Colour magazinenon-fictionmaritime journals, maritime magazines, ships

No dust jacketnon-fictionsea voyage, allan villiers (1903-1982), keith oliver, donation, windjammers

non-fictionBased on the author's own vivid experiences, The Cruel Sea is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two. Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves. Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning from the deep . . nicholas montsarrat, ww2, royal navy, battle of the atlantic, corvette, frigate

Self-government publication comprising 314 pages with some black-and-white photographs.non-fictionOn September 11, 1944, the British submarine "Porpoise" slipped quietly from Fremantle Harbour, bound for Indonesia. It was carrying the 23 Australian and British members of Operation Rimau who, under the leadership of the remarkable Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, intended to repeat the successful Jaywick raid of 1943 by blowing up 60 ships in Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour, 19 days later, the preliminary part of the operation successfully completed, the submarine commander bade farewell to the raiders at Pedjantan Island, promising to return to pick them up in 38 days' time. A handful of Chinese and Malays and the conquering Japanese were the only people ever to see the 23 men again. According to the scant official post-war record, the mission was an utter failure. All of the party were captured of killed - ten of them beheaded in Singapore only five weeks before the Japanese surrender in, it was claimed, a ceremonial execution. The fate of eleven of the others remains officially unknown. After a 31 year search, Major Tom Hall, with the assistance of writer Lynette Silver, has overturned the official version and uncovered the truth. Aided by thousands of Japanese and Allied documents and by the first-hand accounts of several Indonesians and Malays, sole witnesses to the events of 1944, they have established the fate of every member of the party and unravelled the story of "The Heroes of Rimau" - a story that has for 45 years been all but lost, distorted by hearsay and fantasy, by military cover-ups and conspiracy, by official bungling, ineptitude and apathy. This book not only chronicles a feat of extraordinary daring in the face of overwhelming odds - a gripping tale of inspired courage, self-sacrifice and eventual tragedy - it also exposes the appalling sequence of events which has, until now, resulted in the shameful suppression of the truth about one of the most amazing stories to emerge from World War II.

Bibliography, ill, facsims, port, maps , p.317.non-fictionBased on the original notebook of Lieutenant Robert Cowey - written at Gallipoli - this book describes him and his men. His notebook is a ready reference to all relevant information including; all casualties, every movement, transfers, promotions and evacuations to hospital for any reason.world war 1914-1918- regimental histories - australia, world war 1914-1918- personal records - 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, bibliography, notes, ill. (some col.), maps, ports, p.318.non-fictionOn 25 April 1915 - the day the Anzacs landed at Gallipoli - Lieutenant Commander Dacre Stoker set out as captain of the Australian submarine AE2 on a mission to breach the treacherous Dardanelles Strait with the intention of disrupting Turkish supply lines to the isolated Gallipoli peninsula. Facing dangerous currents, mines and withering enemy fire, Stoker and his men succeeded where British and French submarines had come to grief." "Stoker's achievement meant much in military terms, and even more emotionally in boosting the morale of embattled Allied troops. But what was proclaimed at the time as 'the finest feat in submarine history' has since sunk into oblivion. Few Australians even know their country had a submarine at Gallipoli, much less that it achieved daring feats, sank an enemy craft, and possibly played a pivotal role in Anzac troops staying on the beachhead for eight months." "Now, finally, Stoker's Submarine tells the story of a remarkable naval hero and the men under his command. And the AE2 itself, still lying intact on the floor of the Sea of Marmara, is celebrated as the most tangible relic of Australia's role at Gallipoli, the crucible of nationhood.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - gallipoli, gallipoli campaign - naval operations, submarine ae2

Index, bibliography, maps, ill, p.173.non-fictionThe German army in the Second World War sought to fight and win swift, decisive victories in a succession of short campaigns - blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Flexibility was as essential as the will to win. Battle groups, or shock troops, were created from miscellaneous, and often disparate military units to undertake a specific local operation; it was the army's skill in combining superior numbers, aggressive tactics and the battle group commander's ability to exploit the changing situation on the ground which brought success on the battlefield.

The actions described here cover all theatres of the war, and include battle groups large and small, deployed usually to smash a breach in the enemy line or seal off an enemy penetration. It covers operations in the first dynamic years when Wehrmacht forces defeated the armies of one European country after another in fast campaigns, through to the years after Stalingrad and Africa as they moved towards defeat. 

The battle groups' contribution to Wehrmacht fortunes offer powerful lessons in the tactics of battle management and this book by James Lucas, a military historian known for his close studies of the German soldier, is considered to be one of the most detailed and authoritative accounts on the subject. Collapse summary germany - armed forces - history, germany - regimental histories

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.691.non-fictionIn 1942 and early 1943 Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place' to fight a war. This book gives us the final, all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever. The compelling narrative resonates with the voices of both the well-trained AIF volunteer, and the young Militia conscript who triumphed together. The author interviewed hundreds of these soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many of their mates perished, and 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.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – new guinea, world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – kokoda

Ill, p.254.non-fictionA biography of Leonard Chesire VC, commander of Squadron 617, observer of the A bomb attack on Nagasaki and later advocate for peace.world war 1939 – 1945 – aerial operations - britain, leonard chesire - biography

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.250.non-fictionTwenty-two U-boat veterans tell their stories in this collection of their experiences, recorded by the author during several years of travel throughout Germany. While many books have been written about the U-boat war, this is one of the few that focuses on the lives of the submariners, and rarer still is its concentration on the crewmen rather than the officers. Melanie Wiggins interviewed seventeen men of the enlisted ranks, along with five commanders, to take readers into the terrifying world of underwater warfare, where every single crewman made a crucial difference in the fate of his boat. As she searched for and interviewed U-boat men, Wiggins also collected photographs from scrapbooks and archives, and consulted war-era personnel records and secret diaries. Her attendance at a reunion of the crew of U-682 netted a wealth of information as did her interviews with submarine veterans in Gؤrlitz, former East Germany. Her interviews with Admiral Otto Kretschmer just two months before his death and ninety-four-year-old Commander Jѓrgen Wattenberg in Hamburg add important dimensions to the work. Among the individual sagas included are Radioman Hans Bѓrck's description of his 1942 patrol to Aruba and the visit of Japanese submarine I-30 at Lorient; Fireman 2nd Class Josef Erben's explanation of how his boat, U-128, got stuck on a large rock and had to be hauled free; POW Ernst Gؤ:thling's memories of being wounded in a British prison camp when German planes mistakenly dropped bombs in the area.world war 1939 – 1945 –naval operations - germany, germany - u-boats

Bibliography, Index, Chronology, ill (plates, col, b/w) maps. p.452.non-fictionFrom longbow, pike, and musket to Challenger tanks, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Gulf campaign, the Duke of Marlborough to Field Marshal Montgomery, The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army recounts the history of the British army from its medieval antecedents to the present day. Drawing on the latest scholarship, this survey shows how British fighting forces have evolved over the last five centuries. The continuities revealed are sometimes surprising: narrow recruitment patterns, friction between soldiers and civilians, financial constraints and recurrent political pressure for economies are constant themes. Commanders, campaigns, battles, organization, and weaponry are covered in detail within the wider context of the social, economic, and political environment in which armies exist and fight. The British army has been remarkably successful in fighting terms, losing only one major war (of American Independence 1775-83). As one of the engines of empire it has been active all over the world, as well as shaping the internal destiny of the nation in civil war and revolution. Its history is charted in a sequence of chronological chapters, each containing special feature articles, beginning with the medieval, Elizabethan, and Restoration army and moving on through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the two world wars of the twentieth. The book concludes with accounts of the army of British India, the amateur military tradition, the British way in warfare, and an assessment of what the future may hold in the light of the Options for Change review. Extensively illustrated in black and white and colour, and with a detailed chronology and further reading lists, this is the definitive one-volume history of the British army for specialists and non-specialists alike.great britain - military history, great britain - military tradition

p,205.non-fictionThis is the true story of a man who has taken on all the action he can get. Go behind the scenes with Rick Parish as he serves in the SAS Regiment then as Base Commander and Training Commander for Pararescue at the NSCA, Victorian Division. Every fight is a fight for survival, in a place that only lies Beyond Fear.sas - history, rick parish - biography

p.157.fictionThe Bridge on the River Kwai" tells the story of three POWs who endure the hell of the Japanese camps on the Burma-Siam railway - Colonel Nicholson, a man prepared to sacrifice his life but not his dignity; Major Warden, a modest hero, saboteur and deadly killer; Commander Shears, who escaped from hell but was ordered back. Ordered by the Japanese to build a bridge, the Colonel refuses, as it is against regulations for officers to work with other ranks. war stories - fiction, burma-siam railway - fiction

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, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.628.non-fictionThe Australian experience of war in all its complexity - from the homefront as well as the battlefront - as the men and women who experienced it chose to understand and remember it. The Great War is, for many Australians, the event that defined our nation. The larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have become the stuff of the Anzac legend. But it was also a war fought by the families at home. Their resilience in the face of hardship, their stoic acceptance of enormous casualty lists and their belief that their cause was just, made the war effort possible. This book brings together all the dimensions of World War I. Combining deep scholarship with powerful storytelling, this book brings the war years to life: from the well-known battles at Gallipoli, Pozieres, Fromelles and Villers-Bretonneux, to the lesser known battles in Europe and the Middle East; from the ferocious debates over conscription to the disillusioning Paris peace conference and the devastating Spanish flu the soldiers brought home. We witness the fear and courage of tens of thousands of soldiers, grapple with the strategic nightmares confronting the commanders, and come to understand the impact on Australians at home and at the front of death on an unprecedented scale. A century after the Great War, this book brings lucid insight into the dramatic events, mass grief and political turmoil that makes the memory of this terrible war central to Australia's history.world war 1914-1918- australia - history, world war 1914-1918 - social conditions

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.349.non-fictionSurprisingly, as we near the 100th anniversary of the legendary Gallipoli campaign, this is the first book solely dedicated to one of its key battles - that at Lone Pine, where Australian and Turkish soldiers fought an ultimately futile battle that claimed thousands of lives in incredibly close quarters. Seven Victoria Crosses were earned by Australia's Anzacs in the intense four days of fighting, in pursuit of a flawed strategy to distract Turkish forces from larger incursions, which themselves failed. David W. Cameron has pulled together first-hand accounts from the men and women involved (including from the Turkish army) to detail what transpired and to follow some of their personal stories throughout the ordeal. By including the stories of non-combatants, such as engineers, nurses, sappers, commanders and more, he not only gives due credit to those who labored in support of the troops, but provides a wider understanding of the mammoth undertaking of such warfare. Many Australians travel to the Lone Pine Memorial and Cemetery each year to commemorate Anzac Day and remember the fallen - this work of popular history highlights the fate of those who fought on the very ground where they gather. Most Australian have heard of Lone Pine. Too few know why. Over four days in August 1915, Australians and Turks were thrown into some of the fiercest fighting of the war, on a small plateau in Gallipoli known as Lone Pine. Thousands of lives were lost. Seven of Australia's nine Gallipoli VCs were earned during brutal hand-to-hand combat in dark tunnels and in trenches just metres apart, bombarded by terrifying volleys of grenades. The Battle for Lone Pine is the first book devoted to this cornerstone of the Anzac legend, drawing on unforgettable first-hand accounts scratched into diaries and letters home. The stories of the diggers, as well as the engineers, nurses, sappers, commanders and more, provide an invaluable record of the battle and serve as moving testimony to their courage in appalling conditions. Today, pine trees are planted in remembrance around Australia. In Gallipoli, the Lone Pine Cemetery and Memorial attracts large crowds to commemorate Anzac Day. David W. Cameron's absorbing history reveals the fate of those who fought on the ground where they gather. 'David Cameron not only leads the way for the battalions of books on Australia in World War I to come in the next six years, he sets a standard for authors to emulate'world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - gallipoli, gallipoli campaign - battles - lone pine

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.301.non-fictionJust as the Battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the Confederacy's bid for secession, the Chinese offensive launched at Wonju was the high point from which China's hopes for victory soon faded. This is the first book to show that after fifteen days of combat at Wonju, Chinese leaders realized that they could not win the war and could possibly lose it. On this not particularly well-known battlefield, UN forces led by brave U.S. and South Korean fighting men ensured South Korean independence. These battles reinvigorated the UN war effort, thanks in no small part to the leadership of the U.S. Eighth Army's new commander, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway. J. D. Coleman's comparison between the pivotal battles of Wonju and Gettysburg is original and thought provoking.korean war 1950-1953 - history, korean war - battle of wonju

Index, ill, maps, p.332.non-fictionThis is the first time that those in direct command of Delta Company have shared their memories of the most significant battle fought by Australians in Vietnam, the Battle of Long Tan. Each of the commanders shares the experiences that brought them to Vietnam, and describes how the company commander, Harry Smith, drove Delta Company to become one of the most outstanding units in the Australian forces. Delta's superb military discipline, and its commanders' ability to think outside the square were decisive in holding a vastly superior number of enemies at bay. Each platoon played a crucial role in Delta Company's survival. The artillery's commitment in providing an unbroken wall of metal through which the enemy had to advance is told from the perspectives of both the forward controller and the gun positions. We fly with the RAAF helicopter pilots whose ammunition resupply was the turning point of the battle, and experience the carnage of the battlefield through the eyes of those in the relieving APCs. Delta Company's trauma on returning to the battlefield to claim their fallen was lightened only by the miraculous survival of two of their wounded. The trauma of the battle did not end with the action, however, as politics began to play their part in the drama. The valour of those directly involved in the battle has never been duly recognised - in some cases it has been belittled, in others denied. The ongoing efforts of the Long Tan commanders to right the many wrongs perpetrated in the wake of the battle, and their own journeys from the events of August 1966 draw the reader into a compelling dialogue on the aftermath of Vietnam. Collapse summary vietnam war 1961-1975 – australian involvement, vietnam war 1961-1975 – battles – long tan

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps. p.483.non-fictionIn November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at landing zones X-Ray and Albany constitute one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. The Americans faced what seemed to be certain destruction. How these men persevered - sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up - makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joe Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. The result is a story of unparalleled human interest. We Were Soldiers Once... and Young also brings the war back home with unforgettable stories of those who lost family members to combat. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor. Collapse summary vietnam war 1961-1975 – us involvement, vietnam war 1961-1975 – battles – ia drang valley

Index, ill, p.296.President Lincoln used his own weapons--his words--to fight the Civil War as brilliantly as any general who ever took the field. In Lincoln on War, historian Harold Holzer gathers and interprets Lincoln's speeches, letters, memoranda, orders, telegrams, and casual remarks, organizing them chronologically and allowing readers to experience Lincoln's growth from an eager young Indian War officer to a middle-aged dove congressman to a surprisingly hardened and determined hawk as the Union's commander-in-chief. We observe a man willing to sacrifice life and treasure in unprecedented quantities, to risk wounding the pride of vain generals, and even to mislead the public if it meant the preservation of an unbreakable union of states, the destruction of slavery, and the restoration of America as an example to inspire the world. This volume covers strategy; tactics; the endless hiring, sustaining, motivating, and dismissal of commanders; military discipline; and military technology. Modern commanders-in-chief have repeatedly quoted Lincoln to justify their own wars, so it behooves us as citizens to know Lincoln's record well. From masterpieces such as the Gettysburg Address to lesser-known meditations on God's purposes, Lincoln on War is the first book to highlight exclusively Lincoln's sublime and enduring words on waramerican civil war 1861-1865 - history, abraham lincoln 1809-1865 - leadership

Ill, maps, p.208.non-fictionYomping was revealed by the journalist Charles Laurence in 1982 as the word which the Royal Marines used to describe carrying heavy loads long distances on foot. Given the intense public interest in the dramatic events then unfolding in the South Atlantic, it caught on and is now in common usage.The Yompers is the first account to be written by a company commander who fought in the Falklands War. Called to action from their beds early on 2 April 1982, the author along with the rest of 45 Commando Royal Marines, sailed 8,000 miles to play a key role in the recovery of the Falkland Islands from Argentine occupation. Lacking helicopters and short of food, they yomped in appalling weather carrying overloaded rucksacks, across ground which threatened to break legs and ankles at every step. Despite extreme hardship, their morale and training ensured they remained a cohesive fighting-fit body of men.falklands war 1982, great britain - royal marines - commando 45