Desert Boys; Australians at War from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781741142921
• ISBN10: 174114292X
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2012-01-01
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Summary

Australians and New Zealanders fought in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East in both World Wars. This is the very human story of those soldiers, sailors and airmen and their involvement in some of the toughest campaigns of modern times, and their life away from the battlefield. More than 2,200 Australians died in the desert campaigns in WWI, while another 3,500 died in the desert and Mediterranean campaigns in WWII. Thousands more carried the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Countless more were the families who mourned them. A ripple effect of grief passed down the generations. This is the story of Australia's desert wars as never before told. Using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs, DESERT BOYS provides a powerful insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of two generations of Australian soldiers. In many cases these were fathers and sons going to successive wars with all the tragedy, adventure and hardship that brought. These are extraordinary stories of bravery and hope, of mateship and adversity a very long way from home.

Author Biography

Peter Rees (Author) : Peter Rees is a journalist who worked in the Canberra Press Gallery for many years before leaving to write books full time. He is the author of Other Anzacs, The Boy from Boree Creek, Killing Juanita and Tim Fischer's Outback Heroes.

Table of Contents

Author's note	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Maps
Egypt, 1916	p. xviii
Palestine, 1917-18	p. xix
Beersheba	p. xx
North Africa, World War II	p. xxi
Greece and Crete, 1941	p. xxii
Lebanon and Syria, 1941	p. xxiii
World War I
Cairo bound	p. 3
Spoiling for a fight	p. 18
Desert patrols	p. 33
A bit of a jaunt	p. 49
Hell let loose	p. 64
A ripping fight	p. 87
Dead scared	p. 109
A brilliant escape	p. 119
We thought we had the place	p. 130
Enough to make one sick to death	p. 142
No forgiveness in the air	p. 160
Take the town before dark	p. 176
The wild ride	p. 191
They are not soldiers; they are madmen	p. 208
Fed up	p. 227
Hell in the Jordan Valley	p. 242
Chappattis at Ziza	p. 260
The finest cavalry feat the world has ever known	p. 274
Going home	p. 285
Between wars	p. 295
World War II
Unprepared	p. 307
Camp life	p. 322
Iven's thunderbox	p. 344
The kind eyelids of night	p. 363
Colonel Thruster	p. 380
Tobruk booze	p. 394
Puffs in the sand	p. 414
Face to face with the Hun	p. 431
Hisses from the rocks	p. 448
Abandoned on Crete	p. 465
Wishing for a Murray moon	p. 479
Just one shot	p. 503
Dick Camm's Pioneers	p. 519
Forgotten in Syria	p. 538
The shroud	p. 554
The balance shifts	p. 564
Dogfights	p. 576
Local goodwill	p. 595
The El Alamein box	p. 609
A premonition	p. 624
Dinner at Romanos	p. 640
Epilogue	p. 657
Acknowledgements	p. 661
Notes	p. 665
Bibliography	p. 684
Index	p. 694
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