The Laister-Kauffman 10A (LK10A) is a 2 seat a military training glider developed from a successful Jack Laister single seat glider called Yankee Doodle that first flew in 1938 and was exhibited at the Paris Air Show of 1939. The two seater variation was ordered in 1941 by the US Army for training glider pilots of troop carrying gliders. The military designation was XTG-4. The LK 10A glider was a simpler, more robust design than Yankee Doodle. A longer canopy enclosed both seating positions. The top of the fuselage formed a straight ridge from the top of the canopy to the point where the fin – rudder connected. Also, the design was simplified by adopting straight spar wings of 15.2 metres in place of gull wings of 14.170 metres. During the war years 156 LK10As were produced before the contracts to supply the US Army were terminated. Many of these were later sold as surplus. The Museum’s exhibit (serial number 122) was built in 1943. It was imported into Australia in the 1950s by Ric New, a member of the Gliding Club of Western Australia. Ric New modified the glider by “flat topping” the fuselage and making other aerodynamic changes. This kind of modification of the LK10A was a well tried strategy in United States for extracting better performance from the glider. It is understood that the reduction in weight and cleaner aerodynamics from the changes could increase the glide ratio from 1:24 to something like 1:30. The LK10A was located at the Gliding Club of Western Australia for many years. Records reveal that it was kept airworthy until about 1975. The LK10A is an important acquisition in that it allows one to compare the state of two seat glider design in United States and the United Kingdom in the immediate post war period. It is interesting to note that at that time a number of clubs in Australia who acquired a two seat glider for training chose the United Kingdom open cockpit high strutted wing offerings from Slingsby (e.g. T31) instead of more innovative military surplus gliders from America. Modified LK10A glider consisting of tubular steel fuselage with a combination of fabric and metal covering, fabric covered wooden wings and other flying surfaces.australian gliding, glider, sailplane, laister, kauffman, ric new, gliding club of western australia, lk10a, yankee doodle, xtg-4

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.240.non-fictionMore than one quarter of the Australian soldiers chosen to land on Gallipoli at dawn on 25 April 1915 were Western Australians. Four years later, only one in four of them had escaped death or severe injury. But that morning, by climbing the cliffs under a hail of Turkish bullets, they won a permanent place in Australia's most celebrated national legend. At Gallipoli that was all any of the attacking troops won." "The British and French, whose armies also suffered heavy losses at the Dardanelles, regarded the campaign as nothing but a humiliating military disaster best forgotten. In Australia Gallipoli was hailed as 'the proving of a nation's soul' and the day of the landing became sacred.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - gallipoli, australian army - soldiers - western australia

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.565.non-fictionPasschendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war- blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle. The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. Paul Ham's Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youth shows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke- they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier's friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature- his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension. The book tells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele lays down a powerful challenge to the idea of war as an inevitable expression of the human will, and examines the culpability of governments and military commanders in a catastrophe that destroyed the best part of a generation. Collapse summary world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, france - campaigns - passchaendaele

Index, notes, bibliography, ill, p.298.non-fictionIn the hands of Peter Stanley, one of Australia's leading military historians, a famous battlefield in France becomes unforgettably connected with Australian men and their families in the long aftermath of the Great War.australian army - 21st battalion - 9 platoon - history, world war 1914-1918 - 2nd battle of the somme

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.287.non-fictionAustralia's long-standing love affair with the Diggers has blinded us to the dark side of the Anzac legend. This book tells the story of the Australian soldiers in the Great War who were not heroes, soldiers who committed offences and crimes, those who deserted, robbed and murdered their comrades and more.australian army - imperial force - 1914-1921 - history, australian army - military deserters - 1914-1921

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.278.The Victoria Cross was the highest award, given only for a single act of valour. Just 90 Australians have been awarded it since they served with the British forces in South Africa in the late nineteenth century. And only four Australians have been awarded the George Cross, the ultimate medal for civilians in time of war. From Neville Howse in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900 to Keith Payne in Viet Nam in 1969 this book tells the story of twelve Australian recipients of the Victoria and George Crosses.military decorations - australia, george cross recepients - australia

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.134.non-fictionMany Australians, in a typically Australian fashion, recall Gordon Bennett as "the bloke who shot through and left his troops at Singapore". Whether this is a fair assessment or not, there is no doubt that General Gordon Bennett's escape from Singapore in February 1942 left an ineradicable mark on Australia's military and legal history, and that the rights and wrongs of his actions will be debated forever. world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - singapore, capitulations - military

Index, notes, ill, p.368.non-fictionMany books have been written, and continue to be written, about the Second World War: military histories, histories of the Holocaust, the war in Asia, or collaboration and resistance in Europe. Few books have taken a close look at the immediate aftermath of the worldwide catastrophe.world war 1939-1945 - peace, 20th century - history

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.271.non-fictionIn 1941 in the midst of the British military defeats in Greece and the Middle East, a bitter conflict was taking place between two of the most charismatic leaders of the time. Robert Menzies and Winston Churchill were engaged in a war of polite public faces and behind the scenes lobbying and manipulationaustralia - foreign relations - great britain - 1939-1945, world war 1939-1945 - diplomatic history

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.374.non-fictionhis is the largely unknown story of another Anzac force, which fought not at Gallipoli, but in Greece, during World War II. Desperately outnumbered and fighting in deeply inhospitable conditions, these Anzacs found themselves engaging in a long retreat through Greece, under constant air attack. Most of the Anzac Corps was evacuated by the end of April 1941, but many men got only as far as Crete. Fighting a German paratroop invasion there in May, large numbers were taken captive and spent four long years as prisoners of the Nazis. The campaign in Greece turned out to have uncanny parallels to the original Gallipoli operation: both were inspired by Winston Churchill, both were badly planned by British military leaders, and both ended in defeat and evacuation. Just as Gallipoli provided military academies the world over with lessons in how not to conduct a complex feat of arms, Churchill's Greek adventure reinforced fundamental lessons in modern warfare - heavy tanks could not be stopped by men armed with rifles, and Stuka dive-bombers would not be deflected by promises of air support from London that were never honoured. In this revised edition, based on fresh archival research, and containing a collection of previously unpublished photos, the truth finally emerges as to how the Australian, Greek, and New Zealand Governments were misled over key decisions that would define the campaign. world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - greece, greek campaign - australian involvement

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.235.This book traces the history of the SAS from its birth. It shows how this unique fighting force overcame the disapproval of military authorities to win glory and fame.world war 1939-1945 - military operations - great britain., special air service regiment

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, map, p.404.non-fictionBy March 1942, the Japanese had steamrolled through Malaya, laid siege to Singapore, and bombed Darwin with the same ferocity they had dealt Pearl Harbor. Nothing could stop them. Their next step was inevitable, surely: the invasion and occupation of Australia. Meanwhile, as Australian prime minister John Curtin was battling with Winston Churchill to get troops back from overseas to defend their homeland, he was also positioning to ensure the United States would be there with us to fend off the approaching enemy. And at home, people pitched in as best they could and in any way to frustrate the invader. They all played their part, torn between 'she'll be right' and near panic. On Our Doorstep is the story of how Australia and Australians - the government, the military and the people - prepared to face this calamity, and the events that persuaded them of its probability. In the end, Japan found it had stretched itself beyond the reliability of its supply line, but had it ever intended to invade Australia?world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – south west pacific, australia - politics and government - 1939-1945

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.548.non-fictionPearl Harbour. Kokoda. The fall of Singapore. Curtin's fight with Churchill. The bombing of Darwin. The Battle of Midway. POWs. Kamikaze. Hiroshima. These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia herself was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on one hand and British apathy on the other. Until now the history of the Pacific War has largely been written from the American perspective. Now, for the first time, Peter Thompson places Australian voices and action at the heart of a struggle that took an unimaginable number of lives and only ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen. Pearl Harbor; The fall of Singapore; Curtin's fights with Churchill; The bombing of Darwin; POW camps; The battle of Midway; Kokoda; Buna; Kamikaze pilots; Hiroshima. These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on the one hand and British deception on the other. After a conflict that took an unimaginable number of lives and ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen, the Allies emerged victorious. Australia, however, was criticised by Churchill and his generals for showing cowardice in the face of the enemy and for not caring about the fate of other nations. The endorsement of these claims by several military historians today shows that the smear has not gone away. Until nowworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – pacific, world war 1939 – 1945 – australia

Bibliography, index, notes, ill (b/w). maps, p.463non-fictionA summary of the experiences of Australian soldiers in conflicts from Gallipoli to todayaustralia - military history, australia - social interaction

Bibliography, index, notes, ill (b/w), maps, 393.p.non-fictionIan Morris challenges the view that war is one of the greatest human evilswar and civilization, military history

Index, notes, ill (b/w plates) (maps).non-fictionA tribute to the servicemen and women of the past, and peacekeepers of the present, in the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force. Begins with the Boer War, goes on to cover the Boxers conflict in China, the First and Second World Wars, Malayan emergency, Korean War, Indonesia, Vietnam War, also the Gulf War, and East Timor. australia - armed forces - history, australia - history - military

Index, notes, Bibliography, p.249non-fictionThis book identifies causal patterns in the outbreak of wars over the centuriesmilitary history -, conflict - causal factors

Index, Notes, Bibliography, ill (b/w)non-fictionThe Australian digger represents all the virtues Australians hold dear - mateship, equality, bravery and irreverence. But before 1914 Australia had no military tradition. Jane Ross has analysed the nature and origins of the myth of the digger.australian army - history, australia - military culture

Index, notes, appendices, glossary, ill (plates b/w), p.463.non-fictionIt was one of the most controversial and still haunting aspects of World War One: the execution of 351 British soldiers for cowardice and desertion in the face of the enemy. Using new material that only now has become available from the Public Records Office and other sources, this compelling history sets out the facts of these courts-martial and shootings--and just as important, places them in the context of the military, social, and medical context of the period.world war 1914-1918 - history, world war 1914-1918 - military tribunals

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (b/w), p.348.From the 1930s through WWII to Afghanistan today, from total war to counterinsurgency, this history unravels and defines the intangible qualities that differentiate the "Sky Men" from other soldiers Seventy years ago the Parachute Regiment was formed - the army's elite air assault force was tough, well-trained, and designed to fight hazardous operations behind enemy lines with little or no backup. Dropping into the middle of enemy territory, these "Sky Men"- British, American, German, and Russian soldiers - engage in gruelling combat in the most dangerous conflict zones around the world. Ex-Parachute Regiment officer Robert Kershaw reveals the history of these airborne forces and their role during the most dramatic battles of the 20th century. He finds out what drives a "Sky Man" to take these extraordinary risks, and what marks these sky warriors out from ordinary soldiers. How do military paratroopers conquer the fear of jumping from aircraft at low level, by night, and frequently under fire? Has the helicopter replaced the need for parachutists in the 21st Century? Has the increasing lethality of anti-aircraft weapons made the airborne option redundant? These issues are examined alongside the personal experiences of the Soviet "Locust Warriors," German Fallschirmjäger, British Red Devils, American "devils in baggy-pants," and Les Paras. Based on letters, diaries, and exclusive interviews with soldiers from around the world, this book is full of vivid personalities and nail-biting action.great britain - history - military, great britain - parachute regiment

notes, 350.p.non-fictionThis anthology reveals the many ways in which going to war has formed a cultural bridge between Australia and the world. From the Sudan in 1885 to Afghanistan in 2001, the connection of war to travel is illustrated in the observations of many writers.war and literature - australia, travel writing - military - australia

ill, notes, index, p.666non-fictionPompey Elliott was a remarkable Australian. During the Great War he was a charismatic, controversial, and outstandingly successful military leader. An accomplished tactician and the bravest of the brave, he was renowned for never sending anyone anywhere he was not prepared to go himself. As a result, no Australian general was more revered by those he led or more famous outside his own command. An officer on his staff even concluded that no greater soldier or gentleman ever lived.generals - australia - biography, world war 1914-1918 - history

index, notes, ill, maps, p.332.non-fictionWorld War I was the war which has had the greatest impact on the course of the twentieth century. The first generation of its historians had access to a limited range of sources, and they focused primarily on military events. More recent approaches have embraced cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history. In this authoritative and readable history, Hew Strachan combines these perspectives with a military and strategic narrative. The result is an account that breaks the bounds of national preoccupations to become both global and comparative. The first of three volumes in this study, To arms examines not only the causes of the war and its opening clashes on land and sea, but also the ideas that underpinned it, and the motivations of the people who supported it. It provides pioneering accounts of the war's finances, the war in Africa, and the Central Powers' bid to widen the war outside Europe.world war 1914-1918 - history, europe - history - 20th century

index, notes, ill, maps, p.586.non-fictionA biography of Australia's greatest military commander, Sir John Monash, who chnaged the way wars were fought and won.world war 1914-1918 - australia - campaigns, australia - generals - biography

index, notes, ill, maps. p.600.non-fictionTen extended biographies of young men who exemplified Australia's gifted lost generation of World War I. They involve a range of backgrounds and experiences, all states and classes, and come from a variety of military units, not just the infantry.world war 1914-1918 - biography, australia - armed forces - biography

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.543.non-fictionExamines the experiences of the soldiers of all nationalities who fought at the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, in 1915, during World War I, as well as the men who led them. Recounts the details of the Gallipoli campaign, from the grand military and political strategies to the squalid realities of the front line.world war 1914-1918 - gallipoli campaign - history, anzac

Index, notes, ill, maps, p.395.non-fictionSimpson made between 12 to 15 trips each day rescuing wounded soldiers in the face of Turkish fire. This is his story.gallipoli campaign - history, gallipoli campaign - medical corps - history

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.179.non-fictionOver 60,000 Australians and Americans captured by the Japanese during World War II toiled and died to build the Bridge over the River Kwai. Respected military historian Linda Goetz Holmes tells the story of one man's survival in Japanese labor camps during WWII. Amazing photographs, taken secretly by other prisoners, chronicle this dark history of Allied troops in the Pacific theatre of war.world war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – australia, burma thailand railway