The WWI war memorial has since been moved to the front of the RSL Rooms/Maffra Memorial Hall. It is now in front of the Library.A first generation black and white photographic print of the Maffra Sugarbeet Factory in more recent years. It shows the front of the factory from the road, with a fence and some telephone lines and the World War I memorial in the photograph. The sugar store, which is still on site, appears to the nearer end.world war 1914-1918, sugarbeet

worn by soldiers within the first Polish armoured division in Europeremaining elements of soldiers uniforms worn during world War twometal alloyworld war ii, first polish armoured division, eagle, beret

Ill, maps, p.127.non-fictionCome see my little dugout - way up on the hill it stands, Where I can get a lovely view of Anzac's golden sands.' The Anzac Book was the finest 'trench publication' produced during the Great War and was an instant bestseller when first released in 1916. Created by soldiers under enemy fire and in extreme hardship, the illustrations, stories, cartoons, and poems were intended as a Christmas and New Year diversion for soldiers facing a harsh winter in the trenches on Gallipoli. The way these young men powerfully captured their felt experiences and struggles in the trenches had a huge emotional effect on readers back home in Australia. From Desk to Dugout explores this particular moment in Australian literary and educational history and its intersections with the war at Gallipoli and the history of ANZAC.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - gallipoli, gallipoli campaign - personal narratives

p.318fictionUnder Fire follows the fortune of a French battalion during the First World War. For this group of ordinary men, thrown together from all over France and longing for home, war is simply a matter of survival, and the arrival of their rations, a glimpse of a pretty girl or a brief reprieve in hospital is all they can hope for.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - france - fiction, war stories

Index, bibliography, ill (col), p.172.non-fictionOn 7 June 1917, the British Second Army launched its attack on Messines Ridge, detonating 19 giant mines beneath the German front-line positions. By the end of the day, one of the strongest positions on the Western Front had fallen, a place of such importance that the Germans had pledged to hold it at any cost. It was the greatest British victory in three years of war. The first two years of the First World War had represented an almost unending catalogue of disaster for the Australians. Messines was not only their first real victory, it was also the first test in senior command for Major General John Monash who commanded the newly formed 3rd Division and would later be hailed as Australia's greatest soldier. Messines was a baptism of fire for the 3rd Division which came into the line alongside the battle-scarred 4th Australian Division, badly mauled at Bullecourt just six weeks earlier in one of the worst defeats of the war. The fighting at Messines would descend into unimaginable savagery, a lethal and sometimes hand-to-hand affair of bayonets, clubs, bombs and incessant machine-gun fire, described by one Australian as '72 hours of Hell'. After their string of bloody defeats over 1915 and 1916, Messines would be the ultimate test for the Australians. Collapse summary world war 1914-1918- campaigns - western front, battles of messines - australian participation - 1917

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.816.In the Trenches of Hell On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozi�res, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, 'The field of Pozi�res is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . .' Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, world war 1914-1918 - australian participation - fromelles and pozieres

Ill, p.62.non-fictionStarting the war with only 35 aircraft, Austro-Hungarian industry went on to produce only moderate numbers of poor quality aircraft. The fliers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire operating on the Serbian and Russian fronts were fortunate at first, finding themselves faced by small numbers of aircraft yet more obsolescent than their own. Serbia fell in 1915, but when Italy declared war the Austro-Hungarians were still faced with a two-front war ' a static front against Italy, and a far more fluid one against Russia. Austro-Hungarian fighter pilots performed bravely and often very effectively under extremely difficult geographic, climatic and operational conditions. world war 1914-1918 - aerial operations - austria, fighter pilots - austria

Ill, p.63.non-fictionStarting the war with only 35 aircraft, Austro-Hungarian industry went on to produce only moderate numbers of poor quality aircraft. The fliers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire operating on the Serbian and Russian fronts were fortunate at first, finding themselves faced by small numbers of aircraft yet more obsolescent than their own. Serbia fell in 1915, but when Italy declared war the Austro-Hungarians were still faced with a two-front war ' a static front against Italy, and a far more fluid one against Russia. Austro-Hungarian fighter pilots performed bravely and often very effectively under extremely difficult geographic, climatic and operational conditions. world war 1914-1918- aerial operations - austria, fighter pilots - austria

Ill, p.63non-fictionThe French Nieuport company provided the Allied air forces with the first true fighter scout of World War 1 in the shape of the diminutive Type 11 of 1915. It was replaced by the bigger and more powerful type 17 which proved to be one of the best fighters of the warworld war 1914-1918 - aerial operations - france, fighter pilots - france

Ill, p.64.non-fictionFirst flown in April 1916, the SPAD was an immediate success and was quickly ordered into production. Over 6,000 were built and went into service not just with the French armed services but with the allies. world war 1914-1918 - aerial operations - france, fighter pilots - france

Ill, p.320.non-fictionA first hand account by an Australian airman of his escape from a Turkish prison camp during the first world war - only to land in the middle of the violence of the Russian revolutionworld war 1914-1918 - prisoners of war - turkey, escapes - turkey

Index, ill, p.313.non-fictionIn 1960 a team of archivists from the Imperial War Museum began the task of tracking down ordinary World War I veterans and interviewing them in detail about their war experiences. This text includes first-hand experiences from German, US, Canadian and ANZ soldiers.world war 1914-1918 - personal narratives, world war 1914-1918 - oral history

Index, notes, ill, maps, p.222.non-fictionIt would be hard to find anyone better qualified the "Sally Home of the "11th Hussars to tell the story of the Cavalry on the Western front during the First World War.soldiers - great britain - biography, world war 1914-1918 - western front - cavalry corps

Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.187.non-fictionThe biography of Capt George Ingram VC, MM, the last Australian VC recipient of the First World War. From country childhood in Bagshot and Seville to a gunner with the Australian Garrison Artillery and the Tropical Force's Matupi Battery. He then served with the 24th Battalion AIF on the Western Front where he was awarded the Military Medal and the Victoria Cross. After the war he became a soldier settler, an original Shrine Guard and during World War Two he served with the Royal Australian Engineers. Throughout his life he carried the physical and mental scars of his service in the war.soldiers - victoria - biography, george ingram - biography

Bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.245.non-fictionRetrace Australia's role in the First World War from the trenches of Somme Mud to the wider war on the Western Front. Imagine this. You are a country boy and just eighteen. The war has been raging for two years and because of your age, you have not been eligible for enlistment. Your mates, older by a few months are joining up and disappearing to the great adventure across the world in Europe. And there is forever talk of the need for reinforcements, for men like you to join up and support the Empire, Australia and your mates in the line. Such was the case for Edward Francis Lynch, a typical country boy from Perthville, near Bathurst. When war was declared in early August 1914, he was just sixteen and still at school, but like a generation of young males in Australia, there was something to prove and a need to be there. Will Davies, editor of the bestselling Somme Mud, meticulously tracked Lynch and his battalion's travels; their long route marches to flea ridden billets, into the frontline at such places as Messines, Dernancourt, Stormy Trench and Villers Bretonneux, to rest areas behind the lines and finally, on the great push to the final victory after August 1918. In words and pictures Davies fills in the gaps in Private Lynch's story and through the movements of the other battalions of the AIF provides impact and context to their plight and achievements. Looking at these battlefields today, the pilgrims who visit and those who attend to the land we come to understand how the spirit of Australia developed and of our enduring role in world politics.world war 1914-1918 - personal narratives - australia, western front 1914-1918 - australian participation

Notes, bibliography, ill, p.196.non-fictionRalph Goode became the first of many men from Lilydale Victoria to enlist in World War One when he joined the 2nd Field Ambulance as a stretcher bearer. Over the next four years he recorded hid activities.world war 1914-1918 - australian participation - 2nd field ambulance, ralph goode 1888-1961 - biography

Ill, maps, p.242.non-fictionThe exciting first-hand account of heroism and daring sabotage during the Nazi occupation of Norwayworld war 1939-1945 - underground movements - norway, norwegian heavy water sabotage

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, notes,ill, maps, p.655.non-fictionOn the basis of 1,400 oral histories from the men who were there, Eisenhower biographer and World War II historian Stephen E. Ambrose reveals for the first time anywhere that the intricate plan for the invasion of France in June 1944, had to be abandoned before the first shot was fired.operation overlord, world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - france

Index, ill, p.368non-fictionToday it is almost forgotten that the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 did not bring a single, isolate victory. As this masterly book reminds us, that first foothold on enemy shores was won at enormous cost, and for two months afterwards a fierce battle raged for the control of Caen. Using the personal accounts of those who took part in the fighting, both Allied and German, and of the French civilians caught up in the conflict, McKee brilliantly reconstructs the bitter struggle that ravaged Normandy throughout the summer of 1944 before the Allied position in Europe was finally secured.world war 1939-1945 - campaigns france, d-day - normandy

Ill, p.339.non-fictionThis book uses first hand accounts, published memoirs and contemporary diaries and letters to to create a vivid picture of the chaos and fear, and bears witness to the courage, spirit and good humour of those who survived the Blitz london - bombardment - 1939-1945, world war 1939-1945 -personal narratives - britain

Ill, maps, p.120.non-fictionAn account of Bomber Commands operations in the first years of the warworld war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - british, royal air force - bomber command

Ill, p.244.non-fictionDon Charlwood was born in Melbourne in 1915. Accepted as a RAF navigator in 1940, he was posted to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds in the winter of 1942. There he crewed up with a pilot from Western Australia and a British crew to fly a Lancaster bomber. In No Moon Tonight he gives a profound insight into the inner lives of the men of Bomber Command and their hopes and fears in the face of mounting losses. He depicts the appalling human cost of the air war in an account which has been favorably compared to other enduring memoirs of the 1st World War, namely Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. A memorable first hand account of the air war over Germany.world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - britain, world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - australia

Index, ill, p.137.non-fictionFirst published to acclaim in 1992, this book deals with the exploits of Bomber Command during their offensive against German Industry in the Ruhr during World War II. The author begins by describing the role of Bomber Command and goes on to define the Ruhr area and its great importance in terms of industrial output to the Germans. The author provides the statistics for bombers dispatched, the number, which actually got to the targets and those, which never made it for one reason or another. Air Battle of the Ruhr is a complete overview of a major aspect of the air war against mainland Germany.bombimg - ruhr region - germany, world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - britain

Index, ill, p.385.non-fictionA history of the Luftwaffe through the eyes of one of its aces, Adolf Galland. world war 1939-1945 - personal narratives - germany, world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - germany

Index, ill, maps, p.587.non-fictionThis is volume 2 of series 1 (Army) of Australia in the War, 1939-1945. The first series has seven volumes, the first three covering military campaigns in the Middle East and the last four in the Pacific. world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – greece – syria, military history of australia in world war two

Index, bibliography, ill, p.478.non-fictionIn Crisis in the Pacific acclaimed historian Gerald Astor draws on the raw experiences of marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen under fire - from generals and admirals to correspondents, line officers and enlisted men on both sides of the battle lines - to present a view of the critical struggle for the Philippines, the keystone to Japanese domination of the Pacific and to ultimate Allied victory. These accounts, many published here for the first time, are dramatic and graphic, brutal and awe-inspiring. Ranging from the diplomatic and nursing corps' experience of the Japanese conquest and occupation of the islands, to the Bataan death march and first-hand accounts of war crimes inflicted by the Japanese on prisoners of war, to the final push for the hills of Mindanao, Crisis in the Pacific is the first complete history, told in the words of the men and women who were there, of one of the most crucial battlegrounds of World War II.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – phillipines, world war 1939 – 1945 – personal narratives

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.262.non-fictionThe story of POW's captured at Hong Kong is told for the first time in this book. A gripping tale of courage and enduranceworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – hong kong, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners and prisons - japan

Notes, ill, p.51.non-fictionDescribes the experience of the US 1st division quartered at the Melbourne Cricket Groundworld war 1939 – 1945 – personal narratives – united states, us 1st division

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