Australians at war from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein

摘要

Author Peter Rees is a journalist who worked in the Canberra Press Gallery for many years before leaving to write books full time. By his own admission this book is not meant to be a definitive account of battles and campaigns, rather it is an attempt to gain an insight into the sacrifice of two generations of Australian soldiers using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs and Rees has certainly achieved his aim. About 1,300 Australians died in the desert campaigns of World War I, while another 3500 died in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. There is an easy transition between stories relating to the first and second world wars.