Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One by Kate Adie

$15.00 AUD

Category: World War 1

A chronicle of the ways in which women's lives changed during World War I and what the impact has been for women today, 100 years laterIn 1914 the world changed forever. This book details how when World War I broke out and a generation of men went off to fight, women emerged from the shadows of their do mestic lives. Now a visible force in public life, they began to take up essential roles, from transport to policing, munitions to sports, entertainment, even politics. They had finally become citizens, a recognized part of the war machine, acquiring their own rights and often an independent income. Charting the seismic move toward equal rights with men that began a century ago, this book asks what these women achieved for future generations. Full of original research and archival material, it brings the remarkable stories of women's experiences from domestic service to the industrial workplace, the hospital, the land, politics, and the aristocracy to life. This is history at its best, a vivid, compelling account of the pioneering women who helped win the war as well as a revealing assessment of their legacy for women's lives today. ...Show more

The Birth Of The Nazis by Jones, Nigel H.

$15.00 AUD

Category: Non-World Wars | Series: Brief Histories Ser.

The birth pangs of Nazism grew out of the death agony of the Kaiser's Germany. Defeat in World War I and a narrow escape from Communist revolution brought not peace but five chaotic years (1918-1923) of civil war, assassination, plots, putsches and murderous mayhem to Germany. The savage world of the tr enches came home with the men who refused to admit defeat and 'who could not get the war out of their system'. It was an atmosphere in which civilised values withered, and violent extremism flourished. In this chronicle of the paramilitary Freikorps - the freebooting armies that crushed the Red revolution, then themselves attempted to take over by armed force - historian and biographer Nigel Jones draws on little-known archives in Germany and Britain to paint a portrait of a state torn between revolution and counter revolution. Astonishingly, this is the first in-depth study of the Freikorps to appear in English for 50 years. Yet the figures who flit through its shadowy world - men like R#65533;hm, Goering and Hitler himself - were to become frighteningly familiar just ten years after the turmoil that gave Nazism its fatal chance. ...Show more

Storm over Leyte - The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy by John Prados

$25.00 AUD

Category: World War 2

The story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II--the greatest naval battle in history. As Allied ships prepared for the invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte, every available warship, submarine and airplane was placed on alert while Japanese admiral Kurita Takeo stalked Admiral William F. H alsey's unwitting American armada. It was the beginning of the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf--the greatest naval battle in history. In Storm Over Leyte, acclaimed historian John Prados gives readers an unprecedented look at both sides of this titanic naval clash, demonstrating that, despite the Americans' overwhelming superiority in firepower and supplies, the Japanese achieved their goal, inflicting grave damage on U.S. forces. And for the first time, readers will have access to the naval intelligence reports that influenced key strategic decisions on both sides. Drawing upon a wealth of untapped sources--U.S. and Japanese military records, diaries, declassified intelligence reports and postwar interrogation transcripts--Prados offers up a masterful narrative of naval conflict on an epic scale. ...Show more

A Century of Anzacs by Jason Foster

$29.99 AUD

Category: World War 1

The ANZAC tradition was forged on the killing fields of Gallipoli in 1915 and the legend grewthroughout the decades at places such as Tobruk, Singapore, Kokoda and Long Tan. A CENTURY OFANZACS is a pictorial history of Australia's involvement in more than a hundred years of war, conflictand peacekeeping , starting with colonial wars in New Zealand and South Africa in the 1800's, right up toour modern peacekeeping roles in Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.With introductions that provide an overview of each conflict in which Australia and New Zealand haveserved, A CENTURY OF ANZACS includes hundreds of rare and evocative images of courage, sacrificeand duty. The book is a tribute to the men and women who served their country in the past, and thepresent day soldiers and personnel who continue the ANZAC tradition on the international stage. ...Show more

The Last Post by Emma Campbell

$29.99 AUD

Category: Non-World Wars

Every day hundreds of people gather at the Australian War Memorial to hear a personal story of love, loss, service and sacrifice. The Last Post profiles some of the 102,800 soldiers whose names are listed on the Memorial's Roll of Honour; it explores how and why we commemorate, and the role of the Austr alian War Memorial in national remembrance. ...Show more

Chastise: The Dambusters 1943 by Max Hastings

$34.99 AUD

Category: World War 2

A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943, was an epic that has passed into Britain' s national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who led the raid. In the 21st Century, however, he urges that we should see the dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was entirely real, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the 'bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised as ruthlessly as they did about the entire bomber offensive. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Mohne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. He argues that what modern Germans call the Mohnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris gained much of the public credit, though he bitterly opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. Harris also made perhaps the operation's biggest mistake - failure to launch a conventional attack on the huge post-raid repair operation which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches on Ruhr industry. Here once again is a dramatic retake on familiar history by a master of the art. Hastings sets the Dams Raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history. ...Show more

Fighter Aces : Knights of the Sky by Rosie John; Serdiville Sadler

$19.99 AUD

Category: World War 1 | Series: Casemate Short History

Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War by Philip Ayton; Elvala Ayton (Editor); Ross McMullin (Introduction by)

$34.99 AUD

Category: World War 1

The remarkable story of Philip Owen Ayton is published for the first time, a century after the war's end. Working on the Sydney tramways, when the call to join the fight against Germany came Philip was keen for action, and he found himself in the First Field Company Engineers in the First Division of t he Australian Imperial Forces. From the start, Ayton kept notes of his experiences, which he would write up in a diary. Plucky, charming and self-deprecating, this son of the new nation records the horrors of trench warfare and his off-duty adventures in Cairo, London and Paris. ...Show more

Voices from the Holocaust by Jon E. Lewis

$15.00 AUD

Category: World War 2 | Series: Brief Histories Ser.

The testament to a tragedy. "Voices from The Holocaust" follows the whole history of the 'Shoah' from Hitler's rise to power to the Nuremburg trials, but of course the exterminations and death camps of 'The Final Solution' take centre stage. It tells the story from the perspective of the people who were there, and were witnesses - on both sides - of the horror. While some of the eye-witnesses are well-known, such as Anne Frank, Primo Levi and Heinrich Himmler, the book includes recollections of camp inmates, SS Totenkopf guards and the British soldiers who liberated Belsen. Shocking, powerful and personal, Voices from the "Holocaust" retells history, written by those who were there. ...Show more

The Imperial War Museum Book of 1914 by Malcolm Brown

$15.00 AUD

Category: World War 1

"The sky was lit by burning villages and houses . . . Rivers and seas of flame leaping up hundreds of feet, crowned by black smoke that covered the entire heaven. It lit up houses wrecked by shells, dead horses, demolished railway stations, engines that had been taken up with their lines and signals, an d all twisted round and pulled up, as a bad child spoils a toy. And there we joined the refugees, with all their goods on barrows and carts, in a double line moving forwards about a hundred yards an hour, white and drawn and beyond emotion." In 1914, the summer peace was shattered by an assassination in the Balkans and, within weeks, a continent was engulfed in war. Eager volunteers rushed to enlist. All the nations involved felt the righteousness of their cause, and everybody believed the fighting would be over in weeks. The reality was very different. War that seemed glorious in August had become hellish by September. British soldiers sent across the Channel found the roads clogged by desolate crowds of French and Belgian refugees, their lives destroyed. The suffering caused by the siege of Antwerp, the grueling battles of Mons and Ypres, even the fragile Christmas Truce, brought home the awful reality of war. Using new letters and diaries from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, Malcolm Brown skillfully recreates this pivotal year through the moving experiences of men and women who felt the war first-hand, vividly capturing the brutal reality of war as well as moments of great humanity. ...Show more

The Smack Track by Ian McPhedran

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian Military

From battling pirates to tracking down gun runners, drug smugglers and terrorists; the high energy exploits and explosive adventures of the Australian Navy in the Arabian Gulf. From Ian McPhedran, best-selling author of The Amazing SAS, Soldiers Without Borders and Too Bold to Die, comes the untold and largely unknown story of how the Royal Australian Navy battles pirates, gun runners and drug smugglers in the seas of the Arabian Gulf and the Horn of Africa along the infamous route known as the 'smack track'. For more than twenty years, Australian sailors have been risking their lives, conducting often fraught and dangerous operations in war and in the battle against terrorism. From braving rough seas to boarding rickety dhows or clambering up the sheer steel sides of modern day supertankers looking for contraband, The Smack Track tells a thrilling, eye-witness story of grit, courage, ingenuity and sacrifice. ...Show more

War Letters of General Monash by John Monash

$25.00 AUD

Category: World War 1

Monash in his own words . . . Long before this letter can possibly reach you, great events which will stir the whole world and go down in history will have happened, to the eternal glory of Australia and all who have participated. -John Monash, 24 April 1915 These extraordinary, intimate letters from General Sir John Monash to his wife and daughter, record his experiences throughout World War I, from landing at Gallipoli to leading decisive battles on the Western Front. Monash describes with great candour the challenges of ordering the lives of tens of thousands of troops and meeting with various dignitaries, including King George. Regarded as the best allied commander of World War I, Monash writes with remarkable insight, providing one of the most moving personal accounts ever written of an Australian soldier at war. This edition, reprinted in full for the first time since 1935, contains newly discovered letters, including Monash's moving final missive to his wife before the Gallipoli landing. With an introduction and notes by historian A.K. Macdougall, and new photos, this volume provides unparalleled insight into the experience of Australians in World War I. 'In the eyes of many Monash was the greatest Allied Field Commander of World War 1. His leadership of the Australian Army Corp in 1918 was exemplary.' -John Howard 'As a writer, Monash has a great eye.' -Les Carlyon 'His was the most brilliant leadership ever shown in any activity by an Australian.' -Bob Carr General Sir John Monash is regarded as the best Allied commander of World War I and as Australia's greatest general, whose brilliant leadership turned the tide of the war. Monash was also a born writer, and an intellectual as well as an engineer. His writing displays a delight in detail, mastery and grace. ...Show more