Page 112 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2023

112 BOOKS OF INTEREST
DECEMBER 2022-JANUARY 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
STRONG TO SERVE
AN AUSTRALIAN SPITFIRE PILOT’S WAR OVER EUROPE
By Joseph Mack
Published by Big Sky Publishing RRP $32.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781922615718
Following training in Australia, Canada and the UK, Fred Riley flew Spitfires with No.130 (Punjab) Squadron RAF from October 1943 until December 1944. Flying the Spitfire Mk.V, he escorted bombers, flew fighter sweeps and undertook hazardous patrols on D-Day. With a new Spitfire Mk.XIV –
THE DIGGER OF KOKODA
THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF REG CHARD
By Daniel Lane
Published by Macmillan RRP $36.99 in paperback ISBN 9781761260278
Reg Chard was ninety-six years old and one of the
last surviving diggers of Kokoda when Daniel Lane approached him to record his story, which is rich in anecdotes and gives the reader a ground level look at what it took to hold back and then defeat the Japanese
the plane he described as the one he truly loved to fly – Fred intercepted V-1 flying bombs aimed at London. Later, from the Netherlands and Belgium, he conducted anti-jet and low-level sorties over those countries and into Germany. During one such flight, Fred and his colleagues were surprised by a superior force of Luftwaffe fighters.
Fred’s logbook records historically significant names, places and events. He served with notable aces, escorted General Eisenhower, and protected transport aircraft during Operation Market Garden. The logbook ends
on 22 December 1944 – Fred was shot down and severely injured. This account details Fred’s journey to becoming a fighter pilot and his remarkable recollections of combat over the UK and Europe. 130 Squadron – a multi-national group of pilots lived up to its motto: ‘Strong to Serve’.
advance in New Guinea.
It is a deeply moving and inspiring story of a man who describes his own survival as sheer luck as men next
to him were killed. He does not spare his readers from the horrors of what he encountered, horrors that
he spent the rest of his
life trying hard to forget.
Yet he rejects the description of himself as
a hero. In recounting Reg Chard’s story, it is highly probable the lines have been blurred between what Chard believes he remembers across the span of the years and the possibility that stories he has heard from other sources have merged with his own memory, which is not to discredit his story but rather to remind readers it is the output of a very elderly gentleman whose memory may be imperfect.
FIND, FIX, FINISH
By Ben McKelvey Published by Harper Collins RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781460760765
Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war unexpectedly morphed into Australia’s longest war, a war that McKelvey says was recognised a decade earlier than its eventual ignominious end in 2021 as unwinnable. It was not only Australia’s longest war but its most secretive
too. In all it is estimated that Australia’s special forces (SASR) killed 11,000 Afghans,
THE WITNESS
By Tom Gilling
Published by Allen & Unwin RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781760879273
This book has been described by other reviewers as ‘fascinating’, ‘disturbing’ and ‘compelling’. Indeed, it is all of these things. One thing it is not, though, is conclusive. Was Warrant Officer Bill Sticpewich, who gave compelling
evidence against Sandakan’s commandant Captain Hoshijima Susumu and his murderous henchmen at the Australian
mostly via the large kill/capture program initiated by US forces. McKelvey does a good job
of explaining the intricacies
of Australia’s special forces involvement, how targets were identified and either captured or killed. But then,
in the aftermath of war, we are left with its terrible legacy. Former operators who would find it profoundly difficult to reintegrate into normal civilian life also faced the rumours of war crimes and the findings
of the Brereton Report. Not surprisingly, McKelvey found his opportunities to ask questions of special forces commanders about their failed mental-health obligations were limited as most were still serving and could not be approached, except through the ‘near impenetrable iron curtain of Defence media.’ The war may have ended but the questions remain, many of them unanswered.
war crimes trials, a collaborator with the Japanese? He avoided heavy labour and obtained extra rations by ingratiating himself with the Japanese, according to some reports. Or was he simply doing what he needed to do to stay alive? The statistics are horrifying. Of more than 2400 Allied prisoners at Sandakan
at the start of 1945, only six survived. It was Sticpewich’s evidence that condemned Hoshijima Susumu to death via the hangman’s noose
in Rabaul. After the war, unflattering stories continued to emerge from fellow POWs. Yet Sticpewich continued
to serve the Army post-war, retiring in June 1970 at age 62 after 30 years’ service. Even his death seven years later – he was killed crossing the road, hit by not one, but two cars – raised unfounded questions of whether his past had caught up with him. A compelling story indeed.
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