Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.712.non-fictionAbout 1300 Australians died in the desert campaigns of World War I, while another 3500 died in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Thousands more carried the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Countless families were left behind to mourn the dead and comfort the injured. A ripple effect of grief passed down the generations. This is the story of Australia's desert wars as never before told. Using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs, Desert Boys provides an intensely personal and gripping insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of two generations of Australian soldiers. In many cases these were fathers and sons going to successive wars with all the tragedy, adventure and hardship that brought.australian army - desert campaigns, desert warfare - 20th century

The 17th Australian Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Australian Army. First formed in 1917 during World War I, it did not see any action. Reformed during World War II, before being disbanded in 1946. Today, its name is perpetuated by the 17th Combat Service Support Brigade, which was raised as a logistics formation in May 2006. The 17th Brigade was reformed on 13 October 1939, again as part of the 6th Division, recruited from Victoria. The 17th Brigade fought in the Western Desert Campaign in Libya, the Battle of Greece, the Battle of Wau, the Salamaua-Lae campaign in Papua, and in the Aitape-Wewak campaign in New Guinea. The photographs are of national significance as they may reflect the only known photographs of individuals from WW2.4 page newspaper pictures of 17th Brigade, Second AIFThe Argus 17th Australian Infantry Brigade, Second AIF, Souvenir Supplement, Thursday, February 22, 1940 Page 1 2/5th Battalion - Picture 1 Officers of the 2/5th Battalion; Picture 2 Senior NCO's of the 2/5th Battalion; Picture 3 A Company 2/5th Battalion Page 2 B Company 2/5th Battalion; C Company 2/5th Battalion; D Company 2/5th Battalion Page 3 Headquarters 2/2nd Field Regiment 6th Divisional Artillery; 3rd Battery 2/2nd Field Regiment 6th Divisional Artillery Page 4 Officers, NCO's and men of 2/2nd Field Company, 6th Divisional Engineers; Officers NCO's and men 2/2nd Field Ambulance and 2/2nd Australian General Hospital 6th Divisional Australian Army Medical Corpsaif, army, 17th brigade, second aif, 2/5th battalion, australian army, australian infantry brigade, 2/2nd field aumbulance, 2/2nd australian general hospital, 6th divisional australian army medical corps, 6th divisional engineers

German Luftwaffe (Land Forces) minefield warning flag from WWII.originally intended to be gas markers, rather than mines, but as it turned out, the use changed .they were mounted on a red metal pole & there were 12 to a set in a leather pack. This Flag was presented to the Treasurer of Waverley RSL. It is a souvenir from Bardia in Libya The Battle of Bardia was fought over three days between 3 and 5 January 1941, as part of Operation Compass, the first military operation of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It was the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part, the first to be commanded by an Australian general and the first to be planned by an Australian staff. Major General Iven Mackay's 6th Division assaulted the strongly held Italian fortress of Bardia, Libya, assisted by air support and naval gunfire, and under the cover of an artillery barrage. The 16th Infantry Brigade attacked at dawn from the west, where the defences were known to be weak. Sappers blew gaps in the barbed wire with Bangalore torpedoes and filled in and broke down the sides of the anti-tank ditch with picks and shovels. This allowed the infantry and 23 Matilda II tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment to enter the fortress and capture all their objectives, along with 8,000 prisoners. In the second phase of the operation, the 17th Infantry Brigade exploited the breach made in the perimeter, and pressed south as far as a secondary line of defences known as the Switch Line. On the second day, the 16th Infantry Brigade captured the township of Bardia, cutting the fortress in two. Thousands of prisoners were taken, and the Italian garrison now held out only in the northern and southernmost parts of the fortress. On the third day, the 19th Infantry Brigade advanced south from Bardia, supported by artillery and the Matilda tanks, now reduced in number to just six. Its advance allowed the 17th Infantry Brigade to make progress as well, and the two brigades reduced the southern sector of the fortress. Meanwhile, the Italian garrisons in the north surrendered to the 16th Infantry Brigade and the Support Group of the British 7th Armoured Division outside the fortress. In all, some 36,000 Italian prisoners were taken. The victory at Bardia enabled the Allied forces to continue the advance into Libya and ultimately capture almost all of Cyrenaica. In turn this would lead to German intervention in the fighting in North Africa, changing the nature of the war in that theatre. Bardia boosted the competence and reputation of the Australian Army. Perhaps most important of all, it raised confidence in the possibility of an ultimate Allied victory around the world, which would lead to the Lend-Lease Act being passed in the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_BardiaCloth Flag bearing a skull and cross Bones on a metal spike mounted on a square varnished wooden basebardia, land mine, marker flag, minefield, mustard gas

Index, bibliography, maps, p.96.non-fictionThe North African campaign has been studied in detail over the years but much of the study has been dedicated to the battles between the British Eighth Army and Rommel's Afrika Korps. There has been little serious study of Wavell's campaign against Italian forces in 1940-41, nor of the role played by the Australian Sixth Division.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – north africa, libya - campaigns - 1940-1941

Items contributed by service men, for their families at home.Hard back Green Material Cover, Print mostly in Khaki Except on Front where Khaki is in Green on Khaki Rectangle. Book 3 in series of 6 published for the Australian Military Forces by The Australian War Memorial Canberra A.C.T. during WW2.Khaki and Green with the Australian Army at Home and Overseas. Relates soldiers' experiences since October 1942 Covering the African desert and Papua Campaignsstawell ww2

Image depicts soldiers of the 2/24 Battalion in October 1941 awaiting transport to Palestine after 8 months in the desert at Tobruk.The 2/24th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army, which served during World War II .A unit of all-volunteers, it was formed in July 1940 from primarily Victorian volunteers and was known as "Wangaratta's Own" because of the time the battalion spent in the town during its formative period prior to deployment overseas. It served in North Africa in 1941–1942 as part of the 26th Brigade, which was assigned to the 7th Division, before being reassigned to the 9th Division. In early 1943, the battalion returned to Australia and later took part in campaigns against the Japanese in New Guinea in 1943–1944 and Borneo in 1945, before being disbanded in 1946. The 2/24th suffered the highest number of casualties of any 2nd AIF infantry battalion. The Unit was granted the Freedom of the City by the Rural City of Wangaratta in 1990 and one of the first, if not the first, to receive this type of honour.Reproduced black and white photograph of unknown soldiers standing in front of convoy of trucks2/24th battalion, wangaratta

Hard cover book. Ginger Murdoch Author: William Hatfield Publisher: Angus & Robertson Date: 1932 Further Information: Dark Blue plain cloth hardcover with lettering and patterning to spine in white. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.fictionGinger Murdoch is a novel built around a recurring bush character of Hatfield's, which had already been running as a series of short stories in The Sydney Mail from 1931 onward. It's about a hard-drinking bushman named Ginger Murdoch. The stories (titles like 'Ginger Murdoch: Horse Dealer', 'Ginger Murdoch, Publican', 'Ginger Murdoch–Outlaw', 'Ginger Murdoch: Squatter') cast him as a knockabout outback figure a horse-dealer, publican, 'knight errant', squatter moving through the kind of droving, station and bush-town life Hatfield knew first-hand. The 1932 Angus & Robertson first edition ran to 268 pages, and the dust-jacket art shows Ginger Murdoch on horseback, exploring the countryside consistent with a picaresque, episodic outback adventure rather than a tightly plotted single narrative.warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, shipwrecked-artefact, book, ginger murdoch, william hatfield

The siege of Tobruk (/təˈbrʊk, toʊ-/) took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. An Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Australian Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, was besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces. The tenacious defenders quickly became known as the Rats of Tobruk. After 231 days, they were finally relieved by the British Eighth Army. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) and trapped the remnants at Beda Fomm. On 22 January 1941, Tobruk's Italian garrison surrendered. But in early 1941, much of the British Western Desert Force was sent to the Greek and Syria–Lebanon campaigns, leaving only a skeleton force short of equipment and supplies. Adolf Hitler felt compelled to send reinforcements, commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, to rescue his beleaguered Italian ally. Rommel launched Operation Sonnenblume (6 February – 25 May 1941), driving the Allies back across Libya to the Egyptian border. However, Tobruk held out, depriving Rommel of a supply port closer to the Egyptian–Libyan border than Benghazi, 560 mi (900 km) west of the Egyptian frontier. The Axis siege of Tobruk began on 10 April and continued despite two failed Allied relief attempts: Operation Brevity (15–16 May) and Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June). The garrison repulsed several Axis attacks. The port was frequently bombarded by artillery, dive-bombers and medium bombers, while the Royal Air Force flew defensive sorties from airfields far away in Egypt. Allied naval forces, such as the British Mediterranean Fleet (including the Inshore Squadron) ran the blockade, carrying reinforcements and supplies in and the wounded and prisoners out. Finally, Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December) succeeded in raising the siege. Bendigo formed its own 'Assoociation of Rats of Tobruk' in 1949. "Bendigo's Own Rates of Tobruk" by Alma Mulqueen. Soft cover. Front and back covers have feint painted image of fig tree taken from Tobruk Barracks, Puckapunyal. Rats of Tobruk Association logo on back cover, and group of past servicemen marching inset on front cover. Book title written in black on front cover. 172 pages. Black and white images through out. Index of records/service people towards front of book. Contains images of soldiers and a brief summary of their service. rats of tobruk, world war 2, soldiers, bendigo

Black hardcover book with a dustjacket. Sepia coloured image of men riding a large group of camels through the desert wraps around the front and spine of the book. The title is printed in brown text across the top of the image and down the spine, over the image.non-fictionColonel Hall commanded a Light Horse Regiment and an Infantry Battalion in World war II and was a Staff Captain and Acting Brigade Major in World War I. He was also involved in community service with Legacy for over fifty years. 'My early life -- World War I -- Gallipoli and all that -- The desert campaign -- The Holy Land beckons -- Over the border -- Life with the camels -- The battles that went wrong -- Marking time -- The battle of Beersheba -- Jerusalem liberated -- Transjordania -- The land of the crusaders -- Syria and peace -- Homeward bound -- Coronation of King George VI -- World War II -- Civilian pursuits -- Sentimental Journey -- The glory that is England -- London calls -- On the continent.' - from Trove recordrex hall, australian army imperial force, military history, world war 1, world war 2, wwi, wwii, ww1, ww2