Thread: READ ANY GOOD BOOKS RECENTLY?

Originally Posted by bob10

The ultimate book on Kokoda is Paul Hams , IMO. It rates with Les Carlyon's Gallipoli, I have read Fitzsimons book. It is good , but not as good as Hams. Another I can recommend is The Path Of Infinite Sorrow, the Japanese on the kokoda Track. By Craig Collie & Hajime Marutani. When viewed from the Japanese perspective, the achievements of the Aust. Militia are even more outstanding.

I agree HAMS is great, I like the wat FITZSIMONS weaves the telling, using a mix of battalion history, personal accounts,newspapers etc telling some accounts but changing the tense from then to now. I read about 6 different books on Kokoda before walking it in 07. Fitzsimons had just released his, and i found I like his writing style.

A good one to read is "the bone man of kokoda"


Finding Papua war dead a vet's life | The Japan Times

It is about this bloke, cpl Nishimura.. I believe he died a few months ago.

Originally Posted by digger

I agree HAMS is great, I like the wat FITZSIMONS weaves the telling, using a mix of battalion history, personal accounts,newspapers etc telling some accounts but changing the tense from then to now. I read about 6 different books on Kokoda before walking it in 07. Fitzsimons had just released his, and i found I like his writing style.

A good one to read is "the bone man of kokoda"


Finding Papua war dead a vet's life | The Japan Times

It is about this bloke, cpl Nishimura.. I believe he died a few months ago.

I saw a documentary on Nishimura, on fox. A sad story. Two books I have ,supplement the Papua / New Guinea story. To the BITTER END , the Japanese defeat at Buna and Gona, 1942-43, by Lex McCauley. That campaign was every bit as bloody as Kokoda, except the Australians had to assault fortified Japanese positions, thru swamps. This is the campaign where Blamey famously refused MacArthur's offer of more American troops,
saying he knew at least the Australians would fight. Bit different from Kokoda, where he called them rabbits.

The other is NOTHING OVER US, the story of the 2/6th Australian Infantry Battalion. which fought in the Middle East, Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi , Greece, Crete, Syria, then back home to Milne Bay, Wau, Salamaua,Aitape and the Torricellis.

Just a little about Blamey calling the Militia Battalion " Rabbits".The Battalion was reformed, and went on to fight in the Buna/Gona campaign. When they went into action in this campaign, in an attempt to prove themselves, they made many attacks at fortified Jap. positions, which were regarded as suicidal, by observers, as a result suffering horrendous casualties. They were determined to show Blamey he was wrong.

My reading list was The Silk Road- Peter Frankopan subtitled ?A New History of the World? web site The Silk Roads - Peter Frankopan
and some technical analysis books which might bore people

Can anybody recommend a good book about the Australians in Korea?


I have searched around when I've had time but haven't found anything.
Jonesfam

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

My reading list was The Silk Road- Peter Frankopan subtitled ?A New History of the World? web site The Silk Roads - Peter Frankopan
and some technical analysis books which might bore people

Wow!
He's multi-talented:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Yq5m9eLIQ[/ame]

The house we're staying at in Tassie is literally full of books - there are thousands of them here. The only room which does not contain any books is the bathroom / laundry. Even the dunny has two large shelving units down one wall, full of books - and there are more books stacked in some of the kitchen cupboards. Down the side of the house is a large caravan, apparently also about half full of books - I haven't looked in there yet.

There is no TV in the house, so whenever we stay here, I usually manage to find and read a few good books. Finished "Seawolf" by Patrick Robinson yesterday - a good yarn. Have now started on "Kingfisher" by Gerald Seymour, but finding it hard to get interested in this one so far.

While searching through the shelves last night, came across "A Fantasy of Man" and "A Campfire Yarn" both by Henry Lawson, plus a couple by Weary Dunlop. There's biography's on John Howard, Barack Obama and Bob Brown amongst others, plus a couple of books I've seen written by people who I never knew as authors, including Ruth Cracknell and Gene Hackman.

Plenty of books by the type of Authors I like too, such as Ken Follett, Alastair Mclean, Wilbur Smith and countless others.

I won't run short of reading material while we are down here.

I recently read Bob Brown's autobiography which was interesting because it gave his own explanation of many things twisted by the media. Agree or not its informative.

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Originally Posted by jonesfam

Can anybody recommend a good book about the Australians in Korea?


I have searched around when I've had time but haven't found anything.
Jonesfam

The first book written by a soldier who served in Korea is " Last Call Of The Bugle, the long road to Kapyong", by Jack Gallaway. The title relates to the fact that Korea was the last totally volunteer force to " answer the call of the bugle."
Gallaway himself is a bit of a character. He enlisted in the AIF during WW2 , but was underage, and discharged. He then joined the RAN, volunteered for special service, served in combined operations with both the AUSTRALIAN & AMERICAN armies. At wars end, he joined the regular army , went to Korea as a signal platoon SGT. After Korea, through his friendship with aboriginal soldier, Reg Saunders, he was involved in a Murri group and guided their successful endeavours to establish the first metropolitan Aboriginal broadcast facility in Australia. I can recommend the book.