Army makes history with first e-book

Making history: CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy launches the Battle of Crete e-book at RMC.Photo by AB Neil Richards .

By Hugh McKenzie
Volume 11, No. 38, March 8, 2006

IN A first for historians world wide, Australian Army history is being brought alive through computer imagery, war gaming and interactive e-books.

Produced by the Australian Army History Unit, the first is called The Battle for Crete.

The e-book is a package of two CDs. The first CD is an interactive war game on the battle.

The second tells the story of the battle, contains maps, details types of weapons and has biographies of the commanders on both sides.

Budding commanders are able to read up on the battle, play video footage or examine the many 3D models of weapons and equipment before actually attempting to play the battle themselves on the war game CD.

Launching the e-book, CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy said: “I do recall very well as a student here [RMC] in 1971 the dark dingy rooms where we were taught history by Professor Turner, Doctor Robinson and Mr Thompson.

“I didn’t like history much then; it was a view-graph of black and white photos out of books of Napoleon’s wars. Back then we had to do promotion exams and what you had to do was find the books yourself – so you discovered books and the RMC library.

To resounding laughter CA admitted some of his classmates were quite surprised to find books in a library.
“It was a bit of a slog even back then when we were used to reading books – you needed a certain passion to read books to understand who we are and what we are as an army.”

Military historian and author of the Battle of Crete Dr Albert Palazzo said that Crete was an interesting subject for Army’s first e-book.

“Britain and Australia did not cover themselves in glory in this battle,” Dr Palazzo said.

“Due to mistakes made at various levels the Germans, employing a little tested new form of warfare, defeated a superior sized Allied force in just a few days of bitter fighting.

“Few really understand how much of a close run thing the battle was. The Germans only took the island in May 1941 by a slender margin, and only after suffering horrendous casualties by their paratroopers.”

After the battle the “Kreta” cuff-title was among the most highly prized in the German Army.

CA said he wanted to congratulate everyone associated with the project.

“This is a first. I know it hasn’t been done in the world before and I know the US Marine Corps is very interested in what we’re doing. I suspect we’re going to have people wanting to go to Quantico to talk about it,” he said.

“It’s a struggle to get books into the hands of kids, and the Army today is made up of kids who have a bar fridge, a bean bag, a 77-inch television, a collection of videos you probably wouldn’t want your mother to see and a computer. And this [the Crete e-book] is a way to reach them.

“It’s visual, it’s interactive it’s exciting and it’s something that’s important,.”

Roger Lee, Director of the Army History Unit, said future books in the Australian Battles series would examine in detail those campaigns that had shaped the Australian Army and the Australian way of war, with a clear emphasis on the lessons learned for young officers, NCOs and soldiers generally.

Future titles already in the works include the Western Desert campaign of 1940-41 and Vietnam.

CA said: “This is really important, it’s an attempt to, in a medium our soldiers and officers understand, reach out and take them to our roots.”