Page 60 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019

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COMPILED BY PETER MASTERS | BRISBANE
THE FIRST WORLD WAR, THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE PROFESSIONS IN AUSTRALIA
1914-1939
By Kate Darian-Smith and James Waghorne (editors) Published by Melbourne University Press
RRP $49.99 in paperback ISBN 9780522872903
This book examines how the technical and conceptual advances that occurred during WWI transformed Australian society. It
traces the evolving role of universities and their graduates in the 1920s
PANZER COMMANDER HERMANN BALCK GERMANY’S MASTER TACTICIAN
By Stephen Robinson Published by Exisle Publishing
RRP $44.99 in paperback ISBN 9781925520996 Readers may remember Robinson’s first book,
the excellent False Flags: Disguised German Raiders of WWII. He has turned his attention to the story of Hermann Balck, acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest armoured warfare commanders despite earlier
and 1930s, the increasing government validation of research, the expansion of the public service,
and the rise of modern professional associations. While the war contributed to greater specialisations in traditional professions such as teaching or medicine, it also stimulated new jobs and training. But the cost
to a young nation was high. There were 410,000 military enlistments, 330,000 on active service, of whom 60,000 were killed, out of a population of 5 million. By 1934, the aggregate cost of the war had risen to £830 million, much of it accumulated debt that imposed a severe burden on public finances. Nevertheless, this book provides a new account of the interwar years placing knowledge and expertise at the heart of the Australian story.
assessments describing him as ‘a notorious optimist with a reputation for ruthless aggression’. Robinson tracks his journey through the fields of France, the mountains of Greece and the steppes of Russia in some detail, relying on Balck’s own memoir to flesh out the narrative. It is no surprise as you read the story of this man that he came from a family with a long military tradition which perhaps explains, rather than excuses, his apparent indifference to the suffering he caused to civilian populations. Later
in life, Balck was invited to war games in the US to help prepare the US military for a confrontation with the Russian forces in eastern Europe, an extraordinary acknowledgement from
a former enemy of his capabilities in the field. This book will be of great interest to readers keen on military tactics in the land domain.
THE HELL PITS
OF SENDRYU
By Jim Brigginshaw Published by Big Sky Publishing
RRP $29.99 in paperback ISBN 9781925520996 Author Jim Brigginshaw worked with Jim Bodero when he was a compositor/ reader and Brigginshaw had taken over as editor of the newspaper. Bodero’s treatment as a prisoner
of war is a familiar story.
He was taken prisoner when Singapore fell early in 1942. He – along with thousands of fellow POWs –
HONOURABLE EXIT
HOW A FEW BRAVE AMERICANS RISKED
ALL TO SAVE THEIR VIETNAMESE ALLIES
AT THE END OF THE WAR
By Thurston Clarke Published by Scribe
RRP $49.99 in hardback ISBN 9781925520996
Clarke revisits the last
days of the Vietnam War
to uncover the previously untold story of a life-saving mass evacuation. During those final days, a number of Americans risked their lives and disobeyed orders to help their translators, drivers,
was conscripted as a slave labourer. He worked on the Thai-Burma railway and later volunteered for work in a coal mine near Nagasaki. He was there when the US dropped its second atomic bomb, on 9 August 1945. The blast that obliterated the city and incinerated 66,000 people may have freed Jim from his living hell but his struggles
were far from over. Badly debilitated by the daily privations of working in the mine, weakened by chronic starvation, as well as suffering from the ravages of tropical diseases, he was more dead than alive. Jim was eventually repatriated to Australia, but his war never really ended, its legacy a lifetime of pain. His suffering at the hands of a sadistic enemy was extreme.
He died in Lismore in 1991, having first recounted his story to Jim Brigginshaw.
colleagues, friends and neighbours to escape. By the time the last US helicopter left Vietnam on 30 April 1975, they had helped to spirit over 130,000 South Vietnamese
to resettlement in the US
as American citizens. The book begins with an iconic photograph taken by Dutch photojournalist Hubert
Van Es on the afternoon of April 29, 1975. It depicts a
US helicopter landing on
the roof of the United Press International building. Those saved by the efforts of the Americans were later to
liken their saviours to those who helped Jewish families escape the Holocaust. This
is a deeply moving book,
one that restores one’s faith in humanity. In the face of community opposition and political cowardice, a small band of people found the courage to do what was right.
60 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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