Page 70 - Australian Defence Magazine April-May 2021

70 BOOKS OF INTEREST
APRIL-MAY 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE JOINED ...
A MEMOIR
By Sir Peter Cosgrove Published by Allen & Unwin RRP $49.99 in hard cover ISBN 9781760878528
‘This book is not written to correct the record, not to reveal fascinating facts previously unknown, not to convey insights thrilling in their expression and persuasion....’ So writes
Peter Cosgrove in the preface to this, his second book of memoir, having published My Story in 2006. His military
ARMAGEDDON AND OKRA
AUSTRALIA’S AIR OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
A CENTURY APART
By Dr Lewis Frederickson Published by Big Sky Publishing RRP $19.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781922387554
This book marks the launch of a new Australian Air Campaign Series of publications produced by the Air Force’s History
and Heritage Branch, with
the intention of promoting an understanding of Air Force history. The series begins with a book which compares and
career trajectory is well known, ending his days as CDF in 2005, having entered Duntroon in 1965. What he thought would be an easy retirement interspersed with board meetings turned out
not to be the case. Soon
after his retirement, he
was invited to take charge
of the relief and rebuilding operation in Queensland after the devastation of Cyclone Larry. And then, in 2014, he became Australia's Governor- General, retiring from that role in July 2019. He recounts his time as Governor-General in some detail. While he barely strays into the political, he does comment obliquely on the sacking of the Whitlam government in 1975, writing that he does not think ‘... governors-general should have conversations with Leaders of the Opposition with even a whiff of political content.’ A good read.
contrasts the dispatch of an Ottoman Army by Australian-led Imperial air power in the Wadi Fara on 21 September 1918, which occurred just five years after the advent of military aviation in Australia, with the deployment on 21 September 2014, 96 years after those events, of Australian squadrons to the same part of the world where they would remain for more than three years on operations against extremists.
In 1914, the fledgling Australian air service operated the flimsy Bristol Boxkite; four years later it was flying the far more advanced Bristol F2B Fighter. Nearly
100 years on, it was the RAAF Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets, supported by Airbus KC-30A air-to-air refuelling tankers and the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, that would demonstrate the extraordinary development of air power in those intervening years.
MOSUL
AUSTRALIA’S SECRET WAR INSIDE THE ISIS CALIPHATE By Ben McKelvey
Published by Hachette
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9780733645419
Author Ben McKelvey, in his introduction to this book, writes that ‘the story of the middle eastern conflicts that followed the 9/11 attacks and the rise
and territorial fall of ISIS is an Australian story, with veterans from both sides of the conflict having walked among us.’ Through his extraordinary access
THE LONG SHADOW
AUSTRALIA’S VIETNAM VETERANS SINCE THE WAR BY PETER YULE
Published by New South | Australian War Memorial RRP $49.99 in hardcover ISBN 9781742237183
Even a casual conversation with a Vietnam veteran reveals the extent of the trauma Vietnam veterans continue to suffer. It casts ‘a long shadow’ indeed as this book attests. The fact is that the medical and psychological legacies of the Vietnam War
are major and continuing issues
to SOOCOMD/2COMMANDO units (the most decorated modern Australian fighting unit) and other key players, McKelvey pieces together the story of the battle for Mosul and the secret involvement of Australians on both sides of the war – both our commandos and Australian ISIS fighters. While we have all come to understand the brutality of ISIS, the ability of recruiters to persuade young Australians to adopt their fanaticism remains chilling, not to mention the tragic consequences that await them. McKelvey also takes us into the personal lives of commandos who served with distinction and then suffered the devastating impact of PTSD. Focusing on the stories of key figures like
2 Commando’s Ian Turner and one of Australia’s most infamous Jihadist, Khaled Sharrouf, McKelvey brings recent
history to life in this compelling examination of modern warfare and counter-terrorism efforts.
for veterans, their families and the community. The impact of the widespread use of Agent Orange, PTSD and other long- term health effects were little understood. Studies were often inconclusive but there was evidence of birth defects among the children of soldiers exposed to higher levels of the herbicide. It became the most emotional issue of all the medical issues facing veterans. Eventually DVA accepted herbicide exposure as a possible cause of a range of illnesses in veterans, but it had been a long battle. All the issues had been compounded by the emerging belief it was a war in which Australia should never have been involved.
Only recently have Vietnam veterans been prepared to say they were proud of their service. A well-researched thorough book that examines the aftermath of a terrible war from the veterans’ perspective. ■
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