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The Battle of Long Tan: Australia’s four hours of hell in Vietnam   Written by: David W. Cameron Penguin Random House Australia, 2017, 392pp, Reviewed by: Major Lindsay Amner Military history is generally written by the winners. If the losers write their version of history, they will generally add a bit of glory to their actions so they appear glorious losers rather than just losers. But whichever side writes the history, it is generally told from only one side, from the cultural perspective of the writer. …

The Australian Imperial Force   Written by: Jean Bou & Peter Dennis Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2016 ISBN: 978-0195576801, 320 pp, Reviewed by: William Westerman This is the final volume of a five-book history of Australia in the Great War published by Oxford University Press during the war’s centenary years. Previous volumes have explored the war against the Germans, the war against the Ottomans, the war in the air and the home front. This book completes the picture, doing away with battle …

Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II     Written by: Jörg Muth University of North Texas Press, Denton, 2013,  ISBN: 978-1574415339, 376 pp,   Reviewed by: Captain Dale O’Shannessy The quality and performance of military forces throughout history is often founded foremost on a compelling narrative. Narratives about naturally-gifted soldiers and officers, who possess superhuman courage, what historian Michael Howard …

The Siege of Tsingtau: The German-Japanese War 1914   Written by: Charles Stephenson Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2017, ISBN: 9781526702920, 244pp Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts AM, CSC (Rtd) Charles Stephenson’s The Siege of Tsingtau: The German-Japanese War 1914 delivers far more than the title suggests. In a highly readable style, and covering a wide canvas, we are presented with a succinct history of Imperial Germany’s acquisition of territories in East Asia and the Pacific during the late 19th …

Get Tough, Stay Tough: Shaping the Canadian Corps 1914-1918   Written by: Kenneth Radley Helion & Company, Solihull, 2014,  ISBN: 9781912174737 - Paperback, 423pp Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts AM, CSC (Rtd) Following on from his excellent study of the 1st Canadian Division during the Great War ( We Lead, Others Follow ) Kenneth Radley’s Get Tough, Stay Tough: Shaping the Canadian Corps 1914-1918 looks at the Canadians on the Western Front through a slightly different lens. In his first book Radley …

Courage without Glory: The British Army on the Western Front 1915   Edited by: Spencer Jones Helion and Company Limited, Solihull UK, 2015, ISBN: 9781910777183, 448pp Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts AM, CSC (Rtd) As Spencer Jones notes in his introduction, within the welter of books on the Great War, 1915 is the forgotten year of the war on the Western Front. In contrast to the plethora of works on the Gallipoli campaign, little has been devoted to the British Army’s experience in France and Belgium …

Soldiers and Gentlemen: Australian Battalion Commanders in the Great War 1914-1918     Written by: Dr William Westerman Cambridge University Press, 2017,  ISBN 9781107190627, 320pp   Reviewed by: Colonel Michael Mumford The Australian Army History series continues to produce excellent histories of the Australian Army and the latest, William Westerman’s Soldiers and Gentlemen , is devoted to the role of the battalion commander in the First World War. This book is the first examination of the background, …

The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Series     Edited by: Jeffrey Grey Oxford University Press, 2014-2015, volumes 1 to 5     Reviewed by: Professor Michael Neiberg Mark Twain once said that Australia’s history “does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies.” 1 When it comes to commemoration of the First World War, Twain’s words may be a bit harsh, but they have a ring of truth, and not only for Australia. Among the many patterns that have emerged worldwide during the …

Trust and Leadership: The Australian Army Approach to Mission Command   Edited by: Russell Glenn University of North Georgia Press, Dahlonega, 2020, ISBN 1940771692, 408pp Reviewed by: Dr Albert Palazzo Nations may wage wars, but soldiers conduct missions. There was a time when such a distinction did not exist. Warriors slashed and thrust at each other with swords and spears, and when one side broke and ran the battle, and often the war, was over. Today, however, the waging of war is far more complex and …

Messing With the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News   Written by: Clint Watts Harper, 2018,  ISBN 9780062795984, 304pp Reviewed by Major Lee Hayward Messing With the Enemy is a contemporaneous look at our hyper-connected world, the way that the rise in social media has enabled state and non-state actors to influence individuals, and how these actors potentially can affect Defence, government, business and individuals. Clint Watts points out that state …