Courage Under Fire by Daniel Keighran; Tony Park (As told to)

$44.99 AUD

Category: Military

'A man selfless in the face of threat. Courageous in the face of terror. Generous in the face of suffering. And humble in the face of an honour bestowed.' Dame Quentin Bryce On 24 August 2010, in battle in Afghanistan, Corporal Daniel Keighran risked his life in a hail of gunfire to save his fellow sol diers. His actions saw him awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia, making him the 99th Australian to receive our country's highest award for bravery. Courage Under Fire tells of Daniel's unlikely journey to become one of Australia's most celebrated soldiers. Growing up was tough for Daniel. When he was eleven, his father showed up in his life, for the first time, with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He relocated his son, daughter and their mother 400 kilometres away from their loving grandparents and a coastal home to a shack with a dirt floor in outback Queensland. From then on, Daniel fought to maintain a sense of order and purpose amid the chaos of family violence and criminal activity. Inspired by his much-loved grandfather, a WWII veteran, Daniel joined the army. There he found the structure that was missing from his teen years. Although just 17, Daniel adapted quickly to the demands of life in the military, always willing to learn, always wanting to grow, always seeking to emulate the example of his grandfather. Courage Under Fire is an outstanding military memoir, packed with tales of multiple tours, accounts of extraordinary camaraderie, and a reflection on the unseen cost of service. Most of all it is a testament to the idea that anything is possible if you know what you stand for. PRAISE FOR COURAGE UNDER FIRE 'One of Australia's most reluctant heroes. A raw, honest, humorous and inspirational story of a modern soldier and the burden of heroism.' Mark Donaldson VC 'From a tough upbringing in outback Queensland to selfless courage on the battlefield in Afghanistan to save his mates, this book tells the inspirational story of a soldier's soldier.' Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret'd) 'Daniel Keighran would say that he was an ordinary man, just a soldier doing his job. From the occasional chaos and sometimes drama, of his upbringing, in the Army he became remarkable. His gallantry and willingness to put his life on the line is an inspiration to every other man and woman in uniform and to the wider Australian community. His humility and self-effacement since his award only adds to our admiration of this exceptional man.' General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, AC(Mil), CVO, MC (Ret'd) 'Courage Under Fire reveals the character of a man who wears humility more comfortably than his medals. Leadership can't be taught, but it can be learned. The power is in the story. To read this one is to be a better person and a better leader.' Dr Brendan Nelson AO'Daniel Keighran's story, from humble beginnings to national celebrity, is one of personal character, extraordinary courage and deep compassion for his mates. His story will make all Australians proud.' Major General John Cantwell AO, DSC (Ret'd) 'The Royal Australian Regiment, to which Dan belonged, has the motto "Duty First". He is the epitome of what that requires of those who serve in its ranks. He is a great Australian with a great Australian story to tell.' Lieutenant General David Morrison AO (Ret'd) ...Show more

The Stolen Maps by TREVOR TUCKER

$29.95 AUD

Category: Military

A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Secret Game that Won the War by Simon Parkin

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

It's 1941. Imagine you're Winston Churchill. The Battle of the Atlantic is a disaster. Supply ships ferrying vital weapons, food and fuel from North America are being torpedoed by the German U-boats. You are lying to the country about the number of ships sunk. You are lying about the number of men kille d. Without the supply ships Britain will starve. The tide of the war is turning in Germany's favour. This is the story of the game of battleships that won the Second World War. In 1941 Prime Minster Winston Churchill gathered a group of unlikely heroes - a retired naval captain and eight brilliant young women, the youngest only seventeen years-old - to form a secret strategy unit. On the top floor of a ramshackle HQ in Liverpool, the Western Approaches Tactical Unit spent day and night playing war games to crack the U-boat tactics. A Game of Birds and Wolves takes us from the steamy fug of a U-boat as the German aces coordinate their wolfpack, to the tense atmosphere of operation room as the British team plot battles at sea on the map. The story of Operation Raspberry and its unsung heroines has never been told before. Investigative journalist Simon Parkin brings these hidden figures into the light in this gripping tale of war at sea. ...Show more

The Outpost: (FTI) by Jake Tapper

$24.99 AUD

Category: Military

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The heartbreaking and inspiring story of one of the deadliest battles of the Afghanistan war, acclaimed by critics as a classic. 'A mind-boggling, all-too-true story of heroism, hubris, failed strategy, and heartbreaking sacrifice' Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild At 5:58 AM on October 3rd, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was viciously attacked. Though the 53 soldiers stationed there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties made it the deadliest fight of the war that year. Four months after the battle, a review revealed that there was no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first place. In The Outpost, Jake Tapper gives us the powerful saga of COP Keating, from its establishment to eventual destruction, introducing us to an unforgettable cast of soldiers and their families. This modern classic of military history is an indictment of the management of the war in Afghanistan, and a thrilling tale of true courage in the face of impossible odds. ...Show more

The Lost Boys: The untold stories of the under-age soldiers who fought in the First World War (HB) by Paul Byrnes

$45.00 AUD

Category: Military

INDIE AWARD WINNER 2020They were just boys. And they were to face the horrors of a war more diabolical than any of them could have imagined. This is their story. Hundreds of Australian and New Zealander boys enlisted in the First World War, some as young as 13. No one knows how many went to war, but at least 150 Australians did not come back. Their names are on the Roll of Honour, the record of war dead at the War Memorial in Canberra. Most died on the Western Front, in France and Belgium. They took part in every major battle in which the ANZACs fought - from Fromelles in July 1916, to the liberation of Villers-Bretonneux in 1918. Many died in the first wave at Gallipoli or at Lone Pine in August 1915. Why did they go and who allowed this to happen? We can only understand how if we look through their eyes and walk in their shoes. In The Lost Boys, their stories will be told for the first time. ...Show more

The Lost Battalions - A Battle That Could Not Be Won an Island That Could Not Be Defended. an Ally That Could Not Be Trusted by Tom Gilling

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

They were thrown into a hopeless fight against an overwhelming enemy. Later, hundreds died as prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and in the freezing coal mines of Taiwan and Japan. Through it all, wrote Weary Dunlop, they showed 'fortitude beyond anything I could have believed possible'. Until n ow, the story of the 2000 diggers marooned on Java in February 1942 has been a footnote to the fall of Singapore and the bloody campaign in New Guinea. Led by an Adelaide lawyer, Brigadier Arthur Blackburn VC, and fighting with scrounged weapons, two Australian battalions - plus an assortment of cooks, laundrymen and deserters from Singapore - held up the might of the Imperial Japanese Army until ordered by their Dutch allies to surrender. Drawing on personal diaries, official records and interviews with two of the last living survivors, this book tells the extraordinary story of the 'lads from Java', who laid down their weapons, but refused to give in. ...Show more

The Big Book of Australia's War Stories by Jim Haynes

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

Here are the stories of Australia's iconic battles and campaigns from the time of federation to the Vietnam War. Some are still household names, although their historical significance may be a mystery to most Aussies. Others are barely remembered now, but are part in our history and deserve to be retold . Most importantly, this collection demonstrates the extraordinary courage, resilience, stoic humour, personal heroism and sacrifice that created the legend of the Aussie digger, soldiers, sailors and airmen who did things their own way and earned the undying respect of both their allies and their enemies. These are the stories that explain Australia's wartime reputation. Fifteen years before Gallipoli, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writing of stoic Australian courage, would say, 'When the ballad makers of Australia seek for a subject, let them turn to Elands River'. Of Gallipoli, a British officer called the cheerful, insubordinate Aussies 'the bravest thing God ever made'. And before the Normandy invasion, Field Marshall Montgomery's chief of staff remarked, before the Normandy invasion, 'I only wish we had the Australian 9th Division with us this morning'. ...Show more

SAS Band of Brothers by Damien Lewis

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

The new SAS epic from bestselling military historian Damien Lewis We share the triumphs and tragedies of a group of elite soldier trailblazers as they commit daring raids behind enemy lines in 1944, manage an against the odds escape to victory, and then seek post-war retribution for the terrible murder of their captured comrades. SAS BAND OF BROTHERS is replete with action, peppered with great characters, and features two of the most daring escapes of WWII. It ends with the hunted becoming the hunters - a group of men intent on seeking out the Nazis responsible for their brethren's deaths, on an ultra-deniable SAS mission to avenge a war crime. This is the new bestseller from Damien Lewis. It bears all his hallmarks - an epic, page-turning special forces narrative based on hitherto unavailable personal testimony and private family archives. ...Show more

Eleven Bats: A Story of Combat, Cricket and the SAS by Anthony 'Harry' Moffitt

$34.99 AUD

Category: Military

Anthony 'Harry' Moffitt spent more than twenty years in the SAS. His decades of service and his multiple tours in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan made him one of the regiment's most experienced and recognised figures.   Alongside the SAS, Harry's other lifetime love is cricket. An improvised game of cricket was often the circuit-breaker Harry and his team needed after the tension of operations. He began a tradition of organising matches wherever he was sent, whether it was in the mountains of East Timor with a fugitive rebel leader, or on the dusty streets of Baghdad, or in exposed Forward Operating Bases in the hills of Afghanistan. Soldiers, locals and even visiting politicians played in these spontaneous yet often bridge-building games. As part of the tradition, Harry also started to take a cricket bat with him on operational tours, eleven of them in total. They'd often go outside the wire with him and end up signed by those he met or fought alongside. These eleven bats form the basis for Harry's extraordinary memoir. It's a book about combat, and what it takes to serve in one of the world's most elite formations. It's a book about the toll that war takes on soldiers and their loved ones. And it's a book about the healing power of cricket, and how a game can break down borders in even the most desperate of circumstances. ...Show more

Hell Ship by Michael Veitch

$22.99 AUD

Category: Military

The riveting story of one of the most calamitous voyages in Australian history, the plague-stricken sailing ship Ticonderoga that left England for Victoria with 800 doomed emigrants on board.

Lancaster: The Forging of a Very British Legend by John Nichol

$32.99 AUD

Category: Military

'The epic story of an iconic aircraft and the breathtaking courage of those who flew her' Andy McNab, bestselling author of Bravo Two Zero 'Compelling, thrilling and rooted in quite extraordinary human drama' James Holland, author of Normandy 44 From John Nichol, the Sunday Times bestselling author of S pitfire, comes a passionate and profoundly moving tribute to the Lancaster bomber, its heroic crews and the men and women who kept her airborne during the country's greatest hour of need. 'The Avro Lancaster is an aviation icon; revered, romanticised, loved. Without her, and the bravery of those who flew her, the freedom we enjoy today would not exist.' Sir Arthur Harris, the controversial chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command, described the Lancaster as his 'shining sword' and the 'greatest single factor in winning the war'. RAF bomber squadrons carried out offensive operations from the first day of the Second World War until the very last, more than five and a half years later. They flew nearly 300,000 sorties and dropped around a million tons of explosives, as well as life-saving supplies. Over 10,000 of their aircraft never returned. Of the 7,377 Lancasters built during the conflict, more than half were lost to enemy action or training accidents. The human cost was staggering. Of the 125,000 men who served in Bomber Command, over 55,000 were killed and another 8,400 were wounded. Some 10,000 survived being shot down, only to become prisoners of war. In simple, brutal terms, Harris's aircrew had only a 40 per cent chance of surviving the war unscathed. Former RAF Tornado Navigator, Gulf War veteran and bestselling author John Nichol now tells the inspiring and moving story of this legendary aircraft that took the fight deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. ...Show more

Australian Code Breakers: Our Top-Secret War with the Kaiser's Reich by James Phelps

$34.99 AUD

Category: Military

The extraordinary story of a headmaster turned cryptographer, and our top-secret war with the Kaiser's Reich. On 11 August 1914, just days after war had been declared, Australian Captain J.T. Richardson boarded a German merchant vessel fleeing Melbourne's Port Phillip and audaciously seized a top-secret naval codebook. The fledgling Australian Navy had an opportunity to immediately change the course of the war. But what exactly had they found? Enter the Australian code breakers ...Recruited by savvy top brass, maths whizz and German speaker Frederick Wheatley worked night and day to fathom the basic principles of the code and start tracking the German Navy's powerful East Asia Squadron, led by the brilliant Maximilian von Spee. Soon Melbourne was a hub of international Allied intelligence. This is the untold story of how a former Australian headmaster and his mostly female team cracked one of Germany's most complex codes, paving the way for the greatest Allied naval victory of World War I. ...Show more