Over the last few days I have had the chance to read a few books. The first one was “Turning Point” by Michael Veitch. Veitch is a well know Australian actor, comedian, and journalist, who has written several books on the RAAF, and Coast watches. This, his ninth book is about the battle of Milne Bay, which was the fist defeat of Japanese ground forces in World War 2.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and have a deeper understanding of the the cooperation between the Australian ground forces and the Kittyhawks of the RAAF 75th and 76th Squadron. The style is quick paced and easily read. worth buying although because of the authors interest I would have preferred more detail on the ground battle and less on the fighter squadrons.

The second book was Frank Walker’s “Commandos. The book is not what I expected but still an excellent read nevertheless. It consists of sixteen chapters, each a short story on ANZAC involvement on such diverse subjects such as the St Nazaire Raid, Nancy Wake, Save the Sultan, various Z force actions, and the Coast Watchers.

I read about two thirds of the short stories and again I really enjoyed it. If you want to read some short ripping yarns this is a good buy, if you are after a history of ANZAC Commandos you will be disappointed.

The last book is “Double Diamonds” by Karl James, and so named because of the double diamond badge of the Australian Commandos. James is the Chief WW2 historian at the Australian War Memorial (AWM), and lectures in Strategic Defence studies at the Australian National University. The book is lavishly illustrated with the artwork from Ivor Hele, and extensive photographs throughout. The text is a combination of the various Commando engagements during the Pacific war, interspersed with vignettes about the lives of ordinary Australian soldiers (if any commando can be called ordinary).

The photographs and artwork are taken from the AWM collection and are of extremely high quality. This one is well worth purchasing.

I have just started reading another of Phillip Bradleys works “Hell’s Battlefield – to Kokoda and beyond”.