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  Written by: Tom Gilling Allen and Unwin Book Publisher , 2022, 320 pp Paperback ISBN: 9781760879273   Reviewed by: James Bryant Two thousand four hundred Allied servicemen died as prisoners of the Japanese at Sandakan in Borneo, many on the so-called ‘death march’ that took place along a 260 kilometre long jungle track between Sandakan and Ranau. Exhausted, malnourished and wracked by illnesses like malaria and beri-beri, all who fell out on that track were kicked or bludgeoned to death, or shot. …

  Written by: Stephen Robinson Exisle Publishing , 2022, 304 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9781922539205 Ebook ISBN: 9781991001313   Reviewed by: Tim Gellel Every army has its Thermopylae. One of modern China’s is the story of Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan’s four-day defence of the Sihang Warehouse against Japanese attacks during the 1937 Battle of Shanghai. Stephen Robinson’s Eight Hundred Heroes, which examines that story, studies that action as an information operation as well as a tactical, unit-level fight.  …

  Edited by Catherine Grant, Alessio Patalano and James Russell Howgate Publishing , 2021, 238 pp Paperback ISBN: 9781912440269     Reviewed by : Darren Cronshaw Today’s Defence members are more likely to engage in the demands and dilemmas of ‘war in the grey zone’. The cyber domain is challenging traditional notions concerning the character of war. The cyber domain is also extending into sub-threshold contested spaces with cyber-based sabotage, surveillance information dominance and influence activities. …

  Written by: Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis Penguin Press , 2021, 303 pp Paperbook ISBN: 9781405966429 Ebook ISBN: 9781405966436   Reviewed by: Albert Palazzo In 1978 the retired British general Sir John Hackett published an account of a fictional war between the United States and the Soviet Union. For me, reading it is a distant memory, but at the time it formed a part of my foundation as a scholar of war. The Cold War was ongoing, and growing up in New York City nuclear annihilation was …

    Written by: RA Howlett Crown Agents for the Colonies on behalf of the Government of Fiji , 1948, 267 pp   Reviewed by: Sonya Russell and Atonio Nagauna In the years since former Prime Minister Morrison’s ‘Pacific Step-up’ foreign policy shift, the Australian Army has enhanced its engagement with security forces across the Pacific. As engagement continues and combined operational deployments become regular, The History of the Fiji Military Forces 1939–1945 is essential reading for any personnel seeking …

  Written by: Christine Helliwell Penguin Random House , 2021, 512 pp Paperback ISBN: 9780143790020 Reviewed by: Peter J Dean We read books with predetermined ideas and biases. I approached Christine Helliwell’s book Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo firmly cloaked in the regalia of my academic background as a specialist in Australian strategy and military operations. As well as studying the Borneo campaigns closely, I have walked the battlefields at Tarakan, Brunei …

On Contested Shores: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare   Eds: Timothy Heck and BA Friedman Marine Corps University Press, Quantico 2020,  ISBN 9781732003149, 452pp Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Mark Tutton On Contested Shores provides a timely analysis of a broad range of historical amphibious operations and future amphibious concepts. The book is heavily contextualised through a United States Marine Corps (USMC) lens, but is nevertheless highly relevant to the …

Warfare and Culture in World History   Eds: Wayne E Lee New York: New York University Press, 2020, ISBN 1479800007, 364pp Review by: Mr John Mackenzie In the second edition of this work Wayne Lee has updated and expanded the range of essays that he offers as examples of applying ‘culture’ as a tool to analyse the conduct of warfare. Lee’s analysis of military history through a focus on culture has challenges that I assess he, and the essayists, do not always successfully address. Despite this, I commend …

Anatomy of a Soldier   Written by: Harry Parker Alfred A Knopf, 2016, ISBN 9781101946633, 310pp   Reviewed by: Dr Jordan Beavis Situated within a growing body of creative literature on the coalition wars of the 21st century, Anatomy of a Soldier is a novel that follows the story of British Army Captain Tom Barnes (also referred to as BA5799). A platoon commander operating out of a forward operating base in Afghanistan during the insurgency, Barnes is grievously injured in an IED strike, leading to the …

Vietnam Vanguard: The 5 th Battalion’s Approach to Counter-Insurgency, 1966   Edited by: Ron Boxall and Robert O’Neill Australian National University Press, 2020, ISBN 9781760463328, 430pp Reviewed by: Major Andrew Maher Vietnam Vanguard is an important work in the documentation of experience, lessons and perspectives from Australia’s experience in the Vietnam War. The book uses a collection of personal narratives, woven together by the editors to provide insight into life in an infantry battalion on …