Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and their Adversaries in World War II

by Mark Johnston

• ISBN13: 9780521782227
• ISBN10: 0521782228
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Fighting the Enemy is about men with the job of killing each other. Based on the wartime writings of hundreds of Australian front-line soldiers during World War II, this powerful and resonant book contains many moving descriptions of high emotion and drama. Soldiers' interactions with their enemies are central to war, and their attitudes to their adversaries are crucial to the way wars are fought. Yet few books look in detail at how enemies interpret each other. This book is an unprecedented and thorough examination of the way Australian combat soldiers interacted with troops from the four powers engaged in World War II: Germany, Italy, Vichy France and Japan. Each opponent has themes peculiar to it: the Italians were much ridiculed; the Germans were the most respected of enemies; the Vichy French were regarded with ambivalence; while the Japanese were the subject of much hostility, intensified by the real threat of occupation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vi
Conventions and Abbreviations	viii
Introduction	1	(8)
PART I WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Italians	9	(17)
The Germans: The Real Enemy	26	(15)
The Germans: Mutual Respect	41	(17)
The Vichy French	58	(15)
PART II WAR IN THE PACIFIC
The Japanese: Most Encountered, Most Hated	73	(11)
The Japanese: Sources of Hate	84	(19)
The Japanese: Questions of Quality	103	(16)
The Japanese: Empathy, Compassion and Incomprehension	119	(10)
Conclusion	129	(7)
Appendix A: Fifth Columnists	136	(8)
Appendix B: Orders of Battle of Australia's Enemies	144	(3)
Notes	147	(37)
Bibliography	184	(15)
Index	199