Page 82 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

82 BOOKS OF INTEREST
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
DIPLOMATIC
A WASHINGTON MEMOIR
By Joe Hockey, with Leon Shanahan Published by Harper Collins
RRP $34.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781460759516
Joe Hockey served as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States for four years from January 2016, following Malcolm Turnbull’s successful challenge of then
PM Tony Abbott. Hockey had been offered the ambassador role as a consolation prize after being dumped as Treasurer. He arrived in Washington in the middle of the 2016 presidential
EIGHT HUNDRED HEROES
CHINA’S LOST BATTALION AND THE FALL OF SHANGHAI
By Stephen Robinson
Published by Exisle Publishing
RRP $49.99 in hard back ISBN 9781922539205
At first glance, historian Stephen Robinson’s account of the legendary last stand of a single battalion that stays behind to defend Sihang Warehouse against invading Japanese troops might seem straightforward. It involves an heroic group of Chinese nationalist soldiers led by
campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Despite objections from his own government, Hockey reached out to the Trump campaign early on, securing important contacts within the campaign and later the Trump administration. There are some fascinating insider titbits including Trump’s revised view of Malcolm Turnbull (based on his earlier job as a barrister) as being ‘pretty smart because he kept Kerry Parker out of jail’, revealed to Hockey on the golf course. But this book is much more than a catalogue of entertaining titbits. Hockey’s time as ambassador encompassed a tumultuous presidency that presented unique challenges for the US/Australia relationship. It is interesting
and informative to have the firsthand perspective from the ambassador of this period. It
is by turns an entertaining, insightful and illuminating
look at how vital this role is in relation to Australia’s interests.
Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan, the ‘Eight Hundred Heroes’ of the title. The setting is Shanghai 1937. The men repulsed
waves of Japanese attacks with tremendous bravery as thousands of spectators looked on from the relative safety
of the British Concession inside Shanghai’s International Settlement. Their valour raised Chinese morale as did the actions of the heroine Yang Huimin, a Girl Guide who delivered a Chinese flag to the defenders. It flew over Sihang Warehouse as a beacon of hope. But Robinson does not tell this story without providing the added context of the political upheavals of the time, from the rise of the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek in 1926 to their defeat in 1949 by Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War. Despite this, respect for the incredible feat of heroism of the eight hundred endures to this day.
EDITH BLAKE’S WAR
THE ONLY AUSTRALIAN NURSE KILLED IN ACTION DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
KRISTA VANE-TEMPEST Published by New South
RRP $34.99 in paperback ISBN 9781742237398
Krista Vane-Tempest was inspired to write the story of her great aunt Edith Blake through the discovery of a cache of letters she had written to her family back home. In those letters, she shared her homesickness and the horror
THE BATTLE FOR ISURAVA
FIGHTING ON THE KOKODA TRACK IN THE HEART OF THE OWEN STANLEYS
By David W Cameron
Published by Big Sky Publishing RRP $32.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781922615671
Author David Cameron has an impressive list of books to his credit. This year, The Battle for Isurava is due to be followed
by two more titles focusing on the fight against the Japanese advance in New Guinea: Saving Port Moresby (Sept 22) and Retaking Kokoda (Nov 22).
of what she witnessed in
the operating theatre. When Edith missed out on joining
the Australian Army, she was posted to the British Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service in early 1915. At her first posting in Cairo, she nursed soldiers wounded at Gallipoli. Her last posting, the British hospital ship Glenart Castle proved fateful. In the early hours of 26 February 1918, the ship steamed into
the Bristol Channel, heading
for France to pick up wounded men from the Western Front.
A German U-boat torpedoed the ship in contravention of the agreement protecting hospital ships. Thirty-two-year-old Edith Blake perished that night along with 152 of the 182 people on board. As the only Australian nurse killed in action during
the First World War, her story deserves to be better known and her dedication and sacrifice honoured.
With this book, he tells the story of a small militia force, the Australian militiamen of ‘B’ Company, 39th Battalion, who spent four weeks fighting a delaying action against a crack Japanese force of the 144th Regiment, numbering at least 1500. The Australians were outnumbered three to one. The battle for Isurava would be the defining battle of the Kokoda Campaign. It was here that Australia’s first Victoria Cross in the Pacific war was awarded when the Japanese conducted several ferocious attacks against
the Australian perimeter. Private Bruce Kingsbury led
an Australian counterattack, rushing forward sweeping the Japanese positions with his Bren gun. He was killed leading the charge. Cameron reveals that, despite the Australians being outnumbered and
poorly equipped, they fought tenaciously and determinedly.
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