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By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers and Olympic Champions Written by: Richard Cohen, The Modern Library, New York, 2002, ISBN: 9780812969665, 519pp. Review Essay by: Michael Evans It is well known that sword fighting is an excellent training ground for developing the reflexes of military professionals. In 1954, the International Council for Military Sports placed fencing at the top of recommended sports for military elites, particularly modern air-combat pilots. …
To The Editors, I have just commenced reading the new Australian Army Journal . I note that the Introduction states that the AAJ is to be ‘a professional Journal in which officers can record their ideas, views and experiences’. The Introduction goes on to state that ‘the AAJ welcomes articles, review essays and letters from all serving officers’. Are these phrases meant to suggest that the Army’s enlisted soldiers will never have anything to offer the revived journal? Warrant Officer M. Levine Regimental …
Future Wars: Coalition Operations in Global Strategy Written by: Dennis E. Showalter (ed.), Imprint Publications, Chicago, 2002, ISBN: 9781879176393, 184pp. Reviewed by: Major Russell Parkin, Australian Defence College, Weston Creek Previous volumes of the United States Air Force Academy’s Military History Symposium Series have produced some excellent studies. Volume 7 in the series contains a collection of essays on the subject of coalition warfare that very successfully fulfil Sir Michael Howard’s …
Redcoats to Cams: A History of Australian Infantry 1788–2001 Written by: Ian Kuring, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus, NSW, 2003, ISBN: 9781876439996, 572pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre Although this book will not be available until just before Christmas, its value to the Army is such that it is worth providing an advance review. The reviewer has been fortunate enough to receive the page proofs of the book and has no hesitation in …
The Once and Future Army: A History of the Citizen Military Forces 1947–1974 Written by: Dayton McCarthy, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2003, ISBN: 9780195515695, 303pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre This excellent book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how our present-day Army came to be. In that sense it is not only a history of the Army’s reserve forces since the end of World War II, but it is also an account of how the Army …
Military Stress and Performance: the Australian Defence Force Experience Written by: George E. Kearney, Mark Creamer, Ric Marshall and Anne Goyne (eds), Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, 2003, ISBN: 9780522850543, 294pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel David Schmidtchen, Directorate of Retention Policy, Defence Personnel Executive, Canberra Of the 52 000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972, approximately 3000 were either killed or wounded …
Ted Serong Written by: Anne Blair, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2002, ISBN: 9780195515923, 238pp. Reviewed by: Major General Adrian Clunies-Ross (Retd) Brigadier Ted Serong was a unique Australian soldier, and the essence of any biography of him would be to capture this uniqueness. This Anne Blair does to a considerable degree. Serong is most widely identified with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV); this is not surprising since he led the first team to South Vietnam in 1962 and …
Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for Bin Laden Written by: Robin Moore, Random House, New York, 2003, ISBN: 9780375508615, 372pp. Reviewed by: Captain Brett Chaloner, Royal Military College, Duntroon Robin Moore will never be renowned as one of the world’s great military historians; however, as the author of Task Force Dagger , he does what only an American author can do. He tells a story with great passion and fervour, sprinkled with good old ‘Uncle Sam’ ideology. This is a story of which the World War II …
Sir James Whiteside McCay: A Turbulent Life Written by: Christopher Wray, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2002, ISBN: 9780195515732, 280pp. Reviewed by: Brigadier John Essex-Clark (Retd) ‘One of the greatest soldiers ever to have served Australia ... greater even than Monash’ So wrote General Brudenell White. This is an honest book that should be read by those who aspire to understand leadership and the pitfalls of egocentricity. It highlights the weaknesses of a strict, dogmatic, non-empathetic …
Spirit of the Digger Written by: Patrick Lindsay, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2003, ISBN: 9780732292751, 293pp. Reviewed by: Brigadier John Essex-Clark (Retd) Patrick Lindsay, who also wrote The Spirit of Kokoda , now gives us this 293-page exposition of the quality and character of Australian servicemen by a carefully selected use of lucid anecdotal cameos from the Boer War to Iraq in order to illustrate the qualities of the Digger which, as he describes, are no more than the essence of Australianism. …
