Bo o ks
and sustaining an effective force, its people, its tools of the trade, its involvement in operations and peacetime activities, and how it looks to the future.
THEN NOW ALWAYS Royal Australian Air Force Illustrated History 1921-201 Big Sky Publishing Pages: 460 in hardcover RRP: $59.99 ISBN: 9781922615053
Commemorating the 100 Year Anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force, Then. Now. Always covers the story of the AFC and the RAAF during time of both war and peace, with carefully researched text relating to various stages of the life of the RAAF.
The Royal Australian Air Force has come a long way since its early beginnings in the Australian Flying Corps, an element of the Australian Army.
These historical facts have been combined with interesting personal adventures to provide a holistic view of the RAAF story, and is illustrated throughout with an extensive range of both black and white, and colour photographs.
From its birth as a fledgling little brother of the other two services, the RAAF has developed over the years in its elements of raising, training
A must have addition to any military history collection documenting the evolution of one of the great air forces of the world.
THE DIGGERS OF COLDITZ The Classic Australian POW Story About Escape From The Inescapable Authors: Jack Champ, Colin Burgess Simon & Schuster Australia Pages: 336 in paperback RRP: $22.99 ISBN: 9781760855178
Colditz Castle was Nazi Germany’s infamous ‘escapeproof’ wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack Champ and other prisoners tirelessly
codenamed Operation Chastise, now regarded as one of the most dangerous and audacious bombing raids of World War II – an attack on the formidable, well-defended dams of Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
AUSTRALIA’S DAMBUSTERS Flying Into Hell With 617 Squadron Author: Colin Burgess Simon & Schuster Australia Pages: 336 in paperback RRP: $35.00 ISBN: 9781760859237
On the evening of 16 May 1943, nineteen modified Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron R A F, u n d e r c o m m a n d o f youthful Wing Commander Guy Gibson, roared into the night sky from their Lincolnshire base. They were on a top-secret Bomber Command mission,
Slung beneath the belly of each aircraft was one of the war’s greatest secrets – a bouncing bomb. Against the odds, and flying straight and level into the teeth of terrifying enemy fire, they succeeded in breaching the two principal dams. Many of the 133 airmen involved that fateful night hailed from Australia, and several would be counted among the 56 who would not return to base next morning. Australia’s Dambusters offers a truly comprehensive account of the most famous bombing raid of the war through words and stories of courageous Australian airmen and others who flew on this and later perilous missions, remembered and forever immortalised as the Dambusters.
THE FREEDOM CIRCUS Author: Sue Smethurst Penguin Books Pages: 320 in paperback RRP: $22.99 ISBN: 9781760890322
When Sue Smethurst first sat down with her grandmotherin-law and asked how she survived the Holocaust, she was shooed away. Mindla was in a Melbourne Jewish nursing home with other survivors, her body ageing but mind still razor sharp. As death began approaching Sue became a little pushier.
carried out their campaign to escape from the massive floodlit stronghold, by any means necessary. In this riveting account – by turns humorous, heartfelt and tragic – historian Colin Burgess and Lieutenant Jack Champ, from the point of view of the prisoners, tell the story of the twenty Australians who made this castle their ‘home’, and the plans they made that were so crazy that some even achieved the seemingly impossible – escape! Well worth the read, hard to put down, helps us better understand what our diggers went through, attempting to return home to family and friends, knowing death was never too far away. This is an updated version from first publish 30 years ago. It contains added detail, including pen pictures of many of the men involved. Diggers of Colditz delivers exciting and inspiring stories of courage, sacrifice and determination by Australian and allied POWs.
She knew Mindla’s life had to be recorded and they were running out of time. Each week she’d bring cake from her favourite shop in St Kilda, a bottle of the brightest nail polish she could find, a handful of old pictures and her tape recorder. They’d chat and paint Mindla’s nails. With each ‘chat’ her story unfolded. It was beyond anything Sue could have imagined. The tale of how Mindla and her husband Michael Horowitz, a circus performer for the famous Staniewski Brothers, escaped from Poland with their young son and embarked on a terrifying journey through the USSR and Middle East to Africa and ultimately to safety in Australia, is nothing short of extraordinary. The Freedom Circus is an epic story of courage, hope, humanity, survival and, ultimately, love.
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