Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and Their Adversaries in World War IIFighting The Enemy, first published in 2000, 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. |
Other editions - View all
Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and their Adversaries in World War II Mark Johnston No preview available - 2009 |
Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and Their Adversaries in World War II Mark Johnston No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
9th Division Aitape Alamein army artillery attack attitudes Australian soldiers Australian troops Australian War Memorial AWM 3DRL Balikpapan Bardia battle Benghazi Bennett Boys Write Home Brigade Butler Canungra captured casualties Combe Craig Crete and Syria dead defeat defenders desert Dexter diary Donor El Alamein enemy Fd Regt fifth columnists fighters Final Campaigns Finschhafen fire Footsoldiers forces fought German Givney Greece grenade Guinea Offensives Gullett hatred ibid Italians Japanese Japanese soldiers Japanese Thrust jungle killed Kokoda Track lieutenant Ligertwood & Gilchrist Malaya Maughan McCarthy Melbourne Middle East Milne Bay Mud and Blood officer opponents patrol Private Regiment reported Rommel Rough Infantry Sanananda Second 43rd Second Twenty-Fourth Shelton Smith shot siege of Tobruk Similar Singapore South-West Pacific Area story surrender Sydney Tarakan Tel el Eisa Tobruk to Tarakan told Trigellis-Smith veteran Vichy French Wallin wartime Wigmore wounded wrote
References to this book
The Colditz Myth: British and Commonwealth Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany S. P. Mackenzie No preview available - 2006 |