Between 20 May and 1 June 1941 the Second World War came to the Greek island of Crete. The Commonwealth defenders consisted of Australian, New Zealand and British refugees from the doomed Greek Campaign who had not recovered from defeat. Matched against them were crack German paratroopers and mountain soldiers who had only tasted victory. Over eleven days the two sides fought a desperate action that generated tales of stubborn determination and reckless bravery on both sides. It was an innovative campaign - warfare's first aerial invasion - and at times its outcome balanced on a knife edge. ... View More...
Serving with the AIF in North Africa the author became a POW in Italy. The rebellious Aussies earned a bad reputation and were badly treated. He was later forced into a labour camp. View More...
The Royal Navy's attack on Taranto in 1940 heralded a new age of warfare. It was the decisive moment in a struggle for dominance of the Mediterranean that had gone on for months, as the British and Italian navies both looked to secure maritime supply routes for their colonies. With the enormous demands of a global war beginning to tell, the British capital ships were simply too thinly spread for a large fleet action against Taranto, where the bulk of the Italian fleet lay menacingly. How was the Royal Navy to eliminate the threat of the Regia Marina? This is the story of one of World War II's ... View More...
At the outset of World War II, Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safe home base of the British Navy - nothing could penetrate the defences of this bastion. So how, in the dead of night, was Gunther Prien's U-47 able to slip through the line of protective warships to sink the mighty Royal Oak? This book provides the answer with an account of one of the most daring naval raids in history. Drawing on the latest underwater archaeological research, this study explains how Prien and his crew navigated the North Sea and Kirk Sound to land a devastating blow to the British. It reveals the level of dis... View More...
In December 1943 Monte La Difensa was part of the formidable German defences overlooking the Allies' planned route to Rome via Monte Cassino. In the First Special Service Force's first combat in the Mediterranean theater, the Force would employ its special training in mountain and winter warfare to scale the peak, capture it, and then hold it against the inevitable German counterattacks. Astonishing their superiors, the First Special Service Force succeeded in the face of seemingly impossible odds, but suffered a 77 percent casualty rate. Their victory, founded on their aggressive doctrine and... View More...
On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes appeared from the clouds above Pearl Harbor and fundamentally changed the course of history; with this one surprise attack the previously isolationist America was irrevocably thrown into World War II. This definitive history reveals each of the major battles that America would fight in the ensuing struggle against Imperial Japan, from the naval clashes at Midway and Coral Sea to the desperate, bloody fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Each chapter reveals both the horrors of the battle and the Allies' grim yet heroic determination to wrest victory fr... View More...
The rise and fall of Germany's Third Reich is one of the most studied, investigated and collected episodes of military history. A reign of terror that rose to near world domination during the 1930s and early 1940s, Adolph Hitler's Germany continues to fascinate generations of scholars and students of history alike.The Third Reich's insatiable drumbeat of pageantry and propaganda produced countless uniforms, insignia, medals, flags, daggers, swords, and headgear, comprising one of the most desired categories in all of military collectibles to study, understand and own. Groundbreaking in scope a... View More...
An authoritative account of the final Allied victory over Malta. Ex-Library book in good condition with usual library markings and coverings. View More...
The loss of the Philippines in 1942 was the worst defeat in American military history. General Douglas MacArthur, the 'Lion of Luzon', was evacuated by order of the President just before the fall, but he vowed to return, and in August 1944 he kept his word when he led what, at the time, was the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War on the island of Leyte. This is the full story of that fateful battle, one of the most ferocious campaigns of World War II and one of huge strategic and symbolic significance. In the face of stubborn Japanese resistance, including the first systematic use of... View More...
This is the story of a battle few Australians have heard about, the first battle of WWII planned and fought predominantly by Australians. In January 1941, Australians of the 6th Divison led a successful assault against the Italian colonial fortress-village of Bardia in Libya. View More...
When Hitler's forces poured into France and the Low Countries in 1940, the uneasy peace of the 'Phoney War' was shattered, and Europe was ripped apart by another Blitzkrieg. Forming the backbone of the German advance were the well-equipped Schutzen (Rifles), motorized infantry who embodied the essence of the fluid, swift warfare that had characterized World War II thus far. Facing them were infantrymen of the British Expeditionary Force, units of considerable fighting quality who had nevertheless received no special training to conduct combined-arms warfare in conjunction with armour. This stu... View More...
The Kokoda Track, 1942. Jack and Hoshi are soldiers on opposite sides in the war who meet in battle, discovering that they have much more in common than they had ever realised. Photographs in the Mud is a beautifully illustrated and moving story of events on the Kokoda Track during the Second World War from the point of view of two soldiers - one Australian, the other Japanese. It tells a compassionate story about the personal human tragedy of war, for both the combatants and their loved ones at home. About the Author: Dianne Wolfer (born 1961) is an award-winning Australian children's aut... View More...
The great blitzkrieg campaign of May/June 1940 saw German forces pour through Holland and Belgium to confront the French and British. The assault was audacious; it relied on speed, feinting and manoeuvre as much as superior force, and in the end these qualities were to prove decisive to German success. Featuring vivid illustrations, illuminative bird's eye views and maps, this book charts the unfolding of an unprecedented 'lightning war', which saw the first ever airborne assault at a strategic level, and the largest clash of armour to date. Never in the history of warfare had the clash betwee... View More...
This is an illustrated guide shown in over 100 images. It is a compelling history of the Supermarine Spitfire, from the first single-seat prototype of 1936 through to post-war planes that equip fighter units around the world. It includes complete technical specifications detailing the Spitfire's armament, power plant, dimensions, weight and performance. It features over 100 photographs of the Supermarine Spitfire in action, as well as a cutaway diagram showing the interior construction of this classic fighter aircraft. The legendary Supermarine Spitfire was designed solely as an air protection... View More...
In the tradition of The Anzac Book comes this fascinating collection of accounts of life inside the notorious Changi prison camp. The camp is synonymous with suffering and hardship, and the Australian prisoner of-war experience in the Second World War. But the Changi story is also one of ingenuity, resourcefulness and survival. With cartoons, paintings, essays and photographs from POWs, The Changi Book provides a unique view of life in the camp: Medical innovation Machinery and tools made from spare parts and scrap Black markets Sports and gambling Entertainment A library and university Sevent... View More...
This title featuring photographs from the Imperial War Museum. It is a guide to over 100 of the fighters that have helped shape history, including the Fokker Dr. I Triplane, the Hawker Hurricane, the Messerschmitt Bf109, the North American P/F-51 Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire. It features detailed specification boxes for every aircraft listed, with information about country of origin, first flight, power, armament, size, weights and performance. It includes a history of fighter aircraft, from anecdotes about the first flying aces to fighter armament and equipment during World War II. Si... View More...
The SAS are among the best-trained and most effective Special Forces units in existence. This book is the incredible story of their origins, told in their own words. During the summer of 1941, a young Scots Guard officer called David Stirling persuaded MEHQ to give its backing to a small band of 60 men christened 'L Detachment'. With a wealth of stunning photographs, many from the SAS Regimental Archives, the book captures the danger and excitement of the initial SAS raids against Axis airfields during the Desert War, the battles in Italy and those following the D-Day landings, as well as the ... View More...
Even before he became a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in Singapore in 1942, George Aspinall was nicknamed 'Changi' Aspinall by his 2/30th Battalion mates. At lights-out time in Birdwood Camp, George was invariably 'down at Changi Village' helping to process photographs he and his friends had taken of their new and exotic tropical surroundings. After captivity that hobby became a private obsession that saw George not only taking secret photographs in the Changi area, but up on the appalling Thai/Burma Railway. He not only took photographs at great personal risk, but actually processed them on... View More...
Even before he became a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in Singapore in 1942, George Aspinall was nicknamed 'Changi' Aspinall by his 2/30th Battalion mates. At lights-out time in Birdwood Camp, George was invariably 'down at Changi Village' helping to process photographs he and his friends had taken of their new and exotic tropical surroundings. After captivity that hobby became a private obsession that saw George not only taking secret photographs in the Changi area, but up on the appalling Thai/Burma Railway. He not only took photographs at great personal risk, but actually processed them... View More...
Even when Western Allied troops gained a foothold in Normandy, World War II in Europe was far from over. The route to Germany's interior and the Nazis final surrender was long, arduous and blood-stained. The Wehrmacht's stubborn resistance and the shocking losses suffered by US, British, Canadian and 'Free European' troops meant that the Allies had to adapt and refine small-unit tactics, battle-drills, and their use of weapons and munitions. The troops who finally met up with the Red Army in Germany were a very different fighting force to the one that struggled up the beaches of northern Franc... View More...
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