Media: DATA CD - 1 CD (203 pages)
Year: (1941) 2009
ISBN: 9781742226484
Publisher: Archive Digital Books Australasia

"An illustrated notebook on the life of Australians in the Middle Eastern theatre of war" is how the editors describe this book on the Australian Imperial Force during 1941. Almost all of the reports are from men on active service – those actually engaged in the campaigns about which they are writing. By necessity, authorship was limited to just army numbers or initials.

Summaries of a number of campaigns during 1941 are included:

By mid-July 1941, Australians had campaigned across Libya, withstood months of siege in Tobruk, fought on the snow-line of Greek mountains, battled against the massed air forces of Germany in Crete, experienced two extremely difficult withdrawal and evacuation movements , and traversed Syria from south to north. In all of this, the contrasts to the methods and settings of 1914-18 have been most marked.

Names of battle areas familiar at the time but perhaps unknown to many today are scattered through the stories – Bardia, Tobruk, Derna, Benghazi, Giarabub, Katerini, Veria Pass, Heraklion, Suda Bay, Retimo, Saida, and Damascus to name but a few.

The book contains many maps, illustrations and images, both colour and black and white, of battlefields, personnel and some of the more light hearted moments. It is a valuable resource and a great read for all interested in military history.

This CD contains high quality scanned images of the original book, and has been bookmarked for easy navigation. Pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Any computer using Adobe (Acrobat) Reader 4 or later
Adobe Reader 6 or later is recommended for CDs with searchable text