Index, notes, Appendices, ill, p.134.In 'Seagulls, Cruisers and Catapults' Ray Jones has written an authoritative account of the technical, operational and political aspects of Australian naval aviation from Admiral Creswell's 1913 plan for naval aviation until the last aircraft catapult was removed from an Australian cruiser in 1944.The Navy's role as catalyst in the formation of the Air Force is outlined for the first time and details of the sometimes acrimonius struggle between Navy and Air Force over naval aviation are provided. No serious work of RAN history can deal with the mid-war years without taking account of advice from London and the Admiralty's influence on RAN aviation planning is made clear. Operation of aircraft, such as the Seagull III and Seagull V amphibians, from Australian warships are described and the rationale of cruiser aircraft operations are illustrated by the number shot down or damaged performing their essential task in wartime. The vital role of aircraft operating from cruisers searching for raiders and taking part in fleet operations defending Australia in 1942 is stressed. Extensive archival research in Melbourne, Canberra and London, combined with hours of interviews with the men who flew aircraft from cruisers and carrier, has ensured a balanced and well-rounded narrative which is an essential addition to the library of any naval or aviation history enthusiast.airplanes - military - australia, world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - australia

Index, bibliography, notes,maps, ill, p.334.non-fictionIn 1939 Marsden Hordern's mother refused to sign the paper allowing her seventeen-year-old son to fight overseas with the Royal Australian Air Force. 'I did not rear you to be killed in an airplane,' she said. 'Join the navy.' He took her advice and in doing so determined his future. In small patrol boats, Fairmiles and a Harbour Defence Motor Launch, he patrolled the shores of Japanese-held territory, assisted beleaguered commandos in Timor, and was finally caught up in the drama of rounding up Japanese prisoners of war and guarding them in New Guinea.world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - australia, royal australian navy

Ill, p.256.non-fictionA pictorial essay of The Australian experience in World War II in five volumesworld war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - pictorial works - australia

Ill, p.256.non-fictionA pictorial essay of The Australian experience in World War II in five volumesworld war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - pictorial works - australia

Ill, p.256.non-fictionA pictorial essay of The Australian experience in World War II in five volumesworld war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - pictorial works - australia

Ill, p.256.non-fictionA pictorial essay of The Australian experience in World War II in five volumesworld war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - pictorial works - australia

Ill, p.256.non-fictionA pictorial essay of The Australian experience in World War II in five volumesworld war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - pictorial works - australia

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.140.non-fictionA history of No31 Beaufighter Squadron at Coomalie Creek world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - australia, royal australian air force - 31 squadron - history

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.279.non-fictionRecollections of RAAF members flying and servicing Catalina flying boats in WWIIworld war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - australia, flying boats - catalina

Index, notes, bib, ill, maps, p.272.non-fiction An account of the minelaying by 4 Squadrons of the RAAF that between April 1943 and July 1945 in coalition with the USN 7th Fleet mined virtually every important Japanese port in the Southwest Pacific and as far North as Wenzhou (Wenchow) this was a substantial contribution to the Allied victory in the Pacific in WW2.world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - australia, world war 1939-1945 - mining operations

Ill, maps, p.188.The battle of the Sunda Strait in 1942world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - australia, battle of sunda strait

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.306.non-fictionRevealing biography of an Australian airforce hero of the Second World War who displayed great courage and integrity - both under fire and in civilian life.world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia, world war ii - air warfare

Index, ill, maps, p.224.non-fictionOn June 23 1943 Lieutenant Jack Champ of the 2nd/6th Australian Infantry Battalion was marched into one of the most famous prisoner-of-war camps in Germany. Known then as Oflag IVC, it is now better know as Colditz. By the end of the war there were nineteen Australians in Colditz, and this is the first book to look at life there specifically from their point of view. It was a very special camp. It was designed to retain under escape-proof conditions, a select group of Allied prisoners who had already escaped from other camps and who had been recaptured whilst still in occupied territory. Having seen action in the Western Desert and in Greece, Jack Champ had been captured by the Germans in 1941. He was, however, a reluctant prisoner and took part in two escapes from different POW camps, one of which was a mass break-out of sixty officers through a tunnel that had taken weeks to make. Although the guards frequently outnumbered prisoners, there were more escapes from Colditz than from any other prison of comparable size during both World Wars. In this vivid book Jack Champ and Colin Burgess explain what it was like to be a prisoner in Nazi Germany. It is a curious blend of brutality and humanity, of routines and dreams, and occasional and dramatic excitement as men tried to turn those dreams into the reality of freedom.world war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – germany, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia

Ill, p.165non-fictionAustralian prisoners of war in Japan in the aftermath of The Japanese surrenderworld war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – japanese, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.224.Within three months of the Japanese entering World War II on December 8, 1941 over 22 000 Australians had become prisoners-of-war. They went into camps in Timor, Ambon, New Britain, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Singapore and Malaya, and a few were scattered to other points in what was briefly part of the Japanese empire. Later most of the prisoners were to be shifted further north into South-east Asia, Formosa, Korea, Manchuria and Japan itself. They were captives within lands and cultures and to experiences alien to those known to all other Australians. At the end of the war in August 1945, 14315 servicemen and thirty service women were alive to put on new, loose-fitting uniforms and go home. One in three of the prisoners had died. That is, nearly half of the deaths suffered by Australians in the war in the Pacific were among men and women who had surrendered. Another 8174 Australians had been captured in the fighting in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: but of these men only 265 died as a result of wounds, disease or execution.By any quantitative measure the imprisonment of so many Australians is a major event in Australian history. For many soldiers it was living --and dying --in captivity which made World War II different from that of World War I. But the prisoners have received no permanent place in Australian history. Their story is not immediately recalled on celebratory occasions. In a general history of the nation in which a chapter is given to the war the prisoners might be mentioned in a sentence, or part of a sentence. Where the horror, stoicism and gallantry of Gallipoli have become part of a common tradition shared by all Australians, the ex-prisoners are granted just the horror. The public may be sympathetic; but the horror is for the prisoners alone. To make another comparison: in five months of fighting on the Kokoda Trail in 1942 the Australians lost 625 dead, less than the number who died on Ambon. Yet the events on Ambon are unknown to most Australians. There were no reporters or cameramen on Ambon and, for the 309 who defended Ambon's Laha airfield, no survivors. How many of them died in battle or died as prisoners will never be known. But there are more than just practical reasons why the record of the prisoners of war is so slight and uneven in the general knowledge of Australians. They have not tried to find out. No historian has written a book to cover the range of camps and experiences, and only in specialist medical publications has anyone investigated the impact of prison life on subsequent physical and mental health. The complexity of the experience and its impact on particular lives have not been expressed in a way to give them significance for other Australians.world war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – japanese, world war 1939-1945 - personal narrativies - australia

Ill, p.151non-fictionPeter Firkins has produced a heroic figure comparable in courage and selflessness to that of the legendary 'Weary' Dunlop, and whose story should be known by all Australians in the same way. What a wonderful epitaph to a man born into a humble Yass family at the end of the nineteenth century who, by his own determination and intellect, won a scholarship for his secondary education at St Patrick's College, Goulburn and an Exhibition to study medicine at Sydney University. Almost by pure chance he pursued his medical career in an outpost of the British Empire then known as British North Borneo to become Principal Medical Officer at the time of the Japanese occupation during World War II. The Japanese allowed the civilian medical staff to remain at their posts with the status of 'simple confinement' while at the same time the bewildered local people looked to someone for leadership in their new and unaccustomed circumstances.Aided by his wonderful wife Celia he was imperceptibly drawn into the key role of organising the underground movement among loyal native and giving support to the Australian Prisoners of War transferred to Borneo from Singapore. In 1943 he was exposed to the Japanese, arrested and terribly tortured. Donated by Major General M.P.J. O'Brien, July 2018. Signed by authorworld war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners - japanese, world war 1939 – 1945 – personal narratives – australia

Ill, map, p.316.non-fictionAs the clock struck twelve to signal the start of 1942, Australians did not give the New Year their traditional noisy welcome. Regular events were cancelled, nightclub bookings were down and most people stayed in their blacked out homes. Clocks were put forward an hour for the start of daylight saving, as part of a war-time scheme to save power. All around the Pacific, Japan was making gains. They already occupied most of China; bombed Pearl Harbour, Guam and Wake; sunk the stars of the British naval fleet, the Prince of Wales and Repulse. They had landed in British Borneo, Hong Kong and the Philippines. This is the story of 1942, as told in first-hand accounts by the men and women in Australia and around the world. world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia, soldiers - australia - diaries

Maps, p.255.non-fictionDuring the night of 11 April 1945, eight Australian Z Special commandos landed on Japanese-held Muschu Island, off the coast of New Guinea. Their mission was to reconnoitre the island's defences and confirm the location of two concealed naval guns that commanded the approaches to Wewak Harbour. But the secret mission went horribly wrong. Unknown to them, their presence had been discovered within hours of their landing. With no means of escape, the island became a killing ground. Nine days later, on the New Guinea mainland, the only survivor staggered back through the Japanese lines to safety... This is the remarkable true story of that survivor. world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – papua new guinea, world war 1939 – 1945 – personal narratives – australia

Index, maps, ill, p.431.non-fictionWhat did happen just off the Western Australian coast on 19 November, 1941? Certainly a tragedy: 600 men were killed when the HMAS Sydney was torpedoed by a German cruiser; but why? Olsen sets out to answer these questions, and in doing so, pulls apart the accepted theories about the causes of Australia's greatest maritime disaster. Title Bitter victory : the death of H.M.A.S. Sydney / Wesley Olson.world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - australia, hmas sydney

Index, ill, maps, p.428.non-fictionA history of the wartime experiences of the Australian Army 37th/52nd infantry battalionsworld war 1939-1945 - regimental histories - australia, world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - south west pacific

Ill, p.286.non-fictionDescribes events in Melbourne and Victoria during World War II.australia 1939-1945 - social conditions, australia - politics and government - social conditions

Index, bib, ill, p.239.non-fictionWhat is taboo in any family or in any society is never fixed. And neither is that body of family information which everybody knows but no one talks about. Mental illness is one such subject, and it created a kind of fence around one central element of Thomson's work in the 1980s - his grandfather Hector's story. He has had the courage to take that fence down and use a range of sources to enter the no man's land of suffering and isolation which was a part of his grandfather's life, and perforce, that of his grandmother and the young child who became his father. When the first edition was in preparation, Alistair Thomson's father objected strenuously to any mention in the book of his father's (Alistair's grandfather's) mental illness; reluctantly Alistair agreed to leave out the subject. We can understand why the author's father, himself a soldier, felt so strongly. .world war 1939 – 1945 – personal narratives – australia, world war 1914-1918 - biography

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.476.non-fictionHMAS Sydney's hunt for the German raider, Emden. When the ships of the new Royal Australian Navy made their grand entry into Sydney Harbour in October 1913, a young nation was at peace. Under a year later Australia had gone to war in what was seen as a noble fight for king, country and Empire. Thousands of young men joined up for the adventure of having 'a crack at the Kaiser'. And indeed the German threat to Australia was real, and very near - in the Pacific islands to our north, and in the Indian Ocean. In the opening months of the war, a German raider, Emden, wreaked havoc on the maritime trade of the British Empire. Its battle against the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, when it finally came, was short and bloody - an emphatic first victory at sea for the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. This is the stirring story of the perilous opening months of the Great War and the bloody sea battle that destroyed the Emden in a triumph for Australia that resounded around the world. In the century since, many writers have been there before Mike Carlton. Most were German, some of them survivors of the battle, others later historians, and they have generally told the story well. British accounts vary in quality, from good to nonsense, and there have been some patchwork American attempts as well. Curiously, there has been very little written from an Australian point of view. This book is - in part - an attempt to remedy that, with new facts and perspectives brought into the light of day.world war 1939 – 1945 – naval operations - australia, world war 1939 – 1945 –naval operations - germany

Index, bib, ill, maps, p.610.non-fictionNo other warship in the history of the Royal Australian Navy has inspired and fired the public imagination like HMAS Sydney (II). This is the story of the ship and the men who served in her.hmas sydney, world war 1939-1945 - naval operations - australia

Bib, ill, maps, p.305.non-fictionBomber Boys is the extraordinary and little known story of more than 100 Dutch airmen stranded in Australia with no country to return to who were joined by a contingent of Australians to make up the RAAF's No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies Squadron). Formed in Canberra in April 1942, the squadron flew operational coastal patrols before eventually being relocated to the secret MacDonald Airfield, north of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory and then Batchelor near Darwin.royal australian air force - 18th squadron, world war two 1939-1945 - aerial operations - australia

Ill, p.87non-fictionHere in brief compass is the thrilling tale of air crew adventure told by its navigator, who was one of three Australian in a crew of six manning a Marauder aircraft operating from Africa over the Mediterranean. The aircraft becomes involved in combat, in which two enemy fighters are drive off, one emitting clouds of smoke; but the Marauder, too, is crippled, and comes down in the Mediterranean near the Italian Island of Ustica. Rescue from the sea is followed by the rigours of captivity in Fascist barracks and compounds, of travel through Italy, of sharing British air raids with their captors, assuming careless ease while their musical comedy soldier captors cannot conceal their unease. An ingeniously planned escape is successful; five prisoners break from the compound, and this party, with intrepidity and endurance, gain a liberty which is also a life of great hardship. Italian peasant life provides great interest, and friendly folk protect the adventurous band from the Fascists, while they meet at the coast a mysterious English Captain, who later proves to be a Commando officer on a mission; when this mission is accomplished, and not before, he helps the several groups of escapees to liberty. A motor torpedo boat calls at midnight and, within six months, home in Australiaworld war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - australia, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners of war

Ill, p.100.non-fictionAn account of the escape from Crete of Australian soldiersprisoners of war - crete, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia

Maps, p.210.non-fictionThe story of the fall of Tunisworld war 1939-1945 - campaigns - north africa, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia

Ill, p.287.non-fictionI was posted to 29 Squadron at North Weald in Essex and I was more than pleased to be a 'fighter boy', which for some unknown reason seemed and still seems to carry with it an aura of glamour - goodness knows why! "Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett was one of the most outstanding figures of the second World War and the creator and leader of the legendary Pathfinder Force of 8 Group. His made him the obvious choice as leader of the Pathfinders -the elite force designed to carry out pioneering target-marking and precision-bombing of Nazi-occupied Europe. Bennett played a prominent part in deploying a Mosquito intruder force to harass Germany by night and in developing FIDO, the invaluable fog dispersal system. world war 1939 - aerial operations - britain, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia