The disastrous toll of the 1914-1918 conflict, the shattering of the idealistic schemes for international order that followed it and the presence of a hostile and feared Asian empire close to the north meant that Australians regarded the declaration of war as a grim necessity, not a cause for celebration as in 1914. This beautifully illustrated book is a moving pictorial record of the Second World War as experienced by the Australian men and women who contributed so much. More than 500 rarely seen photographs, historic maps, letters and diaries from the Australian War Memorial archives bring the Second World War to life and create an intimate portrayal of the very human side of battle. Australians fought in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe and across the Pacific. In these theatres of war, despite the hardships, the horrors and the loss of life suffered, the inextinguishable bravery, dignity and spirit shown by the Australians make the Second World War one of our greatest endeavours as a nation.
The Second World War was a dominant experience in Australian history. For the first time the country faced the threat of invasion. The economy and society were mobilised to an unprecedented degree, with 550 000 men and women, or one in twelve of a population of over 7 million, serving in the armed forces overseas. Social patterns and family life were disrupted. Politically, the war gave a new legitimacy to the Australian Labor Party which had been confined to the wilderness of the Opposition at the Federal level for most of the inter-war years. The powers of the Federal government increased and a new momentum for social reform was generated at the popular and governmental level. In the international sphere, the war fundamentally shook Australian confidence in the power on which it had relied for generations, Great Britain. It generated a sense of independence in Australian foreign policy and initiated a new, if halting and problematic, realignment towards the United States. In this accessible book Joan Beaumont, Kate Darian-Smith, David Lee, David Lowe, Marnie Haig-Muir, Roy Hay and David Walker consider the range of Australia's experience of this conflict. In a single volume they draw together the many aspects of the war and distil the current state of historical scholarship. Australia's War 1939-45 will be invaluable to tertiary students and of enormous interest to the reader concerned with the social, political and military history of Australia. A companion volume on the First World War is also available.
When Australia joined Britian in declaring war on Nazi Germany in 1939 Australian forces went on to fight in campaigns across the globe, from the Middle East,Greece & Crete,to Malaya,New Guinea,the Philippines & Borneo. Few could have predicted that the Second World War would prove to be history's most murderous conflict. Ages 11+.
A masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor. Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of WWII. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, the Second World War. In this searing narrative that takes us from Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 to V-J day on August 14, 1945 and the war's aftermath, Beevor describes the conflict and its global reach -- one that included every major power. The result is a dramatic and breathtaking single-volume history that provides a remarkably intimate account of the war that, more than any other, still commands attention and an audience. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's grand and provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on this complex, tragic, and endlessly fascinating period in world history, and confirms once more that he is a military historian of the first rank.
This series brings to life significant events of the past through the accounts of people who were there at the time. Each book features diary and journal entries, newspaper articles and official documents. The emphasis is on presenting primary source material that offers different points of view on a single event. Age 12+.
Sex, Soldiers and the South Pacific, 1939-45 explores the queer dynamics of war across Australia and forward bases in the south seas. It examines relationships involving Allied servicemen, civilians and between the legal and medical fraternities that sought to regulate and contain expressions of homosex in and out of the forces.