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Descent Into Hell
The Fall of Singapore - Pudu and Changi - the Thai-Burma Railway
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Descent Into Hell
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See moreThe definitive story of the Australian campaign in Southeast Asia during World War II from one of Australia's leading military writers.
The definitive story of the Australian campaign in Southeast Asia during World War II from one of Australia's leading military writers.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
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Description
Descent into Hell is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the most traumatic calamities in Australian history – the Malayan Campaign, the fall of Singapore, and the subsequent horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. Unpicking the myths and legends of the war, Peter Brune goes to the heart of the Australian experience.
He describes the shambolic planning by the British in Singapore and the failures and incompetence of some of the Australian command. He debunks the claims about Australian deserters in Singapore, and we learn of the black market in Changi and the beatings, torture, and murder on the Thai-Burma Railway.
Here too are stories of the war's many heroes and villains: of officers who looked after their men and optimised their chances of survival, and others who looked after themselves at their men's expense; the heroes of battle who became ineffectual and lost in the camps and on the Railway, and the least liked and least respected battlefield officers who came to be great leaders.
And then there are countless acts of kindness and decency performed by one POW for another in the most cruel of circumstances.
Impressive, compelling and rich in human spirit, Descent into Hell is an unprecedented chronicle by one of Australia's finest military historians.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781741145342
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 August 2014
Country: Australia
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 60.0mm
Width: 154.0mm
Height: 233.0mm
Weight: 1133g
Pages: 816
About the Author
Peter Brune is one of Australia's leading military historians. He is author of the bestselling and highly acclaimed A Bastard of a Place: the Australians in Papua, as well as Those Ragged Bloody Heroes: From the Kokoda Trail to Gona Beach 1942, The Spell Broken: Exploding the Myth of Japanese Invincibility, and We Band of Brothers: A Biography of Ralph Honner, Soldier and Statesman, and is co-author with Neil McDonald of 200 Shots: Damien Parer and George Silk and the Australians at War in New Guinea.
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