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 …

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 …