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Australia and the Vietnam War   Written by: Peter Edwards New South Publishing, 2014, 338pp, ISBN: 9781742241678 Reviewed by: Wing Commander Mark Smith The year 2015 saw a number of commemorations of significant military events culminating in the April commemoration of the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli. The year 2015 was also the 200th anniversary of Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo. Lesser known, and largely overlooked by most Australians, were the 50th anniversaries of the …

Carry Me Home: The Life and Death of Private Jake Kovco   Written by: Dan Box, Allen & Unwin, 2008, 288 pp Reviewed by: Wing Commander Terence O’Connor I approached the review of this book with a deep sense of foreboding having read Geoffrey Robertson QC’s reference to ‘institutionalised dickheadery’ in the publicity release. I had expectations of yet another ‘public flogging’ of the integrity and competency of the ADF. Having regard to what occurred during and after the repatriation of Private Jake Kovco, …

The Battle for Wau: New Guinea’s Frontline 1942–43   Written by: Phillip Bradley, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2008, 285 pp Reviewed by: John Moremon In any war, and within any nation remembering war, there will be some actions over-commemorated and others under-acknowledged. In the latter group rests the Battle for Wau, in the mountainous hinterland of south-eastern Papua–New Guinea. The guerrilla campaign in 1942 might have gone unnoticed by the public but for cameraman Damien Parer venturing …

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban   Written by: Sarah Chayes, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2006, 386 pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Commander Glenn Kerr The Australian Government has been committed to military involvement in Afghanistan since the aftermath of the al-Qaeda attacks on the continental United States on 11 September 2001. Despite our strong military presence, Afghanistan is a country largely unknown to most Australians, peopled by Mujahideen freedom …

To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918   Written by: Edward G Lengel, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008, 512 pp. Reviewed by: Dr Douglas V Johnson II Ed Lengel has gathered together a large collection of first person accounts of this campaign and has woven them together with just enough context to produce a ‘nice’ piece of fabric. I say ‘nice’ because this fabric is basically gray in background, but splotched from top to bottom with battlefield detitrus, and the offal of human remains. If the intent …

Duty First: A History of the Royal Australian Regiment (2nd edition)   Wriitten by: David Horner and Jean Bou (eds.),  Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008, 526 pp. Reviewed by: Karl James In the days following the end of the Second World War three new Australian infantry battalions were raised. The 65th Battalion opened its headquarters at Balikpapan, on Borneo’s east coast, in the Netherlands East Indies, on 11 October 1945. Two weeks later, on 26 October, the 66th Battalion was formed on Labuan in northern …

Ethics Education in the Military   Written by: Paul Robinson, Nigel de Lee and Don Carrick (eds.), Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008, 224 pp. Jointly reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Alan Howes, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Hampson, Chaplain David Jackson CSM, Dr Stephen Coleman, Chaplain Clyde Appleby RAN, and Flight Lieutenant Alyssa Badgery There are many who will agree that Ethics Education in the Military is long overdue as required reading for those who deliver ethics training and education programs in …

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Churchill’s Mavericks: Plotting Hitler’s Defeat     Written by: Giles Milton John Murray Publishing, 2016,  ISBN 9781444798951, 356pp, Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Matt Patching The use of sabotage in war is often something westerners associate with the enemy: dirty tricks that are outside the rules of ‘gentlemanly’ warfare. That was certainly the view of the British polity in the late 1930s. Despite this view, a small and carefully selected group of men and women …

War, Strategy and History. Essays in honour of Professor Robert O’Neill   Edited by: Daniel Marston and Tamara Leahy,  ANU Press, 2016,  ISBN: 9781760460235, 312 pp, Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Mark O’Neill War, Strategy and History is an apt title for this Festschrift honouring the influential career of soldier, strategist and historian, Professor Robert (‘Bob’) O’Neill. From Intelligence Officer of the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR) in South Vietnam in 1966–67; to involvement with …

Margins of Victory   Written by: Douglas Macgregor Macgregor, D (2016) Margin of Victory , Annapolis: Naval Institute Press ISBN: 9781682476901, Reviewed by: Major Mick Cook, Army Headquarters A battle can determine the outcome of a war. The outcome of a battle can be determined by decisions made decades earlier. The reform program that Sir Richard Haldane began to impose on the British Army in 1905 enabled it to hold the line at the Battle of Mons in 1914. General Kazushige Ugaki was able to implement a …