Ill, p.224.non-fictionThe unit originally left Australia as a completely Victorian unit but returned with representatives from all Sates in the Commonwealth. The 2/29th Battalion was the fist Victorian unit into action in the Malauan campaign and has the distinction of two set of battle honours, one for the bloody Muar Road battle where the battlion initially and later in association with the 2/19th Battalion held the crack Japanese 5th Division, the Imperial Guards for six days to enable the whole British force to be withdrawn behind Yong Peng, and the second for their part in the battle for Singapore Island. It was during the intial battle with the Japanese Imperial Guards on Sunday, January 18, 1942 that the Battalion with the supporting anti-tank guns of the 2/4th Anti Tank Regiment accounted for 8 Japanese tanks in one morning. Two commanding officers were killed during the Muar Road battle and total casualties for the week were 13 officers and 296 O/R/'s. It was when Lt.-Col. S. A. F. Pond, who took command, set about re-forming the Battalion after Muar that reinforcements from all States joined the unit. The battalion spent 3 1/2 years as P.O.W.'s of the Japanese and a long period of this working on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway where 260 lost their livesworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – malaya, australian army - 8th division

Local tailors made these jackets with variations of the city name on the back: Vung Tau, Saigon, Vietnam. This item was purchased and worn by Lance-Corporal Ronald J Stibbe of the Royal Australian Engineers, who served in 1st Field Squadron in Vietnam from 21 Oct 1966 until 10 Oct 1967.Black cotton souvenir jacket with collar and front zip closure. On the back is a map of Vietnam with cities labelled, all in coloured embroidery. Above and below the map is white lettering. The upper sleeves of the jacket are embroidered with a dragon, whilst the front of the jacket features an embroidered tiger head and good luck symbol. It is lined with white silk.Adhesive tag "RJ Stibbe" Embroidered On back - 'WHEN I DIE I'LL GO TO HEAVEN BECAUSE / I'VE SPENT MY TIME IN HELL / SAIGON'. Below the map embroidered in white the lettering, 'VIET NAM - 66 67'.jacket, vietnam, souvenir, embroidered, stibbe, r j stibbe, anti-war, vietnam war, 1200492, bomber jacket

Index, ill, p.286.non-fictions Australia's largest veterans' organization, the R.S.L. has been the subject of bitter controversy. The League has often been attacked, and as frequently defended, but it has never been examined in depth by an impartial observer. This book is the first detailed and dispassionate examination. It is not an 'official', or even an authorized account of the R.S.L.'s pressure group activities - while the League provided unrestricted access to its files and records, the organization's leaders exercised no censorship or control over the final results. The author examines the R.S.L.'s attempts to influence the Commonwealth government against a background of continual internal conflict over tactics. He describes the constant approaches to the government on pensions, medical benefits, war service homes, soldier settlement, employment preference, and gratuities, as well as on such controversial subjects as defence and anti-communism, all of which serve to mark the R.S.L. as one of Australia’s most active pressure groups. The book also points to the danger implicit in the R.S.L.'s attempt to monopolize the virtues which it claims are uniquely Australian. In its rigid enforcement of the exclusiveness of Anzac Day, it is argued, lie both the League's peculiar strength and its greatest problems. australia - politics and government, pressure groups - australia