Download or read book On Radji Beach written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Singapore fell dramatically to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, hundreds of people scrambled to leave. Amongst the evacuees were 65 Australian nurses who boarded coastal freighter "Vyner Brooke" which Japanese bombers sank. The largest group of nurses that made it to shore gathered at Radji Beach. Eventually the shipwreck survivors surrendered to the Japanese rather than slowly starve to death. The Japanese did not accept their surrender and divided the Europeans into three groups and killed all in turn. The Australian nurses were in the third group, and 21 of them died in a hail of bullets as they walked into the waters off the beach. There was one survivor, Vivian Bullwinkel, and she went on to survive the various camps and diseases that took away several of her friends.
Download or read book On Radji Beach written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Macmillan Publishers Aus.. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Singapore fell dramatically to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, hundreds of people scrambled to the docks to flee. Amongst the evacuees were 65 Australian nurses who boarded a coastal freighter named the Vyner Brooke. They only made it as far as the waters off Muntok Island near Sumatra. There, Japanese bombers sank the small ship. Those who survived the sinking drifted for up to three days before making landfall on one of the many beaches on Muntok. A group of about 60 shipwreck survivors, including 22 nurses, gathered at Radji Beach. They voted to surrender to the Japanese rather than slowly starve to death, but the Japanese patrol that found them did not accept their surrender. Instead, it divided the Europeans into three groups and killed them all in turn. The Australian nurses were in the third group, and 21 of them died in a hail of bullets as they walked, abreast, into the sea. Miraculously, there was one survivor, Vivian Bullwinkel, who brought the truth about this appalling atrocity to light, and who went on to experience the internment camps, starvation and disease that took away many of her friends. On Radji Beach tells the story of the 65 nurses from the Vyner Brooke: their service in Singapore and on the Malay peninsula, their desperate voyage to escape capture by the Japanese, and their courage, compassion, ingenuity and fortitude in the unthinkable events that followed.
Download or read book The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Macmillan Publishers Aus.. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese attack on Broome is the second most deadly air raid on Australia soil in our history and yet it's almost entirely overlooked. On 3 March 1942, nine Japanese Zero planes strafed the small town planning to destroy the aerodrome and American planes. With no notice, the townsfolk could only put up minimal opposition and in an attack that lasted only an hour, almost one hundred men, women and children lost their lives. Not a single operational aircraft remained in Broome, but the shocking loss of human life can never be truly calculated. The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay tells the story of this tragedy, shining light on a story that has slipped through the cracks of history. A captivating tale of refugees and soldiers, of reputations made and lost, of survival and spirit that resonates to today.
Download or read book White Coolies written by Betty Jeffrey and published by Thomas t Beeler. This book was released on 1998 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1942 a group of sixty-five Australian Army nursing sisters was evacuated from Malaya a few days before the fall of Singapore. Two days later their ship was bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Of the fifty-three survivors who scrambled ashore, twenty-one were murdered and the remaining thirty-two taken prisoner. White Coolies is the engrossing record kept by one of the sisters, Betty Jeffrey, during the more than three gruelling years of imprisonment that followed. It is an amazing story of survival and deprivation and the harshest of conditions.
Download or read book Hear Them Roar written by Elizabeth Fysh and published by Boolarong Press. This book was released on 2023-11-09 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s a marvellous collection of inspiring stories from some of Australia’s most soul-stirring women; an eye-opening window into astonishing lives built on strength of character and an independent spirit. From medical professionals who achieved astonishing success with ground-breaking methods, to a celebrated nurse who survived the horrors of a World War II prison camp, Elizabeth Fysh takes the fortunate reader on a fascinating journey. The subjects are exceptional people and include the woman who created Australia’s first luxury hotel, the pioneer anthropologist who recorded the lives of the Wik people in Cape York, and the journalist who was at the centre of intrigue between the two World Wars. There’s the mystery of the celebrated decorator whose brutal murder was never solved, the travails of the hardy Outback stockwoman immortalised in a Slim Dusty hit, and so many more eye-opening accounts of remarkable women with unbreakable mettle.
Download or read book Song of Survival written by Helen Colijn and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in the US in 1995. This is an account of the author's three years imprisonment in a Japanese camp on Sumatra during WWII, her childhood before the war on the island of Tarakan and her escape from Tarakan with her fathers and sisters. It tells of the uplifting influence of a singing group in the camp comprised of Dutch Australian and English women prisoners. A television documentary entitled 'Song of Survival' was based on events recorded in this book. Includes an index.
Download or read book The Evacuation of Singapore to the Prison Camps of Sumatra written by Judy Balcombe and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2023-12-30 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Evacuation of Singapore to the Prison Camps of Sumatra aims to describe the events prior to, during and after the Fall of Singapore and the ways in which former prisoners are remembered on Bangka Island today. It is the product of many years of detailed historical research, interviews with camp survivors and personal experiences discovering and locating the former Japanese civilian prison camp sites of Bangka Island and Southern Sumatra. Judy's aim has been to compile an accurate description of the fate of evacuees from Singapore who were bombed and killed in the South China Sea and Bangka Strait or imprisoned in harsh Japanese civilian prison camps. Many families have not known the fate of their relatives until contacting the author through the Muntok Peace Museum website http://muntokpeacemuseum.org. The Peace Museum was established by prisoners’ families in 2015. The author has also described her many visits to Bangka Island and Sumatra in detail so others may follow in her footsteps and know that their relatives who were imprisoned and died during WW2 are now remembered very respectfully in the small town of Muntok. Annual Memorial Services are held each February 16, attended by families and the Australian, New Zealand and British Embassies. All royalties to this book will be donated to the Muntok Red Cross in memory of the prisoners.
Download or read book Memoirs of a Fat Bastard written by Chris Gibson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chris Gibson, is one fat, drunk, angry bastard. He’s tried every diet: Atkins, South Beach, Pritikin… Problem is he still can’t get his pants on in the morning. And he got none of the genes of his movie star brother Mel. In his early 40s with a job he hates and a lifestyle that is killing him, Chris is having more than a mid-life crisis. He’s having a life and death crisis.. 'Memoirs of a Fat Bastard' is a bittersweet account of how a middle-aged man on the road to destruction turned his life and health around on his own terms. It’s a telling and frequently hilarious story of the ways in which some men can lose their way, and the way back to finding meaning and happiness amid the competing pressures of being provider, family man, and all-round good Aussie bloke.
Download or read book Operation Babylift written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late March 1975, as the Vietnam War raged, an Australian voluntary aid worker named Rosemary Taylor approached the Australian Embassy seeking assistance to fly 600 orphans out of Saigon to safety. Rosemary and Margaret Moses, two former nuns from Adelaide, had spent eight years in Vietnam during the war, building up a complex of nurseries to house war orphans and street waifs as the organisation that built up around them facilitated international adoptions for the children. As the North Vietnamese forces closed in on their nurseries, they needed a plan to evacuate the children, or all their work might count for little ... Based on extensive archival and historical research, and interviews of some of those directly involved in the events described, Operation Babylift details the last month of the Vietnam War from the perspective of the most vulnerable victims of that war: the orphans it created. Through the story of the attempt to save 600 children, we see how a small group of determined women refused to play political games as they tried to remake the lives of a forgotten generation, one child at a time.
Download or read book Women and War 2 volumes written by Bernard A. Cook and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-05-19 with total page 842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique encyclopedia, 120 leading scholars from around the world provide comprehensive treatment of the role of women in war, from the first written history to the present. This authoritative encyclopedia presents the work of leading scholars from all over the world to give the first detailed coverage of the role of women in wars throughout history. Histories of war are typically histories of men: great leaders and heroic fighters. Yet the roles of women often receive only limited coverage. Except for such notables as Joan of Arc, traditional histories give short shrift to women as leaders and fighters. Similarly, the direct victimization—particularly sexual abuse as a weapon of terror and domination—and cultural dislocations women suffer in war float as background, without detailed coverage. This work represents a first, devoted in its entirety to thorough examination of all aspects of women in war. For the first time, readers have a single source for information on the scope of women's role in war, and war's effects on them.
Download or read book The Battle of One Tree Hill written by Ray Kerkhove and published by Boolarong Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1840, Brisbane was the furthest outpost of settled Australia. On all sides, it was embedded in a richly Indigenous world. Over the next few years, mostly from across New South Wales northern plains, a large push of pastoralists poured into the Darling Downs, Lockyer and much of southern Queensland, establishing huge sheep stations. The violence that erupted welded many of the tribal groups into an alliance that, by 1842, was working to halt the advance. The Battle of One Tree Hill tells the story of one of the most audacious stands against this migration. It concerns actions engineered by a father and son, Moppy and Multuggerah. In 1843, this culminated in an ingenious ambush and one of the first solid defeats of white settlement in Queensland. The battle at Mount Table Top, 128 kilometres west of Brisbane, astounded many at the time. The response was most likely the largest action of the frontier wars: the assembly of some 100 or more officers, soldiers, police and armed settlers – much of the region’s white settlement – drawn from hundreds of square kilometres. This force sought to drive out the warriors, but despite their best efforts, resistance not only persisted, but managed a few more victories. A fort had to be established to protect travellers, and brutal skirmishes, massacres, raids and robberies trickled on for decades. The Battle of One Tree Hill introduces us to many of the flamboyant characters, curious reversals of fortune and neglected incidents that together helped establish early Queensland. This narrative work combines decades of archival research, analysis, reconstruction and interviews conducted by historians Ray Kerkhove and Frank Uhr.
Download or read book Bullwinkel written by Norman G. Manners and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of Vivian Bullwinkel, a young army nursing sister who was sole survivor of WW2 massacre by the Japanese, the book details her ordeal in the Sumatran jungle POW camps. Her determination to survive is the basis of this factual biography.
Download or read book Glenrowan written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Macmillan Publishers Aus.. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The siege of Glenrowan is more than just an Australian legend. The 41 hours when the Kelly Gang took over Ann Jones' Glenrowan Inn and held the police at bay have become a part of the Australian psyche. Most people know the bare bones of the story, but few know the names and actions of some of those who literally made history over those two days. In this impeccably researched work and vivid retelling, Ian Shaw brings the characters to life through their own words and the observations of those who were there. The real heroes - and the real villains - take centre stage, just as they did at Glenrowan in June 1880. There's the soulful Joe Byrne who toasts the success of the gang one moment and bleeds to death on the hotel floor the next. And the two younger outlaws, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart who were well and truly out of their depth, seeing no way out at the end, preferring to die rather than surrender. Above it all sits the enigmatic figure of Ned Kelly - vainglorious, cunning and brave - a figure who made too many mistakes in too short a time for his gang to survive.
Download or read book B 24 Bridge Busters written by Colin Pateman and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: B-24 Bridge Busters: RAF Liberators over Burma and Thailand provides a gripping and detailed account of RAF Liberator missions against the Japanese in Asia. British and Commonwealth aircrews displayed great gallantry in many instances on low-level precise bombing sorties destroying specific targets, including a great number of bridges constructed by the Japanese in their conquest to reach India. A number of detailed accounts are based upon personal flying logbooks and other unique material originating from the pilots and aircrews. 159 Squadron was the first four engined heavy bomber squadron which flew from India and operated over Burma. They instigated greater accuracy in destroying a multitude of vital targets. The legendary film The Bridge over the River Kwai (1957) evokes images that are historically set in celluloid; however, that blockbusting film had separated fact from fiction and this book examines the true events that took place through Bridge Busting , including techniques developed and deployed by the RAF against the Japanese.
Download or read book The Rag Tag Fleet written by Ian W. Shaw and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unknown story of how a fleet of Australian fishing boats, trawlers and schooners supplied US and Australian forces in the Pacific - and helped turn the course of World War II. Mid-1942: from China to New Guinea, the Pacific belonged to the Japanese. In this desperate situation, a fleet of hundreds of Australian small ships is assembled, sailing under the American flag, and crewed by over 3000 Australians either too young or too old to join the regular armed forces. Their task: to bring supplies and equipment to the Allied troops waging bloody battles against Japanese forces across the South Pacific. THE RAG TAG FLEET is the unknown story of the final months of 1942 - when these men ran the gauntlet of Japanese air attacks, malaria and dysentery, reefs, and shallow, shark-infested waters to support the US and Australian troops that defeated the entrenched Japanese forces at Buna on the New Guinea coast, and so helped turn the war in the Allies' favour. Their bravery, ingenuity and mettle helped turn the tide of the war. For the first time, their story is told. 'enthralling . . . makes for a fascinating read.' CANBERRA TIMES
Download or read book Sisters in Captivity written by Colin Burgess and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-05 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible account of Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the Australian war nurses who survived the bombing of evacuation ship SS Vyner Brooke in February 1942, and subsequently spent three years in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra. During those perilous years surviving in squalid conditions, Sister Jeffrey kept a secret diary of day-to-day events which, after the war, was turned into a hugely successful book and radio serial: White Coolies. She would often write of the powerful sisterhood that evolved as the prisoners of war took strength from each other, even forming a vocal orchestra. White Coolies was a major inspiration for the 1997 film Paradise Road. Sisters in Captivity builds on those diaries to not only re-live the years the nurses spent as POWs but also recounts the early life and influences that encouraged Betty Jeffrey into the field of nursing as a lifelong endeavour. A tireless advocate for returned nurses, she co-founded the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre with sole survivor of the Banka Island Massacre, fellow POW, and her longtime friend Vivian Bullwinkel. Featuring 32 pages of photos including personal mementos of Betty Jeffrey, courtesy of her family, and her drawings from the prison camps, this is a powerful account of women’s resilience amidst the devastating brutality of war.
Download or read book The Changi Brownlow written by Roland Perry and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the moving, powerful and surprising story of a group of Australian POWs who organise an Australian Rules Football competition under the worst conditions imaginable - inside Changi prison. After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners including 15 000 Australians, are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen led by the indefatigable and popular `Chicken? Smallhorn, created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of the one and only season was between `Victoria? and the `Rest of Australia?, which attracted 10 000 spectators, and a unique Brownlow Medal was awarded in this unlikely setting under the curious gaze of Japanese prison guards. Meet the main characters behind this spectacle: Peter Chitty, the farm hand from Snowy River country with unfathomable physical and mental fortitude, and one of eight in his immediate family who volunteered to fight and serve in WW2; `Chicken? Smallhorn, the Brownlow-medal winning little man with the huge heart; and `Weary? Dunlop, the courageous doctor, who cares for the POWs as they endure malnutrition, disease and often inhuman treatment. Changi Brownlow is a story of courage and the invincibility of the human spirit, and highlights not only the Australian love of sport, but its power to offer consolation in times of extreme hardship.
