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The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings   Cambridge Oxford University Press , New York USA, 2014 (First Edition), 422 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780199986118 Written By : Craig L Symonds Reviewed By : Felicity Petrie   Ten years since it was first published, Neptune - The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings remains fresh and relevant. It reviews the D-Day landings and the events leading up to the Allied invasion of Europe in the final stages of the Second World War that is both …

Commander Felicity Petrie is an Engineering Officer in the Royal Australian Navy, and is currently posted to the Sea Power Centre – Australia as the Australian War Memorial Navy Fellow. A Chartered Fellow of Engineers Australia, and a Chartered Marine Engineer with the Institute of Marine Engineers, Felicity has served over 26 years in Navy. Holding postgraduate degrees in both engineering and strategic studies, Felicity is currently undertaking research into battle damage repair of forces in the maritime …

The Australia of 2020 is amid a health and economic crisis that it did not fully anticipate, after a bushfire emergency of such significance that wartime provisions for a military response were required, while witnessing dramatic shifts in the geostrategic environment. The complexity of circumstances defies memory, with events of historic scale and significance. It has been a challenge for the Army, as part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), to respond to this confluence of problems. This is not a …

… Volume 21 Number 1 …

Achieving that Long-Desired Information Advantage Foreword This thoughtful and candid article from Jason Logue addresses challenges and opportunities within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) regarding the evolution of operations in the information environment. While he focuses on his experiences within the ADF, his characterisation, observations and views are consistent with US challenges based upon my almost 30 years of experience as US Department of Defense Information professional. Essentially, Grey …

During the latter months of 2019 and the new year of 2020, Australia experienced catastrophic and widespread bushfires. As the situation worsened, the federal government unexpectedly called out the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Reserves to bolster an already significant deployment of ADF regular forces to contribute to a massive interagency and volunteer community response. This deployment was the largest ever peacetime domestic ADF operation in response to a natural disaster. The ADF responding to …

Army in the 21st Century (A21)  and  Restructuring the Army (RTA)  were two related force structure initiatives undertaken by the Australian Army in the 1990s. A21 radically proposed to abolish traditional divisional/corps structures, fielding instead independent task forces with embedded combat arms. The RTA trials tested A21 concepts and capabilities over several years; yet A21/RTA was abandoned in 1999. What happened, why, and what lessons does A21/RTA offer? This retrospective appraisal of A21/RTA is a …

For military organisations, the aftermath of a war represents an opportunity to rest and refit, to think about the lessons so painfully learned and to preserve those of enduring value in education, training and doctrine. Arguably of even more importance, it is a time to reflect on and ask basic questions about the character of war: what has changed, what has remained the same, and what opportunities and challenges are suggested for the future evolution of the wars that are yet to come. Albert Palazzo’s …

A study of Army’s education, training and doctrine needs for the future Introduction The Army lives in the school house. The quote above, from Lieutenant General Frank Hickling (retired) in January this year, has been at the forefront of my mind since I commenced this appointment. This study was established in order to gain an appreciation of the current strengths and weaknesses of Army’s approach to education, training and doctrine, and to then propose how we might rectify the challenges identified. There …

Over the past 100 years, the manner in which the infantry battalion is employed has undergone revolutionary change— something that is not always appreciated by those who regard the infantry as the unskilled labour force of the battlefield. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. This paper discusses the implications of the transition from relatively unskilled mass industrial-age infantry to the information-age specialists who dominate the modern battlespace. Oddly, these changes have not been …