|
| |
Off the shelf - Putting a step wrong
Volume 50, No. 12, July 12, 2007 |
| |
|
The Minefield
Greg Lockhart
Allen & Unwin
$35.00
A decision that turned out to be a disaster for troops and the greatest bungle in Australian military history since World War II – that’s the theme of The Minefield.
In 1967, the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF), commanded by BRIG Stuart Graham, constructed a barrier fence and a minefield filled with 20,292 M16 mines in Phuoc Tuy Province, Vietnam.
The intent of the 11km minefield was to protect the villages from regular enemy attacks. Despite warnings from battalion commanders that the determined enemy would infiltrate and steal the mines, the construction of the minefield went ahead.
The enemy devised a way to safely remove the mines, giving them a deadly weapon and advantage. They used the mines against the 1ATF both defensively and offensively, which resulted in about 55 members of 1ATF losing their lives from mines, most likely from their own minefield.
The book delves into the flawed decision to proceed with the construction of the minefield, and how the decision may have been accommodated and provoked by strategic policy.
3/5 stars
– CPL Corinne Boer |
| |
|
| |
The Kavieng Massacre
Raden Dunbar
Sally Milner Publishing
$34.95
I’d be surprised if many readers had ever heard of the Kavieng Massacre.
It occurred in March 1944. Thirty expatriate Australian and German Catholic missionaries had been trapped by the advancing Japanese on New Ireland in the then Australian-mandated territory of New Guinea since September 1942. By March 1944, they had disappeared.
The story of how they died is similar to so many other cases of Japanese brutality in World War II.
After suffering US attacks and fearing a US invasion of Kavieng, the Japanese officers told the internees that they were to be transferred to Rabul.
Ordered to only take one small suitcase each, the painfully thin internees, ill from the ravages of malnutrition and tropical diseases, boarded trucks to be taken to waiting barges.
They were told to wait in a group before being led one at a time to the wharf, where each was either strangled, bayoneted or clubbed with bars or timber before being unceremoniously dumped in the barge. Their bodies were taken out to sea and weighed down.
Those responsible later attempted to conceal their crimes.
3/5 stars
– SGT Damian Griffin |
| |
|
