Bardia: Myth, reality and the heirs of ANZAC   Written by: Craig Stockings, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, ISBN: 1921410256, 496 Pages.   Abstract On 3 January 1941, Australian soldiers led an assault against the Italian colonial fortress town of Bardia. Two days later, after fifty-five hours of heavy fighting, the position fell to the Australians in a resounding victory. At a cost of 130 killed and 326 wounded, the Australians captured around 40,000 Italian prisoners and large quantities of arms and equipment. …

Calling Out the Troops: The Australian military and civil unrest: the legal and constitutional issues   Written by: Michael Head,  Federation Press, Sydney, 2009, ISBN: 9781862877092, 254pp     Abstract This review essay examines the arguments of a new book on the use of the ADF to deal with civil unrest within Australia. Several arguments are set out which point to a growing capacity and inclination on the part of governments to use the ADF for such purposes. Various factors that constrain such use are …

POWs of World War II in the Pacific     Written by: Gavan Daws, Scribe, Melbourne, 2008. ISBN: 978086519782, 462pp   Reviewed by: John McCarthy This book was first published in the United States to highly favourable reviews in 1994. Ten years later it was published in Australia. In 2008 it was reprinted. The New York Times Book Review considered it ‘may be the rawest, harshest book about the war’. The international edition of The Japan Times Weekly found it ‘sears the reader’s memory with unforgettable …

Australia’s Involvement in Chemical Warfare 1914-1945   Written by: Geoff Plunkett,  Australian Military History Publications, Canberra, 2007, ISBN: 9781876439880, 734pp. Reviewed by: John Donovan Somewhere in these 734 pages there is an interesting book (about 300 pages long) struggling to be found. Unfortunately, it is so buried by repetition and lack of focus that only the most determined are likely to plough their way through to the end. The principal cause of the lack of focus seems to be that the …

Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War   Written by: Garth Pratten,  Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2009,  ISBN: 9780521763455, 435pp. Reviewed by Craig Stockings Despite its rather uninspiring title, and the fact that it began life as a PhD thesis—and at times reads as such—Garth Pratten’s book: Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War is an important contribution in an under-represented area of Australian military historiography. Over the decades the acolytes …

The War of Ideas: Jihad Against Democracy   Written by: Walid Phares, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, ISBN: 9781403976390, 266 pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Jason Thomas The referees for the author of this book are many and varied. Phares is, according to the book sleeve, a world renowned expert on Islamic based terrorism and the Middle-East, with many television and governmental interviews. It is obvious upon reading the text that his knowledge of the subject is indeed impressive. Additionally, he makes …

The Secret War: A True History of Queensland’s Native Police   Written by: Jonathan Richards, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2008, ISBN: 9780702236396, 320 pp. Reviewed by: Major Murray Stewart Considering the Australian frontier war raged from 1788 into the 1920s across Australia with the expanding settlement, and about 2000 white and 20,000 Aboriginals were killed as a direct result of armed clashes, it is surprising that it is only now starting to loom in Australian military consciousness. …

Extraordinary Justice: Military Tribunals in Historical and International Context   Written by: Peter Judson Richards, New York University Press, New York, 2007, ISBN: 9780814775912, 272 pp. Reviewed by: Wing Commander Terence O’Connor Against the background of the ongoing Guantanamo Bay controversy, the time is right for a book that presents a balanced analysis of the history and current utility of Military Tribunals and Military Commissions. Extraordinary Justice: Military Tribunals in Historical and …

Between Victor and Vanquished – ATIS Interrogators in the Pacific War   Written by: Arthur Page, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus, 2008, ISBN: 9780980475319, 525 pp. Reviewed by: Colonel Terry McCullagh Between Victor and Vanquished is Arthur Page’s own story of his remarkable wartime career. Arthur arrived in Australia at the age of 19, a refugee from a Japan gone mad with nationalistic fervour and rabid militarism. Arthur’s parents had escaped to Japan in 1920 from Russia, so this was the …

A Thousand Miles of Battles: The Saga of the Australian Light Horse in WW1   Written by: Ian Jones,  Anzac Day Commemorations Committee (Queensland), Aspley, 2007,  ISBN: 9870975712382, xvi + 208 pp. Reviewed by: Jean Bou The light horseman is perhaps the most romanticised figure in Australian military history. Embodying the bushman-soldier ideal, they are used to depict the quintessential Australian soldier in all sorts of ways; from the unlikely circumstance of accompanying the mostly infantry general …