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Task force black: the explosive true story of the SAS and the secret war in Iraq
By Mark Urban. 2011
When British and American forces invaded Iraq in April 2003, their intelligence operations got to work looking for the WMD…
their governments had promised us were there. They quickly realised no such weapons existed. Instead they become faced with an ever-increasing spiral of extremism and violence that was almost impossible to understand, let alone contain. This book tells the story of what happened next, one of the most dramatic and sustained operations in recent military history.The architect of Kokoda: Bert Kienzle - the man who made the Kokoda Trail
By Robyn J Kienzle. 2011
The Kokoda story continues to have a very powerful resonance with all Australians, and Bert Kienzle's vital role is acknowledged…
in all the published accounts but until now no one has ever told his story. If one person 'made' the Kokoda Track, that man was Bert Kienzle. Part Samoan and German/English, born in Fiji and raised in Germany and Australia, he was managing a rubber plantation and gold mine in New Guinea at the outbreak of World War II. He surveyed and established the Track, and spent more time on it than anyone else throughout the campaign managing and organising the delivery of supplies and men along it. This is a unique account of a very special part of our history, told by his daughter-in-law with unique access to the central character, and access to all his records and photos. This is the untold story of a true Australian war hero.No mission is impossible: the death-defying missions of the Israeli special forces
By Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal, Nathan K Burstein. 2015
This book is an episodic treatment of the greatest missions of the Israeli Special Forces, characterized by its lead piece,…
an intriguing story of the rescue of 200 hijacked airline passengers at Entebbe, Uganda. This book is something of a sequel to Bar-Zohar's previous work, Mossad which investigated the world's most enigmatic intelligence service. It depicts major battles, raids in enemy territory, and death-defying commando missions; it shares the personal stories of simple soldiers and top commanders, and reveals the fears and hopes of young Israeli recruits.Chickenhawk
By Robert Mason. 1983
This straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam, and a personal story of men under fire.…
Robert Mason, a veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, gives descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden death -- the extreme emotions of a "chickenhawk" in constant danger.Dr Munjed Al Muderis grew up in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's reign. He went to school with Saddam's sons, then…
started his medical training at Basra University just as the Iran. Iraq War began. One day, as he was working as a trainee surgeon at the Saddam Hussein Medical Centre, he and his colleagues were ordered to remove the tops of the ears of army deserters. He could not bring himself to act in defiance of the medical code of conduct and cause intentional harm, so he had no choice but to flee Baghdad that same day. In Kuala Lumpur he paid people smugglers to get him to Australia, where he was incarcerated in a detention centre and known only as '982'. After nine months of being repeatedly brutalised for standing up for himself and other detainees, Munjed was finally freed. But he had to start his medical training again, from scratch. Now, 15 years later, Munjed is at the forefront of orthopaedic medicine as he pioneers a new form of prosthesis that, ironically, transforms the lives of soldiers mutilated in the Iraq War. 'Walking Free' is the extraordinary story of a clever young man, born into one of Iraq's ruling families, who was forced to flee the country of his birth and forge a new and extraordinary life in Australia.Samurais and circumcisions
By Leslie Poidevin. 1985
Japanese blitz on Darwin: February 19, 1942
By John Thompson-Gray. 2011
New evidence explains Australia’s most infamous day. The Imperial Japanese Navy bombers that attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941…
blitzed Darwin on February 19th 1942. As Australia defended her mainland for the first time the only ally standing with her was the United States of America. On that day, Americans and Australians were forged as cousins-in-arms. Darwin’s airfield, town and harbour were repeatedly bombed leaving a trail of human tragedy. Typical of the many heroes were Wing Commander Archie Tindal RAAF Base, Lieutenant Robert Oestreicher Kittyhawk ace, Jack Mullholland anti-aircraft gunner, Matron Clara Schumack hospital ship and Coxswain John Waldie life-saver. The writer weaves historical facts into story lines with real time action sequences. Where the story varies from historic opinion, forensic reasons are revealed for differing views, and the reader’s judgement is invited. Examples are the role of spies, withholding the air raid warning, attacked hospitals, interpretation of information and subtleties of the Japanese attack plan. Action-thriller 'Japanese blitz on Darwin', by Cambridge Short Story scholar John Thompson-Gray is a story of the first Darwin Defenders and those who bombed and strafed them.Our boys at the Front: the Mornington Peninsula at war 1914-18 : from the pages of the Peninsula Post
By Collins, Michael J. S. 2011
"Nearly 700 Mornington Peninsula 'boys' served overseas in The Great War. Letters, diaries and reminiscences they sent from the war…
zones were published in the local newspaper, The Peninsula Post. They provide first-hand accounts from virtually every campaign in which the Australians were engaged. They are full of humour, drama and sometimes tragedy."Hiroshima in America: a half century of denial
By Robert Jay Lifton, Greg Mitchell. 1996
A half century after the bombing of Hiroshima, two distinguished writers look at the impact of the use of the…
A-bomb, and the supression of debate, on American life. Lifton and Mitchell question why Hiroshima still touches such a raw nerve, and explore the distortion and supression of information about the use of the bomb.Hitler's war: Germany's key strategic decisions, 1940-1945 (Cassell Military Paperbacks Ser.)
By Heinz Magenheimer. 2002
This is a closely argued and wide-ranging assessment of just how, with so many alternatives open, the German High Command…
chose the path that led, ultimately, to its own destruction. Heinz Magenheimer examines in detail the options that were open to the Germans as the war progressed. He identifies the crucial moments at which fateful decisions needed to be taken and considers how decisions different from those actually taken could have propelled the conflict in entirely different directions. Using the very latest source material, in particular new research from Soviet/Russian sources, the author analyses motives and objectives and considers the opportunities taken or rejected, concentrating especially on specific phases of the conflict.Stopped at Stalingrad: the Luftwaffe and Hitler's defeat in the east, 1942-1943 (Modern War Studies)
By Hayward, Joel S. A. 1998
By the time Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, he knew that his military machine was running…
out of fuel. In response, he launched Operation Blau, a campaign designed to protect Nazi oilfields in Rumania while securing new ones in the Caucasus. All that stood in the way was Stalingrad.Fighting the bombers: the Luftwaffe's struggle against the Allied bomber offensive (World War Ii German Debriefs Ser.)
By David C Isby, Josef Kammhuber. 2003
The Great War
By Les Carlyon. 2006
Gives and extrarodinary account of the Anzacs on the Western Front, from 1916 to 1918. It combines a brilliant overview…
of this immense conflict with telling detail, stories, letters and diaries that breath life into those terrible battles of 90 years ago.Arthur's war
By Arthur Bancroft, John Frank Harman. 2010
In November 1940, Arthur Bancroft kissed his sweetheart, Mirla, goodbye and signed up with the Royal Australian Navy to go…
to war. He was nineteen years old. Arthur's War is the extraordinary story of his ordeal, and his survival. Arthur made a habit of cheating death - on the ill-fated HMAS Perth, which was sunk during the Battle of the Sunda Strait; as a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway, where it is said a man died for every sleeper laid; and miraculously surviving a second shipwreck that left him lost at sea, clinging to debris, for six days. While a POW he risked his life to keep a secret diary written on paper scraps with stolen pencils recording the agony and comradeship of life on the railway, which has never before been published. Against all odds Arthur made it back to Australia and to Mirla, who never lost hope for his eventual return all those years he was lost at war. His story is a story for all Australians: a captivating saga of courage, mateship, survival - and love.Hitler's Stalingrad decisions (International Crisis Behavior Ser. #Vol. 5)
By Geoffrey Jukes. 1985
Pozieres: the Anzac story
By Scott Bennett. 2011
In 1916, one million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory hinged on their ability to capture…
a small village called Pozières, perched on the highest ridge of the battlefield. After five attempts to seize it, the British called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task.At midnight on 23 July 1916, thousands of Australians stormed and took Pozières. Forty-five days later they were relieved, having suffered 23,000 casualties to gain a few miles of barren, lunar landscape. Despite the toll, the capture of Pozières was heralded as a stunning tactical victory. Yet for the exhausted survivors, the war-weary public, and the families of the dead and maimed, victory came at such terrible cost it seemed indistinguishable from defeat.This account tells the stories of those men who fought at Pozières. Drawing on their letters and diaries, it reveals a battlefield drenched in chaos, suffering, and fear. Bennett sheds light on the story behind the official history, showing how commanders struggled with a war conducted on an unprecedented scale and how the survivors witnessed appalling human tragedy to return home as heroes but, too often, shattered men.Hitler's decision to invade Russia, 1941
By Robert Cecil. 1975
When Hitler refused to examine the possibilities of a compromise peace with Stalin, he ensured that not only Germany would…
lose the war, but that the Russians would be drawn into the heart of Europe's pursuit of the retreating forces of the Third Reich.The facts are shocking. The treachery is chilling. The fallout ongoing. During the 1950s-60s, with the blessing of Prime Minister…
Robert Menzies, the British government used Australia as its nuclear laboratory. They exploded twelve atomic bombs on Australian soil - at the Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga. Sixteen thousand Australian servicemen were guinea pigs. RAAF pilots were ordered to fly into nuclear mushroom clouds, soldiers told to walk into radioactive ground zero, sailors retrieved highly contaminated debris - none of them aware of the dangers they faced. But the betrayal didn't end with our soldiers. Secret monitoring stations were set up around the continent to measure radiation levels and a clandestine decades-long project stole bones from dead babies to see how much fallout had contaminated their small bodies - their grieving parents were never told. Investigative journalist Frank Walker's Maralinga is a must-read true story of scientists treating an entire population as lab rats and politicians sacrificing their own people in the pursuit of power.Hitler's greatest defeat: disaster on the eastern front
By Paul Adair. 2012
The book gives some background to the campaign as well as the aftermath. Destruction of the German Army Group Center…
remains Third Reich's greatest military defeat of the war but yet, ironically, its not well known in the United States. The Germans lost over 350,000 men during this one month period while the Russian losses numbered over 750,000 men. But the campaign ensured that the German military have forever lost any chances of victory and the forward advances of the Soviet forces all the way to Berlin have been assured. Second half of 1944 was a bad year for the German military!Mac Tucker, or 'Serge' to use his callsign name, is one of an elite group of men trained to fly…
F-18 jets. Now for the first time, Serge takes you behind the scenes of the fighter pilot world to reveal what it's really like. Find out what it feels to be shot at by SAS snipers, to be lost in a $50 million jet over Northern Australia with nothing but car lights to guide you home, to rupture your sinuses while flying, to inadvertently bomb a yacht and to face death on an almost daily basis. ... From the Pentagon to the South China Sea, the deserts of Australia to the wars of the Middle East, this book is as action-packed as it is entertaining. Sit down and strap yourself in for an exhilarating ride to the sound barrier and beyond with a Mac Tucker, an Australian fighter pilot and real life Top Gun