Review Essay - Zombie Myths of Australian Military History – The Ten Myths That Will Not Die by Craig Stockings (ed)
Zombie Myths of Australian Military History – The Ten Myths That Will Not Die,
Written by: Craig Stockings (ed),
University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2010,
ISBN 9781742230795.
Reviewed by: Captain Dayton McCarthy
This lively collection of essays aims to slay, or at the very least provide some context to, ten of the most resilient myths in Australian military history. The authors have a job on their hands as many of these myths form the staple subject matter for the bestselling books in popular Australian military history. In general, the authors succeed in this task. Whether Zombie Myths will subsequently spare Australian bookshelves from another ill-based tome is altogether less certain.
First, let us clear the air on what the book is and is not. It is not an attack on the institution of Anzac Day or the commemoration of Australian military history per se. In this way, Zombie Myths does not open a new front in the History Wars, but does note the link between many of these myths and the need to commemorate past deeds. Stockings et al are at pains to stress that these essays are neither ‘mythbusting’ for its own sake nor seek to denigrate or lessen the deeds of the soldiers themselves. Instead, the essays seek to reorient our understanding of past events. In doing so, Stockings argues, these myths ‘twist and distort our perceptions of war’ and ‘distort our reading of the present and expectations for the future’ (p. 3). For this reason, military professionals have much to gain from such a book; while those wedded to the prevailing narrative may find some essays confronting. In this respect, it will be interesting to see how this book is received in the wider community.
Some will also quibble on the final selection of myths in the book. In this reviewer’s mind, some of the ‘myths’ are truly on their last legs, while others are still being actively debated and yet to achieve ‘zombie myth’ status. John Connor’s examination of the so-called Frontier Wars is a case in point. This chapter aims to demonstrate that there was Aboriginal armed resistance to European settlement and that it was a ‘war’ despite colonial administrations refusing to use the term (for a number of valid reasons). While none would dispute some form of warfare took place, others (myself included) would debate the use of the term ‘war’ in describing this conflict. But on this, Connor plays the Clausewitz trump card; if ‘war is an act of force to compel the enemy to do our will’, then how can the frontier conflicts not be considered a war?
Craig Wilcox’s chapter on Breaker Morant is bluntly titled ‘the murderer as martyr’ and leaves the reader in no doubt about its subject. Far from the unorthodox hero and ‘scapegoat of empire’ of lore, Morant is exposed as a serial liar, con-man and thug and the famed Bushveldt Carbineers no more than an irregular policing unit assigned to a relatively pacified region. The actions of Morant and his accomplices are revealed as murder—no more, no less. Furthermore, the conceit that it was a dirty war that required morally ambivalent actions to take the fight to the enemy is revealed as false—at least in relation to Morant’s case. One wonders how those who would commemorate Morant would consider the subject if a latter-day poorly-trained, irregular unit shot civilians or captured soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Some myths are easily despatched by simply providing context. Elizabeth Greenhalgh’s chapter on the supposed exceptionalism of the Australian Corps and the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in 1918 is one example. By demonstrating what other allied units were doing across the entire front, the contribution of the Australian Corps, while important, is shown to be part of the wider effort that applied the hard-won lessons of combined arms warfare into a cogent operational plan. Similarly, Peter Stanley and David Stevens launch a double-envelopment on the idea that Australia was fighting for its very life with the Japanese poised to invade in 1942. By examining the hard logistical realities facing Japanese operations in the Pacific and the fact that Allied control of the sea undermined any maritime/amphibious strategies, the authors demonstrate that Japan would not be able to supply and hold what land gains they had, let alone invade Australia. I suspect that Stevens, a naval historian, may have downplayed the importance of the land operations denying Japanese access to Port Moresby and Milne Bay, but he is correct in placing the Papuan campaigns in the wider context of the Pacific war.
Craig Stockings tackles perhaps the greatest of the military myths—that the Australian soldier is a ‘natural’ fighter—in the context the 1940–41 Libyan campaign against the Italians. He shows that military effectiveness is first and foremost a function of training and competent leadership. It is also relative to the quality of the enemy faced. So in the Greek Campaign, when the Australians did face an enemy who placed equal—or more—importance on combined arms warfare, training and small unit leadership, the outcome was altogether different. It is a shame that Stockings did not examine this myth in a wider context and over an extended period. One suspects that despite protestations and a far more intellectual veneer, the belief about ‘natural’ Australian soldiering abilities remains not far below the surface.
One of the more enjoyable chapters is Peter Dennis’ thorough demolition of the conspiracy theories surrounding the sinking of the HMAS Sydney in 1941. He exposes the various hucksters and conspiracy peddlers, some of whom concocted entire theories without a shred of evidence. The naval action demonstrated that the enemy ‘always gets a vote’ and that in war, events take a non-logical, non-linear turn which some may have difficulty rationalising. His chapter concludes with excerpts from the 2009 Commission of Inquiry, which finally despatched this particular zombie. To have been a fly on the wall in those hearings would have been fantastic; for those of us who were not, Dennis’ chapter is a great substitute.
The writing style is punchy throughout and all contributors have obviously taken to their brief with gusto and relish. As such, each chapter propels the reader into the next and the book may be completed in a sitting. Moreover, Stockings is to be congratulated for weaving a consistent tone and thematic thread across the disparate chapters. One wonders whether the book will do well enough for a second edition. If so, Stockings might consider the inclusion of some more recent myths, some of which are well on the way to ‘zombie’ status. One comes to mind—’the ADF punches above its weight.’ I am sure there are many others out there.
