Download or read book Cruiser written by Mike Carlton and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2011 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young--many were still teenagers--from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French, and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navy's finest fighting sailor, 'Hardover' Hec Waller. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. Cruiser, by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story. And the story of those who loved them and waited for them.
Download or read book Ship of Courage written by Brendan Whiting and published by Allen & Unwin Australia. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The saga of HMAS Perth and USS Houston in the Battle of Sunda Strait has never been fully told. In 1942, when valour was all that stood between defeat and victory, these two cruisers earned their place in naval history. But this is also the story of a son finding his father. Brendan Whiting's search was triggered when he came upon an old cedar box containing his father's war-time diaries and a letter written to him by his father when he was serving on HMAS Perth. The author's voyage of discovery has led him through the exploits of HMAS Perth in the Mediterranean to the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea and the final battle of the Sunda Strait: the battle from which his father never returned.
Download or read book Red Lead written by Roland Perry and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legendary Australian ship's cat who survived the sinking of HMAS Perth and the Thai-Burma Railway Just after midnight on 1 March 1942, Australia's most renowned cruiser, HMAS Perth, was sunk by Japanese naval forces in the Sunda Strait off the coast of Java. Of the 681 men aboard, 328 survived the sinking and made it to shore-and one cat. Her name was Red Lead, and she was the ship's cat, beloved by the crew and by the Perth's legendary captain Hector Waller. But surviving shellfire, torpedoes and the fierce currents of the Sunda Strait was only the beginning of the terrible trials Red Lead and the surviving crew were to face over the next three-and-a-half years. From Java to Changi and then on the Thai-Burma Railway, Red Lead was to act as a companion, mascot and occasional protector for a small group of sailors who made it their mission to keep her alive in some of the most hellish prison camps on earth. Red Lead's extraordinary story, of courage, loyalty and love amidst battle, imprisonment and death, is brought vividly to life by bestselling author Roland Perry.
Download or read book Stolen Years written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ray Parkin s Odyssey written by Pattie Wright and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1939, Ray Parkin was serving on the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth. At first glance he looked every inch the archetypal petty officer that he was – tough, practical and a model of naval discipline. Yet Ray was no ordinary sailor. Despite a lack of formal education, he had the soul of an artist and a philosopher's enquiring mind.As HMAS Perth was embroiled in war – in the Mediterranean and then in South-East Asia – Ray became both a witness and a chronicler of the conflict through his meticulous diaries and his minutely observed watercolours and sketches. When Perth was sunk off the coast of Java, Ray was one of the survivors. After a valiant attempt to sail back to Australia in a lifeboat, he surrendered and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese, first building the Thai-Burma Railway and then working as a slave labourer in a Japanese coalmine. The horrors and privations of those years saw some of his most memorable artwork – documenting both the beauty of the natural world and the savageries and humiliations of the POW ordeal. They were also years that saw the founding of lifelong friendships with fellow prisoners Edward 'Weary' Dunlop and Laurens van der Post. Ray's experiences gave him the material for the three seminal books he would publish after the war: Out of the Smoke, Into the Smother and The Sword and the Blossom.Ray died in 2005, acclaimed not only for his art and his wartime trilogy, but also for his prize-winning masterpiece H.M. Bark Endeavour, an extraordinary evocation of Captain Cook's ship and its voyage up the east coast of Australia in 1770.This remarkable biography, illustrated by 100 paintings and sketches, is the first full and comprehensive account of Ray's life and wartime experiences. Using extensive interviews with Ray himself, as well as his letters, diaries and unpublished memoirs, Pattie Wright has written a book that is powerful, moving and compelling.
Download or read book Arthur s War written by John Harman and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In November 1940, Arthur Bancroft kissed his sweetheart, Mirla, goodbye and signed up with the Royal Australian Navy to go to war. He was nineteen years old. Arthur's War is the extraordinary story of his ordeal, and his survival. Arthur made a habit of cheating death – on the ill-fated HMAS Perth, which was sunk during the Battle of the Sunda Strait; as a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma–Thailand Railway, where it is said a man died for every sleeper laid; and miraculously surviving a second shipwreck that left him lost at sea, clinging to debris, for six days. While a POW he risked his life to keep a secret diary written on paper scraps with stolen pencils recording the agony and comradeship of life on the railway, which has never before been published. Against all odds Arthur made it back to Australia and to Mirla, who never lost hope for his eventual return all those years he was lost at war. His story is a story for all Australians: a captivating saga of courage, mateship, survival – and love.
Download or read book Death on the Hellships written by Gregory F Michno and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, Death on the Hellships chronicles the true dimensions of the Allied POW experience at sea. It is a disturbing story; many believe the Bataan Death March even pales by comparison. Survivors describe their ordeal in the Japanese hellships as the absolute worst experience of their captivity. Crammed by the thousands into the holds of the ships, moved from island to island and put to work, they endured all the horrors of the prison camps magnified tenfold. Gregory Michno draws on American, British, Australian, and Dutch POW accounts as well as Japanese convoy histories, declassified radio intelligence reports, and a wealth of archival sources to present a detailed picture of the horror.
Download or read book Guy Griffiths written by Peter Jones and published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-02 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his long career in the Royal Australian Navy, Guy Griffiths participated in its emergence from Depression-era stricture, pre-World War II, to its reinvention in the 1950s and 60s as a capable middle-power force centred on aircraft carriers in the missile age. In this time, he personally experienced the RAN’s darkest days in the face of the Japanese onslaught and its fi nest hour in the Philippines Campaign of World War II, and its close involvements in the Korean War and then the Vietnam War. He witnessed the realities of war in positions of increasing responsibility. Guy Griffiths: The Life & Times of an Australian Admiral is the authorised biography of Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths AO, DSO, DSC, RAN. ‘From country boy to gold-braided admiral, Guy Griffiths has led a richly-textured life of service to the navy and the nation. As a teenage midshipman he survived the disastrous sinking of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse off Malaya in 1941 and went on to fight at sea with distinction in another two wars: Korea and Vietnam. It is an unmatched record of courage, dedication and achievement. This is the enthralling biography of a remarkable sailor and a genuinely great Australian.’—Mike Carlton AM, bestselling author of Flagship & First Victory
Download or read book A History of H M A S Ipswich written by Alan R. Grimmer and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Navy in Vietnam written by Denis Fairfax and published by Australian Government Publishing Service. This book was released on 1980 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fire at Sea written by and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Submarine Six written by Tom Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Any Australian asked to mention our war heroes could probably name General Monash and Albert Jacka VC from World War I, and then Weary Dunlop, and perhaps Field Marshal Blamey from WWII. A knowledgeable few might be able to suggest Australia's greatest fighting air ace, Clive Caldwell. But who could name our naval heroes? Naval conflicts take place often far from our shores. Ships and men sometimes disappear, to leave only mystery in their wake. In the 1990s the Royal Australian Navy broke with tradition, and for the first time named six submarines after six naval heroes. This book shows the true depths of their achievements. These were men whose warrior exploits stand alongside those of any from other nations. But they have been largely unrecognised, save for those submarines. Captain Hec Waller, for example, fought to the end in HMAS Perth, alongside fellow cruiser USS Houston. The Houston's Captain Rooks was deservedly awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, America's highest honour. Captain Waller, by comparison, was given distinction, but not of the highest rank. Should he have been given the Victoria Cross? Other heroes stand alongside him. Emile Dechaineux, hero of Dunkirk and the North Sea, battling it out against Japanese kamikaze attack. John Collins, taking HMAS Sydney to victory against Italian cruisers. Hal Farncomb - the first Australian to command an aircraft carrier, in action off the French coast. But The Submarine Six also examines whether two more of its men deserve further honour. Teddy Sheean, tenacious gunner from Tasmania, fought to the end in HMAS Armidale. Robert Rankin commanded HMAS Yarra against fearful odds, dying in defence of his convoy, attacked by overwhelming Japanese forces. Are they also VC candidates? Three of the men are from Tasmania, the island state which in WWII contributed more seamen per head of the population than any other state. All of the six are men of determination, bravery, and incredible resolve. Worth analysis, worth following, and worthy of greater recognition - Australian heroes all. The Submarine Six brings forward six naval warriors to stand alongside any other military achiever.
Download or read book HMAS Armidale written by Frank B. Walker and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True story of the sinking of HMAS Armidale in the Timor Sea in 1942 and the battle of the surviving sailors and soldiers to stay alive. Using now declassified documents, the book describes the Timor Sea operation as a botched affair subsequently covered up by the Navy. The author is a journalist and fiction writer who joined the Australian Navy at the outbreak of World War II.
Download or read book The Ghost that Died at Sunda Strait written by Walter G. Winslow and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounting the last stand of the heavy cruiser Houston, this tale of survival brings to life the 1942 battle at Sunda Strait.
Download or read book Australian Hospital Ship Centaur written by Christopher Milligan and published by [Hendra, Queensland] : Nairana Publications. This book was released on 1993 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wallaby Airlines written by Jeff Pedrina and published by . This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book H M Australian Ship Kapunda written by Mal Williams and published by . This book was released on 1991* with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
