The Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Battles

Chris Clark

2010

Allen & Unwin (2010)

Chris Clark has a strong background in Australian military history and has a PhD from the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Currently he is the RAAF Historian and head of the Office of Air Force History in Canberra. In this book he sets out to catalogue most of the major battles in Australia’s military history from the earliest colonial days to the current action in Afghanistan. He does not only cover the formal wars but the civil unrest actions like the Eureka Stockade incident, various expeditions with the Aboriginal tribes, and actions in New Zealand in support of British forces. “…many significant episodes of frontier conflict and civil strife or unrest which have come to carry the appellation of “battles” in popular memory”. He has taken on a tremendous job but has listed over 320 military actions in the book.

Each action is covered fairly concisely with the amount of detail being limited by scarcity of information or the sheer size of the action. Thus actions like the First World War battles or Long Tan in Vietnam are well covered, but the actions against aboriginals are often restricted to the description provided by the officer in charge. Each article is supplemented by details of relevant sources.

I was surprised at how much depth of action he could include in a brief description. Clark is not afraid to question the competence or decisions of the battle’s leaders where appropriate, and in some cases there is much that should be questioned such as the use of ill-trained and under-equipped troops in the Kokoda campaign. He also notes the changing allegiances away from “the Mother Country” (Britain) towards a more cooperative and independent leaning towards New Zealand. After World War I and the massive death toll caused by incompetent British leaders this is not surprising.

It is good to see some of the lesser-known wars like Korea and the Malayan Emergency finally given their due place in our history. Surprisingly but quite rightly in view of his definition given above, he has also included the mass breakout of 378 Japanese prisoners from the Cowra prison camp in 1944. The loss of life both during the breakout and later during the roundup of the escapees was dreadful and is an important inclusion in this book. Other almost unknown battles carried out under the auspices of the United Nations are included, such as Somalia and Afghanistan, but as he points out much information on these is still classified.

With the current emphasis on Australian history being taught in our schools this book must be seen as valuable resource.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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