places real men on the battlefield, describing their fears and their courage and their often violent deaths. The struggle for control of the battle, to site the guns, to bridge the Somme and maintain communications is portrayed in vivid detail. The story also offers a glimpse of the men's families at home, their anxiety and their lifelong grief. ...Show more

The Australian Army in World War II by Mark Johnston

$14.99 AUD

Category: Military | Series: Elite Ser.

The Australian infantry were amongst the Commonwealth's toughest and most widely travelled infantry, serving in campaigns including Syria, Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Libya Egypt, New Guinea, and the South West Pacific. Their fearsome fighting reputation was earned first against the Afrika Corps in the Libya n Desert, and then in the hellish conditions of New Guinea, where they held out against the Japanese invasion. Written by a leading expert on the subject and coupled with previously unpublished photographs from private collections and specially commissioned artwork, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the organization, units, uniforms and insignia of the Australian 'Digger'. ...Show more

Snipers at War by John Walter

$24.99 AUD

Category: Military

Definitive history written by a leading firearms expert, Examines the vital importance of field-skills - hunting, tracking, patient observation - to the sniper's craft, Includes newly commissioned research with a unique statistical-assessment system to analyse the accuracy of individual rifles, Highligh ts the history and development of key sniper weapons, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses, Offers new genealogically-based information about some of the world's leading snipers, correcting long-standing errors Book jacket. ...Show more

Lady Death by Lyudmila Pavlichenko

$19.99 AUD

Category: Military

In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Lyudmila Pavlichenko left her university studies and ignored the offer of a position as a nurse to become one of Soviet Russia's 2000 female snipers.Less than a year later she had 309 recorded kills, including twenty-nine enemy sniper kills. She w as withdrawn from active duty after being injured. She was also regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort.She spoke at rallies in Canada and the U.S., and the folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song, "Killed By A Gun," about her exploits. Her U.S. trip included a tour of the White House with FDR. In November 1942 she visited Coventry and accepted donations of £4,516 from Coventry workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army. She also visited a Birmingham factory as part of her fundraising tour.She never returned to combat but trained other snipers. After the war, she finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian. She died on October 10, 1974 at age fifty-eight, and was buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery. ...Show more