Anzac Day

Anzac Day is a time to reflect on the contribution made by past and present service personnel from across the country and the world.

History is a favoured category for many Vision Australia Library members, with War Fiction and War Non-Fiction consistently featured as a popular genre with our readers. One of the most popular genres in the Vision Australia Library is Biographies, and Military Biographies remains sought after by many of our members.

The Vision Australia Library have compiled a reading list for our history buffs to peruse this Anzac Day. A range of books focusing on Gallipoli, Western Front, WW2 Battles, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the perspective of nurses on the frontline.

Turn Right at Istanbul: A Walk on the Gallipoli Peninsula by Tony Wright

Tony Wright stuffs a copy of his great-uncle George's Gallipoli diary into his backpack and sets out to discover how and why thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders make the trek to the Gallipoli Peninsula every year. Armed with a pile of notebooks, he plans to travel alone. But he keeps meeting and befriending people - a young Turkish archaeologist, a Turkish boy who speaks English with an Irish accent and an enterprising girl paying her way to Gallipoli by selling Anzac study holders.

The Other Anzacs: Nurses at war, 1914-1918 by Peter Rees

By the end of The Great War, 45 Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over 200 had been decorated. These were women who left for war on an adventure, but were soon confronted with remarkable challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. They were there for the horrors of Gallipoli and they were there for the savagery the Western Front.

Tobruk by Peter FitzSimons

Focuses on one of the seminal moments in Australian history: the Battle of Tobruk in 1941. In the dark heart of World War II, when Hitler turned his attention to conquering North Africa, a distracted and far-flung Allied force could not give its all to the defence of Libya. So, the job was left to the roughest, toughest bunch that could be mustered: the Australian Imperial Force. 

A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Gona, Buna, Sanananda by Peter Brune

In 1942 and early 1943, Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place' to fight a war. This book provides an all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever. The author interviewed hundreds of soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many perished and reveals the inside story of how Generals MacArthur and Blamey sacrificed many of the senior Australian field commanders as scapegoats to protect their own positions.

Prisoners of War: From Gallipoli to Korea by Patsy Adam Smith

In 'Prisoners of War' dozens of interviews with former POWs are used to show the strength and courage of Australians taken prisoner in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. This book was written for those who know little of the experiences of these men and women, their courage, endurance and pain.

Well Done, Those Men: Memoirs of a Vietnam Veteran by Barry Heard

In an intensely personal account, Barry Heard draws on his own experiences as a young conscript to look back at life before, during and after the Vietnam War. The result is a sympathetic portrayal of a group of young men who were sent off to war completely unprepared for the emotional and psychological impact it would have on them. This is a vivid and searingly honest portrayal of the author's post-war, slow-motion breakdown. Barry Heard's sensitive, poignant account of his long journey home from Vietnam is an inspiring story of a life reclaimed.

Exit Wounds by John Cantwell

As a country boy from Queensland, John Cantwell joined the army as a private and rose to the rank of major general. He was on the front line in 1991 as Coalition buried Iraqi troops alive in their trenches. He fought in Baghdad in 2006 and saw what a car bomb does to a marketplace crowded with women and children. In 2010 he commanded the Australian forces in Afghanistan when 10 of his soldiers were killed. He returned to Australia in 2011 to be considered for the job of chief of the Australian Army. Instead, he ended up in a psychiatric hospital.