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Afghan Sun: Defence, Diplomacy, Development and the Taliban Stuart Yeaman, Boolarong Press, 2013, ISBN 9781922109910, 360pp Reviewed by: Colonel David Connery Most books reviewed in this journal are written by detached observers and academics. Afghan Sun is different. It is the work of former Australian Army officer Colonel Stuart Yeaman, AM, and is a personal account of the unit he commanded in Afghanistan. This book will primarily interest readers with a connection to the unit or those with a deep …
Canister! On! FIRE! Australian Tank Operations in Vietnam Written by: Bruce Cameron, Big Sky Publishing, 2012, ISBN 9781921941993, 968pp (two volumes) Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Scott Winter In November 2012, the 1st Armoured Regiment hosted the official launch of Canister! On! Fire! Australian Tank Operations in Vietnam . A contingent of the regiment’s veterans, led by author Bruce Cameron, MC, joined the men and women of the regiment for the occasion. After a stirring presentation by former …
Climax at Gallipoli: The Failure of the August Offensive Written by: Rhys Crawley, University of Oklahoma Press, 2014 ISBN 9780806152066, 384pp, Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts (Ret’d), AM, CSM Mounted to break the deadlock resulting from the failed April landings, the August Offensive at Gallipoli was the largest operation undertaken on the peninsula. In the eyes of many contemporaries, and several subsequent historians, it came close to success; an offensive that failed by a whisker to bring the …
The Backroom Boys: Alfred Conlon and Army’s Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs Written by: Graeme Sligo, Big Sky Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781921941122, 416pp, Reviewed by: John Donovan Although Colonel Graeme Sligo has written an interesting story about the Australian Army’s Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, the real story that needs to be told is that of the directorate’s enigmatic director Alfred Conlon, at least beyond the glimpses into his personality that appear in the book. The …
Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Written by: Daniel P. Bolger, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014, ISBN 9780544370487, 544pp, Reviewed by: Brigadier Simon Stuart Recently retired US Lieutenant General Dan Bolger’s provocatively titled book Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars ultimately fails to prove its thesis. But, it does not matter. Counterintuitively, the value of Bolger’s book does not rely upon congruence between its title …
Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia–Pacific Written by: Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson (eds), Naval Institute Press, 2014 ISBN 9781612514642, 226pp, Reviewed by: Andrew Carr There’s an old joke military officials like to tell: amateurs do strategy; professionals do logistics. For most of us self-proclaimed ‘amateurs’, how the United States positions itself in the Asia–Pacific is one of the key strategic questions of our time. As Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson’s new …
Defence Planning and Uncertainty: Preparing for the Next Asia–Pacific War Written by: Stephan Frühling, Routledge, 2014 ISBN 9780415605731, 240pp, Reviewed by: Lori Lucietto As the Indo–Pacific region continues to grow, both economically and militarily, a growing number of countries in the region and beyond are facing challenges in their strategic planning. Stephan Frühling asks, ‘How can countries determine what kind of military force is needed if threats are uncertain and history is full of …
The French Army and the First World War Written by: Elizabeth Greenhalgh Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, ISBN: 978-1107605688469pp Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts (retd) In a conflict in which the French bore the greatest burden on the Western Front, the English-speaking historiography of the Great War includes few books that describe the French contribution. Naturally, Australia’s focus on that conflict is predominantly Anglo-centric with a consequent na-tionalistic flavouring of …
The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East Written by: Eugene Rogan, Basic Books, New York, 2015, ISBN: 9780465023073, 485pp Reviewed by: Dr William Westerman With much of the attention of the First World War focused on the Western Front (both when it was being waged and ever since), it is a welcome change to explore a different theatre of that immense conflict. To the Entente powers, the war in the Middle East served simply to divert both their attention and, importantly, their …
To Kokoda Written by: Nicholas Anderson Australian Army Campaigns Series 14 Big Sky Publishing, 2014, ISBN: 9781922132963 186pp, 186pp, Reviewed by: Wing Commander Mark Smith The Kokoda campaign ranks second to the Gallipoli campaign in the national psyche and also probably in the number of Australian military history books devoted to a single campaign. With the approach of the 75th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in 2017, there are likely to be more dissertations published and the myth versus …
