Between 1916 and 1918, more than 3,800 men of the Australian Imperial Force were taken prisoner by German forces fighting on the Western Front. Australians captured in France and Belgium did not easily integrate into public narratives of Australia in the First World War and its commemorative rituals. Captivity was a story of surrender and ......

At the end of the First World War, there were 270,000 demobilised Australian soldiers in Europe. Getting them home after the Armistice was a task of epic proportions that would take more than two years. In the meantime, how to keep these disgruntled, damaged men with guns occupied? In a word: sport. The Oarsmen tells the story of the servicemen ......

The aerial attacks against Great Britain by airships and aircraft in the Great War were a new development in the history of British warfare. Previously, it had been the British armies that had crossed the seas to do the fighting in foreign lands, but now, for the first time, the enemy was spreading death and destruction on the homeland at will. ......

In the wave of devastating German offensives launched in the spring of 1918, it is Operation Michael that has captured most attention, characterised by astonishing advances and their potentially shattering impact on the British Expeditionary Force’s (BEF) Third and Fifth armies. While this offensive eventually petered out, albeit tantalisingly ......

Dr Peter Pedersen’s scholarly study of Sir John Monash remains the finest analysis of Australia’s best known military leader. In 1918 the Australian Corps under Monash’s command played a leading role in the Allied advance to victory on the Western Front. Its successes in the battles of Hamel and Amiens, the taking of Mont St Quentin and Péronne ......

This is the extraordinary true story of 11 young Australian men from one extended family and their experiences in the great adventure that would change their lives — the Great War. Author Adam Holloway, a direct descendant, takes the reader into the lives of each of these men as they embark on a journey from which they are unlikely to return. ......

Australia was born with its eyes wide open. Although politicians spoke publicly of loyalty to Britain and the empire, in secret they immediately set about protecting Australias interests from the Germans, the Japanese - and from Britain itself.

As an experienced intelligence officer, John Fahey knows how the security services ......

In March 1918, with the fear of a one-million-man American army landing in France, the Germans attacked. In response, Australian soldiers were involved in a number of engagements, culminating in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the saving of Amiens, and Paris, from German occupation. Then came General John Monashs first victory as ......

Buoyed by the success of the 1st and 2nd Australian divisions in the Battle of Menin Road, the men of the 4th and 5th Australian divisions filed into the front line ready for the next phase of the battle. Ahead of them lay the blackened remnants of Polygon Wood, a desolate expanse of splintered stumps shattered by the devastating shellfire. The ......

The Third Battle of Ypres – more commonly referred to simply as Passchendaele – is often remembered as a futile slaughter through the mud of Flanders, costing thousands of lives and gaining very little. While the campaign failed to achieve the grand strategic goals set out by its architects, in the midst of the British Army’s slow progress ......