Showing 609 items
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Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, Images of war, 1986
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, Images of war, 1983
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, Thunder from above, 1984
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, A nation divided, 1984
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, South Vietnam on trial, 1984
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, A collision of cultures, 1984
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, A contagion of war, 1983
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, Nineteen sixty eight, 1983
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Boston Publishing Company, Fighting for time, 1983
Photography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.185.non-fictionPhotography, maps, and eyewitness accounts describe the War in Vietnam.vietnam war 1961-1975, vietnam - history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Time Life Books, Special forces and missions, 1990
Activities of US special forces are described.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.175.non-fictionActivities of US special forces are described.special forces - united states, military history - 20th century -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Time Life Books, The Soviet Air Force at war, 1983
Chapter heads: The Red Falcons of Bolshevism--Waging peace testing for war --The struggle for survival--Armies of the air--Pobyeda! Victory!Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.176.non-fictionChapter heads: The Red Falcons of Bolshevism--Waging peace testing for war --The struggle for survival--Armies of the air--Pobyeda! Victory!world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - russia, soviet union - air force -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Stirling Seagrave, Soldiers of fortune, 1981
The story of pilots who have earned their living flying in other people's wars.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.176.non-fictionThe story of pilots who have earned their living flying in other people's wars.mercenary troops - history, soldiers of fortune - history -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Dent, Dunkirk : the great escape, 1977
Dunkirk (Dunkerque), France's fourth port, is an ancient city with a colourful history of war. From here a large part of the British Army escaped.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.240.non-fictionDunkirk (Dunkerque), France's fourth port, is an ancient city with a colourful history of war. From here a large part of the British Army escaped.world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - france, operation dynamo -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Harper Collins, The search for the Sydney, 2009
Tells the action-packed story of the hunt for the Sydney - and the Kormoran - and reveals what really happened on that fateful day in November 1941.Index, Bibliography, ill, maps, p.264.non-fictionTells the action-packed story of the hunt for the Sydney - and the Kormoran - and reveals what really happened on that fateful day in November 1941.royal australian navy - history, hmas sydney - shipwrecks -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Time Life Books, Royal Australian Navy, 1988
A history of the Royal Australian Navy from World War One to the presentIndex, bibliography, ill, maps, p.168non-fictionA history of the Royal Australian Navy from World War One to the presentaustralia - royal australian navy - history, australia - naval history -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Allen and Unwin, Fire in the Sky : The Australian Flying Corps in the First World War, 2010
The first book in 90 years dedicated to the daring and courage of the airmen and mechanics of the Australian Flying Corps - a tale of a war fought thousands of feet above the trenches from which only one in two emerged unscathed.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.424.non-fictionThe first book in 90 years dedicated to the daring and courage of the airmen and mechanics of the Australian Flying Corps - a tale of a war fought thousands of feet above the trenches from which only one in two emerged unscathed.world war 1914-1918 - australian flying corps, world war 1914-1918 - aerial operations - australia -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, William Heinemann, Sandakan : the untold story of the Sandakan Death Marches, 2013
The untold story of the Sandakan death marches of World War II. After the fall of Singapore, in February 1942, the Japanese conquerors rounded up tens of thousands of British and Australian soldiers and shipped them to prison camps scattered throughout Hirohito's newly won Empire. The fall of Britain's 'impregnable fortress' was the greatest humiliation in British military history, for which Churchill never forgave the Japanese. But nothing would surpass the wretched fate of some 2,700 British and Australian prisoners who were shipped to British North Borneo later that year. They landed in Sandakan, on the east coast of the island, after a 10-day voyage on a Japanese 'hell' ship, and were herded into a jungle camp some eight miles inland. Thus began the three-year ordeal of the Sandakan prisoners of war - a barely known story of unimaginable horror.Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.688.non-fictionThe untold story of the Sandakan death marches of World War II. After the fall of Singapore, in February 1942, the Japanese conquerors rounded up tens of thousands of British and Australian soldiers and shipped them to prison camps scattered throughout Hirohito's newly won Empire. The fall of Britain's 'impregnable fortress' was the greatest humiliation in British military history, for which Churchill never forgave the Japanese. But nothing would surpass the wretched fate of some 2,700 British and Australian prisoners who were shipped to British North Borneo later that year. They landed in Sandakan, on the east coast of the island, after a 10-day voyage on a Japanese 'hell' ship, and were herded into a jungle camp some eight miles inland. Thus began the three-year ordeal of the Sandakan prisoners of war - a barely known story of unimaginable horror.world war 1939-1945 - prisoners of war - sandakan, japan - prisons and prisoners of war -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Penguin Books, The coming of the Third Reich, 2004
n 1900, Germany was one of modernity's great success stories: The most progressive and dynamic nation in Europe, it was the only country whose rapid economic growth and innovation rivaled that of the United States. Its political culture was far less authoritarian than Russia's and less anti-Semitic than France's. Representative institutions thrived, and competing political parties and elections were a central part of life. How, then, could it be that in little more than a generation this stable modern country would fall into the hands of Adolf Hitler and the violent, racist, extremist political movement he led, a movement that would lead Germany and then all of Europe into utter moral, physical, and cultural ruin?" "There is no story in twentieth-century history more important to understand, and Richard Evans has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans's history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as he shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. Its citizens were angry and embittered by military defeat and economic ruin, and its young democracy undermined by a civil service, an army, and a law enforcement system deeply alienated from the new order. The electorate was beset by growing extremism and panic about communism; and the small but successful Jewish community was subject to wide-spread suspicion and resentment. In the end, though nothing about what happened was preordained, Germany proved to be fertile ground for Nazism's ideology of hatred.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.335.non-fictionn 1900, Germany was one of modernity's great success stories: The most progressive and dynamic nation in Europe, it was the only country whose rapid economic growth and innovation rivaled that of the United States. Its political culture was far less authoritarian than Russia's and less anti-Semitic than France's. Representative institutions thrived, and competing political parties and elections were a central part of life. How, then, could it be that in little more than a generation this stable modern country would fall into the hands of Adolf Hitler and the violent, racist, extremist political movement he led, a movement that would lead Germany and then all of Europe into utter moral, physical, and cultural ruin?" "There is no story in twentieth-century history more important to understand, and Richard Evans has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans's history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as he shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. Its citizens were angry and embittered by military defeat and economic ruin, and its young democracy undermined by a civil service, an army, and a law enforcement system deeply alienated from the new order. The electorate was beset by growing extremism and panic about communism; and the small but successful Jewish community was subject to wide-spread suspicion and resentment. In the end, though nothing about what happened was preordained, Germany proved to be fertile ground for Nazism's ideology of hatred.germany - politics and government 1933-1939, germany - nazi party -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, The Boer war, 1977
The Boer War was an epic both of heroism and of barbarism. Fought by the British against the Dutch inhabitants of South Aftrica, the Boer War had an extraordinary cast of characters including Commanders-in chief buller, Roberts and Kitchener, Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Emily Hobhouse, Rudyard Kipling, and Gandhi. The war revealed the ineptitude of the British military, and exposed the corrupt underside of British imperialism . For the first time, Judd and Surridge debunk several myths. There was not, for instance, a straightforward divide between the Boers and British. In fact, the overriding aim of both sides was to maintain European supremacy and to keep Africans and Indians "in their place." Giving us a sense of how the Apartheid era was born.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.190.non-fictionThe Boer War was an epic both of heroism and of barbarism. Fought by the British against the Dutch inhabitants of South Aftrica, the Boer War had an extraordinary cast of characters including Commanders-in chief buller, Roberts and Kitchener, Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Emily Hobhouse, Rudyard Kipling, and Gandhi. The war revealed the ineptitude of the British military, and exposed the corrupt underside of British imperialism . For the first time, Judd and Surridge debunk several myths. There was not, for instance, a straightforward divide between the Boers and British. In fact, the overriding aim of both sides was to maintain European supremacy and to keep Africans and Indians "in their place." Giving us a sense of how the Apartheid era was born.south african war 1899-1901, second boer war -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Cassel, Wars of national liberation, 2001
An account of why wars have been fought in the post world war two period.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.224.non-fictionAn account of why wars have been fought in the post world war two period.world politics - 1945-, national liberation movements -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Cassell, Kohima, 1966
On 7 March 1944 Tokyo announced that the Japanese invasion of British India had begun. By mid-month, the Japanese 31st Division had crossed the Chindwin River in northern Burma, advancing on a wide front towards Imphal and Kohima. In bitter jungle fighting from early April, the British Fourteenth Army under Field Marshal Slim held the Japanese assault on Kohima Ridge. By late June the Japanese were in headlong retreat. Kohima ranks for strategic importance with Alamein, Midway and Stalingrad. The increasing dominance of Allied airpower in the region in the aftermath of the battle was a major factor.Index, bibliography, ill, maps, p.275.non-fictionOn 7 March 1944 Tokyo announced that the Japanese invasion of British India had begun. By mid-month, the Japanese 31st Division had crossed the Chindwin River in northern Burma, advancing on a wide front towards Imphal and Kohima. In bitter jungle fighting from early April, the British Fourteenth Army under Field Marshal Slim held the Japanese assault on Kohima Ridge. By late June the Japanese were in headlong retreat. Kohima ranks for strategic importance with Alamein, Midway and Stalingrad. The increasing dominance of Allied airpower in the region in the aftermath of the battle was a major factor. kohima - siege - 1944, world war 1939-1945 - land operations - india -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Time Life Books Australia in association with John Ferguson, The Australian light horse, 1987
The activities of the Australian Light Horse in the Boer war and in World War OneIndex, bibliography, ill, maps, p.168.non-fictionThe activities of the Australian Light Horse in the Boer war and in World War Onerorld war 1914-1918 - campaigns - palestine, australian light horse - history -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Red coat dreaming : how colonial Australia embraced the British Army, 2009
History, artifact and art combine to evoke a time in colonial Australia when the Motherland, and the British Army in particular, loomed large. Challenges our understanding of Australia's military history and the primacy of the Anzac legend.Index, bibliography, notes, ill, p.179.non-fictionHistory, artifact and art combine to evoke a time in colonial Australia when the Motherland, and the British Army in particular, loomed large. Challenges our understanding of Australia's military history and the primacy of the Anzac legend.australia - history - military, australia - relations - great britain -
Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages
Book, John Giacon et al, Yaama maliyaa, Yuwaalaraay - Gamilaraay : an aboriginal languages textbook, 1999
Includes index. Bibliography. For secondary school students.B&w illustrations, b&w photographs, maps, word listsgamilaraay, yuwaalaraay -
Koorie Heritage Trust
Book, Bowe, Heather et al, Yorta Yorta language heritage, 1997
In this book are described the general features of Yorta Yorta and provide a compsite vocabulary of about 1,000 words. Vocabulary items documented for particular groups/clans can be identified by the source references against individual words. There is a separate section with a brief description of Yabula Yabula and a specific vocabulary list for that clan language. The book uses early historical records and spoken resources to document the language heritage of the Yorta Yorta ; includes Yorta Yorta grammar and English to Yorta Yorta and Yorta Yorta to English dictionaries ; also includes a Yabula Yabula grammar and vocabulary list ; Yorta Yorta language revival project.p.226; notyes; dictionary; appendices; bibliography.In this book are described the general features of Yorta Yorta and provide a compsite vocabulary of about 1,000 words. Vocabulary items documented for particular groups/clans can be identified by the source references against individual words. There is a separate section with a brief description of Yabula Yabula and a specific vocabulary list for that clan language. The book uses early historical records and spoken resources to document the language heritage of the Yorta Yorta ; includes Yorta Yorta grammar and English to Yorta Yorta and Yorta Yorta to English dictionaries ; also includes a Yabula Yabula grammar and vocabulary list ; Yorta Yorta language revival project.language - linguistics - vocabulary and grammar | language - vocabulary - dictionaries and glossaries | language - vocabulary - word lists | language - linguistics - language elicitation - sentences | language - vocabulary - place names ||yorta yorta / yota yota language (d2) (nsw si55-13) | yabula yabula language (s38) (vic sj55-01) -
Mission to Seafarers Victoria
Book, Nautical Association of Australia Inc, A Lucky Ship – Nine Lives of Australian Coaster Tambar 1912-1960, 2013
This high-quality book is the extraordinary story of an ordinary little ship that had a long and eventful life. Perhaps few Australian coasters have had a more interesting and varied history. Built in Scotland in 1912 for the North Coast Steam Navigation Company, Tambar worked as a lifeline to isolated river and island communities, first in New South Wales, then for the Tasmanian Government and Holymans in Bass Strait (King Island) and as the last steamer serving the Gippsland Lakes. In between she even spent a few years in Papua New Guinea. When World War II broke out, Tambar was commissioned into the RAN as an auxiliary minesweeper, but after the terrible Darwin air raid in 1942 became the first vessel of the newly formed Salvage Board, later assisting in the search for survivors of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Returning to Bass Strait in 1944 for a few more years, she then spent the 1950s on standby as a salvage vessel in Melbourne, working on Merilyn, Terawhiti, E.J. Fairnie, and River Burnett. Craig Mair grew up in Grangemouth, Scotland where Tambar was built, and became interested after inheriting a builder's model from his father. He has consulted thousands of records, including the ship's logs, tracked down witnesses, and assembled over 100 photographs and maps to give a unique insight into Tambar's story, and coastal Australia in the middle decades of the twentieth century, before roads took over the transport task. Besides many colourful stories of shipwrecks and strandings, strange cargoes, salty characters, exotic places, wartime air raids, and salvage jobs, the book includes a definitive account of the worst Second World War 'friendly fire' incident in Australian waters in Moreton Bay in 1942.250 pages, Appendices, Bibliography and Indices, extensively illustratednon-fictionThis high-quality book is the extraordinary story of an ordinary little ship that had a long and eventful life. Perhaps few Australian coasters have had a more interesting and varied history. Built in Scotland in 1912 for the North Coast Steam Navigation Company, Tambar worked as a lifeline to isolated river and island communities, first in New South Wales, then for the Tasmanian Government and Holymans in Bass Strait (King Island) and as the last steamer serving the Gippsland Lakes. In between she even spent a few years in Papua New Guinea. When World War II broke out, Tambar was commissioned into the RAN as an auxiliary minesweeper, but after the terrible Darwin air raid in 1942 became the first vessel of the newly formed Salvage Board, later assisting in the search for survivors of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Returning to Bass Strait in 1944 for a few more years, she then spent the 1950s on standby as a salvage vessel in Melbourne, working on Merilyn, Terawhiti, E.J. Fairnie, and River Burnett. Craig Mair grew up in Grangemouth, Scotland where Tambar was built, and became interested after inheriting a builder's model from his father. He has consulted thousands of records, including the ship's logs, tracked down witnesses, and assembled over 100 photographs and maps to give a unique insight into Tambar's story, and coastal Australia in the middle decades of the twentieth century, before roads took over the transport task. Besides many colourful stories of shipwrecks and strandings, strange cargoes, salty characters, exotic places, wartime air raids, and salvage jobs, the book includes a definitive account of the worst Second World War 'friendly fire' incident in Australian waters in Moreton Bay in 1942.naa, australian national line, interest group, moreton bay, tambar, coaster, ships -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, CA Young, Platoon commander's notebook 1915, 2007
Based 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.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 -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Suzanne Wellborn, Bush heroes : a people, a place, a legend, 2002
More 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.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 -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Peter Fitzsimons, Fromelles and Pozières : in the trenches of hell, 2015
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.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 -
Monbulk RSL Sub Branch
Book, Paul Ham, Passchendaele : requiem for doomed youth, 2016
Passchendaele 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 summaryIndex, 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