Australia War

For the first time, The Australian Wars brings what for too long has been considered the historical past into connection with its reverberations in the present. It is estimated up to 100,000 people died in the frontier wars that raged across Australia for more than 150 years. This is equivalent to the combined total of all Australians killed in foreign battles to date. But there are few memorials marking these first, domestic wars.

One American soldier called it "a green hell on Earth". Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps - New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the empire's strategy to knock Australia out of the war.

Established after World War I by the Royal Australian Navy, the Coast Watchers were a loose organisation of several hundred European settlers, missionaries, patrol officers and planters living in British and Australian Pacific Island territories whose job it was to observe and report on the enemy. They were mostly all unpaid volunteers whose job it was simply to observe and report on foreign shipping and aeroplane movements. It was never envisaged that the Coast Watchers would do any fighting, nor operate inside enemy-occupied territory.

Colditz Castle was Nazi Germany’s infamous "escape-proof" wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack Champ and other prisoners tirelessly carried out their campaign to escape from the massive floodlit stronghold, by any means necessary.

September 1942 marked the high point of Axis conquest in World War II. In the Pacific, Japan's soldiers had seemed unstoppable. However, the tide was about to turn. On Sunday, 6 September 1942, Japanese land forces suffered their first conclusive defeat at the hands of the Allies. At Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, a predominantly Australian force - including 75 Squadron (fresh from their action in 44 Days) - fought for two weeks to successfully defend a vital airstrip against a determined Japanese invasion.

The most intense and destructive urban battle of the Vietnam War has begun. Early 1968. As the Tet Offensive erupts across South Vietnam, the ancient Imperial City of Huế becomes a battlefield. The streets run with fire and blood as North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces strike without warning, shattering any illusion of peace. Inside the Citadel, Lieutenant Loc and his Black Panther Recon Company find themselves surrounded, fighting for every wall and courtyard of Tây Lộc Airfield and the Mang Cá Garrison. Cut off from reinforcements, low on ammunition, and facing overwhelming enemy ...

Australian History For Dummies is your rough-and-ready tour guide through Australia's whirlwind past. We'll introduce you to the people and events that have shaped this "Land Down Under" (and why it's called that). You'll see how Indigenous Australians lived in Australia for over 65,000 years. You'll be there as British colonists explore Australia's harsh terrain. You'll delve into the recent past, giving you insight into modern-day Australia and what's next. This new edition fills in the last ten years of history and covers issues faced in the twenty-first century.

Under the fierce heat of the Australian outback, the laws of nature serve a rough justice. When a man vanishes deep in the Northern Territory, local police write it off. But his family suspect otherwise—and when the call for help goes out, Ben Hope and Jeff Decker are there to hear it. Ben’s instincts, honed by years of Special Forces missions, soon see the story told by a trail of bullet casings, rumours of a missing map and a lethal cocktail of greed, power and money.

The Tin Ticket takes us to the dawn of the nineteenth century and into the lives of Agnes McMillan, whose defiance and resilience carried her to a far more dramatic rebellion; Agnes's best friend Janet Houston, who rescued her from the Glasgow wynds and was also transported to Van Diemen's Land; Ludlow Tedder, forced to choose just one of her four children to accompany her to the other side of the world; Bridget Mulligan, who gave birth to a line of powerful women stretching to the present day. It also tells the tale of Elizabeth Gurney Fry, a Quaker reformer who touched all their lives.

In the steamy heart of Quảng Nam, the war is changing, and so are the men who fight it. Corporal Chris Jackman has seen too much of Vietnam already, but nothing prepares him for his new assignment as an advisor with the AATTV. Thrust into a small team of Australians, Americans, and New Zealanders, Jackman must learn to trust and fight alongside the ARVN soldiers he is meant to guide. Together they navigate the chaos of shifting allegiances, strained commands, and an enemy that always seems one step ahead. From the rain-lashed training grounds of Canungra to the bullet-scarred compounds of...

An intense, action-packed battle for a volcano stronghold in the Vietnam War. Early 1967. In the embattled province of Phuoc Tuy, Corporal Chris Jackman and the men of 5 RAR join a daring helicopter-borne assault to capture Hill 82, a critical stronghold infested with enemy forces. They must storm the hill under relentless fire, clearing bunkers, trenches, and hidden fortifications in brutal close-quarters combat. But taking Hill 82 is only the beginning. Jackman and his men cannot rest on the laurels and must now dig in and prepare hold what was taken with blood and bullets. The NVA will ...

In 1942, country girls Minnie Hodgson and Margot McNee set sail from Perth, Australia for Singapore in search of adventure, full of excitement and keen to do their part working as nurses to the fallen soldiers in a time of war. What they encounter is an army of new friends and the terrors of a city under siege. When the Japanese attack and Singapore falls, they are forced to flee aboard the Vyner Brooke. The ship is bombed, resulting in utter devastation.

Weary was a gentle giant of a man. A boxer and former Wallaby, he could have been an elite sportsman but chose a different path - one that led him from rural Victoria to training as a pharmacist and then to medical school. World War II was the fire that fuelled this remarkable hero. His courageous leadership and calm endurance became beacons of hope to the POWs under his command. His name has become synonymous with courage, compassion and resilience. Now, Weary Dunlop's heroic and inspiring story has been brought to life by Australia's greatest storyteller, Peter FitzSimons.

1989: The Cold War is nearing its climax, but the hidden machinery of the Soviet Union’s espionage engine continues to run smoothly. Moscow decides it needs the top-secret software and hardware developed by Moss Electronics for its Viper remotely piloted vehicle, so the word goes out to the men who will do anything for personal gain, among them, Australian billionaire Rupert Halford. When the company’s equipment is stolen, Moss Electronics’ VP Max Moss is determined to find and retrieve it. The search takes him to Darwin, in Australia’s “Top End,” where the most important race ...

The Red Cotton Fields Last Sundown is the ending of an epic beginning ten years before the Civil War and ending at the end of World War II. The story revolves around three families, beginning with the overseer’s son and the plantation owner’s daughter including a slave boy on the Ballaster Plantation in 1850. The four-book series takes these three families through the Civil War, World War I and World War II. This book, Red Cotton Fields Last Sundown, picks up where Angry Sky ends in the middle of World War II. I can assure you this four book Epic is a page turner and never wanting the ...

Long before Australia started to be considered one of the best places in the world to live, it was thought to be completely unlivable. In the 15th century, the European race to claim land began. Despite the fact that Australia was a large landmass, no nation believed it was worth colonizing. The land was claimed by the Netherlands. However, little exploration happened there. Many countries actually believed it to be uninhabitable. However, the Aboriginal populations had already been thriving on the land for millennia.

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, one of America's leading naval historians, Craig L. Symonds, paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice.

Three decades...Five Riftwars...One magnificent saga: Magician's End is the final book in New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist's science fiction epic Riftwar Cycle. Thirty years ago, Feist's first novel, Magician, introduced us to an orphan boy named Pug, who rises from slavery to...

What if the Great Depression led not to recovery, but to global devastation? In an alternate timeline the world descends into chaos years ahead of schedule. Hitler consolidates power in Germany, Japan strikes in the Pacific, and colonial empires brace for upheaval. From the overrun countries of Europe to the jungles of Guadalcanal, from London’s bombed streets to the secret war waged by SOE agents in occupied Europe, 1933 is a sweeping reimagining of the Second World War’s beginnings—one that starts years too early and consumes the globe in its furnace. Tanks thunder. Fighters scream....

The spectacular New York Times bestseller and major motion picture about a lighthouse keeper and his wife is "a beautifully delineated tale of love and loss, right and wrong, and what we will do for the happiness of those most dear" (The Boston Globe). After four harrowing years on the Western...