Page 100 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec 2018 - Jan 2019

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COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
THE DEATH OF HITLER
THE FINAL WORD ON THE ULTIMATE COLD CASE: THE SEARCH FOR HITLER’S BODY By Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina Published by Hodder & Stoughton
RRP $35.00 in paperback ISBN 9781473686533
After two years of nonstop negotiations with the Russian authorities, investigative journalists Brisard and Parshina were granted access to secret files in the Russian archives detailing Hitler’s bunker, escape
plans, eyewitness accounts
STERN JUSTICE
THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF AUSTRALIA, JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC WAR CRIMES TRIALS
Adam Wakeling
Published by Viking/ Penguin RRP $34.99 in paperback
ISBN 9780143793335
With his law background, Wakeling is well qualified to examine the war crimes trials in the Pacific where Australia and its allies prosecuted Japanese soldiers for the atrocities they committed. Australia led the unsuccessful bid to prosecute Emperor
of his final days and his fragmentary remains. Among the items was a remarkably modest computer disk box holding the last fragments
of a skull purported to be
the remains of Hitler. While denied the opportunity to forensically examine the skull, a French pathologist Philippe Charlier was permitted to examine the teeth. His results, published in a peer reviewed journal, were conclusive, confirming the remains were that of Hitler. This book is a classic tale of detection which in
its conclusions put to rest
the conspiracy theories
that Hitler had survived and fled to South America. But
it does more than simply confirm what many have long suspected. The investigation exposed the Soviets’ desire to control the narrative of Hitler’s death, just as they controlled that part of Berlin where it occurred.
Hirohito as a war criminal and was the last country to conduct war crimes trials on Manus Island in 1951. In the immediate post-war period, public sentiment in Australia against the Japanese was such that leniency was roundly condemned. Seventy years on, it’s likely that few Australians are aware of the trials and few would know that the Australian Army executed 138 of the 949 suspects they tried at 294 trials. The last execution
by Australia occurred on
10 June 1951 at Manus Island. Japanese soldiers, in mounting their defence, felt they were simply following orders but the extent of their brutality lies in the grim statistics of 27 per cent of Allied prisoners dying in Japanese captivity compared with 4 per cent of those held by the Germans and the Italians. A sobering account of the aftermath of war.
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST SPIES
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF AUSTRALIA’S INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS, 1901-45
By John Fahey
Published by Allen & Unwin RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781760631208
John Fahey, who worked
at DSD for eight years, has chosen to cover the period up to 1945, having undertaken not to write about matters
he had access to in his working life. His aim is to provide the reader with a well-researched history of Australia’s early intelligence
WIDENING MINDS
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND THE EDUCATION OF AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE LEADERS
By Tom Frame
Published by UNSW Press RRP $59.99 in paperback ISBN 9781742234427
Tom Frame was a product of this longstanding educational collaboration but he tackles the thorny question of his objectivity upfront, saying that he was ‘critical’ of his education at the Kensington campus and disliked the Defence Academy’s culture. Since 1967 more than 25,000
operations, an account that is more reliable than the ‘public pronouncements and posturing of politicians’. He tells the stories of dedicated patriots who undertook dangerous operations to protect their new nation, despite a lack of training.
He shows how the early adoption of advanced radio technology by Australia contributed to the war
effort in Europe. He also exposes bureaucratic mismanagement in WWII that cost lives, and the leaks that compromised Australia's standing with wartime
allies. The book has won
high praise from Professor David Horner: It is a ‘warning tale that emphasises that Australia needs to put its own interests first’. I was struck
by the petty rivalry between various organisations that could not rise above their disagreements to put the interests of the nation first.
students have graduated from UNSW after studying
at Duntroon, HMAS Creswell and the Australian Defence Force Academy. The need
for tertiary education emerged during the Vietnam conflict. Frame outlines the protracted negotiations
with the University of NSW which culminated in a 1981 agreement to establish ADFA with the first graduation ceremony occurring in
1987. It’s no surprise, as he traces the fortunes of the relationship, that there was some in the Kensington campus in the late 1990s who ‘opposed maintaining any link with Defence on political grounds’. Frame’s account of the appointment of Professor Robert King as Rector
makes interesting reading. Frame believes the 50-year relationship produced many significant achievements
in teaching, learning and research.
100 | December 2018 – January 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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