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Detailing histories important to both the Australian Army and the society it serves, the Australian Army History Series is the result of a proud partnership between Cambridge University Press and the Australian Army. From experienced and emerging researchers, the titles in the series explore a range of topics, including military operations, organisation, and strategic issues that aim to tell the story of the Army. Common across all the all of the books in the series is the strength of their contribution to interpreting and providing an understanding of the Australian Army and its soldiers.

  • General Editors: Craig Stockings, University of New South Wales, Canberra

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31 results in Australian Army History Series

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Nursing Aids at War
  • The Australian Army Medical Women's Service in the Second World War
  • Jason Smeaton
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    28 February 2026
  • Nursing Aids at War: The Australian Army Medical Women's Service and the Second World War explores the chronological history of the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) and challenges our understanding of servicewomen and gendered work in the Australian Army. Arranged in three parts, the book first introduces the nursing aid and how the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) became intertwined with the nursing service in the First and Second World Wars. It then investigates disruptions, tensions and controversies faced by the VAD as they transitioned into the AAMWS; in particular, the training schemes for AAMWS to become professionally trained nurses in military hospitals. Lastly, the book explores and challenges representations and reflections of the VAD and AAMWS, including building a national identity separate to practising nurses, and acknowledging their history as largely being forgotten amongst discussion of Australia's wider military history.

The Commander's Eyes and Ears
  • Australian Army Combat Intelligence in the Cold War, 1945–1975
  • Glenn Wahlert
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    January 2026
    Print publication:
    31 January 2026
  • The Commander's Eyes and Ears: Australian Army Combat Intelligence in the Cold War, 1945–75 explores the contribution made by the Australian Army's combat intelligence services to force commanders during the Cold War (1945–75), focusing primarily on the Australian Intelligence Corps. The book covers the support provided by intelligence resources to Australian and allied commanders on operations in Japan, Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam. Through the lens of the Australian Intelligence Corps and other intelligence resources, the book pays special attention to significant events during this period, including the Japanese war crimes trials, the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, and the Vietnam War. Criticisms of the Army's involvement, challenges faced by soldiers, mistakes made and lessons learned in these events are explored throughout.

Supporting the Commitment
  • Australian Army Logistics in South Vietnam, 1962–1973
  • Ian R. Finlayson
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    December 2025
    Print publication:
    31 December 2025
  • In 1962, the Australian Government deployed Australian military forces in support of the Republic of Vietnam. Supporting the Commitment: Australian Army Logistics in South Vietnam, 1962–1973 investigates how the Australian Army structured its logistics to support its operations in Vietnam. This book examines how the Australian Army interacted with the US Army's logistic framework to secure its own logistic support for the training team, the battalion group and then the task force. Particular attention is given to the logistic units which supported these deployments, including the raising, siting and operations of the 1st Australian Logistic Support Company (1ALSC) and the 1st Australian Logistic Support Group (1ALSG). Acknowledging that the Australian Army's involvement in South Vietnam was a war of choice, the book explores how Army's institutional attitudes towards logistics influenced the nature of support provided.

After Anzac
  • The Development of Australian Infantry on the Western Front, 1916–1918
  • Lewis Frederickson
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    December 2025
    Print publication:
    17 December 2025
  • By the end of the 'Great War', the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) had a reputation for being one of the most effective formations on the Western Front. After Anzac provides a critical and comparative analysis of how Australian infantry developed to embody this reputation, primarily as an element of the greater Imperial Force. The book opens with a comparison of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF); both were Dominion formations who trained and developed under the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Various AIF training and development instructed by the BEF are then explored, including infantry recruit and tactical training, weapons systems and specialist training, culminating in a critical analysis of how this resulted in the effectiveness and professionalism of Australian troops who served on the Western Front. The impact of the Anzac legend and the mythology of the Western Front are considered.

Soldiers and Bushmen
  • The Australian Army in South Africa, 1899–1902
  • Thomas Richardson
  • Published online:
    29 July 2025
    Print publication:
    06 August 2025
  • Soldiers and Bushmen: The Australian Army in South Africa, 1899–1902 examines the commitment to what was expected to be a short war. It presents a thematic, analytical history of the birth of the Australian Army in South Africa, while exploring the Army's evolution from colonial units into a consolidated federal force. Soldiers and Bushmen investigates the establishment of the 'bushmen experiment' – the belief that the unique qualities of rural Australians would solve tactical problems on the veldt. This, in turn, influenced ideals around leadership, loyalty and traditional combat that fed the mythology of the Australians as natural soldiers. The book also examines the conduct of the war itself: how the Army adapted to the challenges of a battlefield transformed by technology, and the moral questions posed by the transition to fighting a counterinsurgency campaign.

Assault Brigade
  • The 18th Australian Infantry Brigade in World War II
  • Matthew Miller
  • Published online:
    25 October 2024
    Print publication:
    12 August 2024
  • The Australian Army served in numerous theatres and campaigns throughout World War II, earning distinction and at times facing significant challenges. During the Pacific War, the infantry brigade, as an intermediate formation commanding multiple infantry battalions and numerous attached units, was key in Australian efforts to secure victory. The 18th Infantry Brigade participated in a variety of combat operations with a range of allies allowing it rare experience among Australian units. It's involvement in operations from Europe to the Middle East and onto the Pacific ensured that it was one of the most modern brigades at the close of the war. Assault Brigade examines the challenges and development of the Australian Army's 18th Infantry Brigade throughout World War II. It investigates a series of campaigns fought across the South West Pacific Area, highlighting lessons learnt and adaptations implemented as a result of each battle.

Strategy and Command
  • Issues in Australia's Twentieth-century Wars
  • David Horner
  • Published online:
    08 October 2021
    Print publication:
    15 October 2021
  • In Strategy and Command, David Horner provides an important insight into the strategic decisions and military commanders who shaped Australia's army history from the Boer War to the evolution of the command structure for the Australian Defence Force in the 2000s. He examines strategic decisions such as whether to go to war, the nature of the forces to be committed to the war, where the forces should be deployed and when to reduce the Australian commitment. The book also recounts decisions made by commanders at the highest level, which are passed on to those at the operational level, who are then required to produce their own plans to achieve the government's aims through military operations. Strategy and Command is a compilation of research and writing on military history by one of Australia's pre-eminent military historians. It is a crucial read for anyone interested in Australia's involvement in 20th-century wars.

Expertise, Authority and Control
  • The Australian Army Medical Corps in the First World War
  • Alexia Moncrieff
  • Published online:
    10 February 2020
    Print publication:
    11 February 2020
  • Expertise, Authority and Control charts the development of Australian military medicine in the First World War in the first major study of the Australian Army Medical Corps in over seventy years. It examines the provision of medical care to Australian soldiers during the Dardanelles campaign and explores the imperial and medical-military hierarchies that were blended and challenged during the campaign. By the end of 1918, the AAMC was a radically different organisation. Using army orders, unit war diaries and memoranda written to disseminate information within the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) and between British and Australian soldiers, it maps the provision of medical care through casualty clearance and evacuation, rehabilitation, and the prevention and treatment of venereal disease. In doing so, she reassesses Australian military medicine and maps the transition to an infrastructure for the AIF in the field, especially in response to conflicts with traditional imperial, military and medical hierarchies.

Surviving the Great War
  • Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front 1916–18
  • Aaron Pegram
  • Published online:
    12 November 2019
    Print publication:
    12 November 2019
  • 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 inaction, at odds with the Anzac legend and a triumphant national memory. Soldiers captured on the Western Front endured a broad range of experiences in German captivity, yet all regarded survival as a personal triumph. Surviving the Great War is the first detailed analysis of the little-known story of Australians in German captivity in the First World War. By placing the hardships of prisoners of war in a broader social and military context, this book adds a new dimension to the national wartime experience and challenges popular representations of Australia's involvement in the First World War.

Our Corner of the Somme
  • Australia at Villers-Bretonneux
  • Romain Fathi
  • Published online:
    16 April 2019
    Print publication:
    07 February 2019
  • By the time of the Armistice, Villers-Bretonneux - once a lively and flourishing French town - had been largely destroyed, and half its population had fled or died. From March to August 1918, Villers-Bretonneux formed part of an active front line, at which Australian troops were heavily involved. As a result, it holds a significant place in Australian history. Villers-Bretonneux has since become an open-air memorial to Australia's participation in the First World War. Successive Australian governments have valourised the Australian engagement, contributing to an evolving Anzac narrative that has become entrenched in Australia's national identity. Our Corner of the Somme provides an eye-opening analysis of the memorialisation of Australia's role on the Western Front and the Anzac mythology that so heavily contributes to Australians' understanding of themselves. In this rigorous and richly detailed study, Romain Fathi challenges accepted historiography by examining the assembly, projection and performance of Australia's national identity in northern France.

Painting War
  • A History of Australia's First World War Art Scheme
  • Margaret Hutchison
  • Published online:
    28 December 2018
    Print publication:
    01 November 2018
  • During the First World War the Australian Government established an official war art scheme, sending artists to the front lines to create a visual record of the Australian experience of the war. Around two thousand sketches and paintings were commissioned and acquired between 1916 and 1922. In Painting War, Margaret Hutchison examines the official art scheme as a key commemorative practice of the First World War and argues that the artworks had many makers beyond the artists. Government officials' selection of artists and subjects for the war paintings and their emphasis on the eyewitness value of the images over their aesthetic merit profoundly shaped the character of the art collection. Richly illustrated, Painting War provides an important understanding of the individuals, institutions and the politics behind the war art scheme that helped shape a national memory of the First World War for Australia.

Captive Anzacs
  • Australian POWs of the Ottomans during the First World War
  • Kate Ariotti
  • Published online:
    16 June 2018
    Print publication:
    01 May 2018
  • During the First World War, 198 Australians became prisoners of the Ottomans. Overshadowed by the grief and hardship that characterised the post-war period, and by the enduring myth of the fighting Anzac, these POWs have long been neglected in the national memory of the war. Captive Anzacs explores how the prisoners felt about their capture and how they dealt with the physical and psychological strain of imprisonment, as well as the legacy of their time as POWs. More broadly, it explores public perceptions of the prisoners, the effects of their captivity on their families, and how military, government and charitable organisations responded to the POWs both during and after the War. Intertwining rich detail from letters, diaries and other personal papers with official records, Kate Ariotti offers a comprehensive, nuanced account of this aspect of Australian war history.

Britannia's Shield
  • Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton and Late-Victorian Imperial Defence
  • Craig Stockings
  • Published online:
    09 March 2018
    Print publication:
    04 May 2015
  • Britannia's Shield: Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton and the Late-Victorian Imperial Defence presents an in-depth, international study of imperial land defence prior to 1914. The book makes sense of the failures, false starts and successes that eventually led to more than 850,000 men being despatched from the Dominions to buttress Britain's Great War effort – an enormous achievement for intra-empire military cooperation. Craig Stockings presents a vivid portrayal of this complex process as it unfolded throughout the late-Victorian Empire through a biographical study of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hutton. As a true soldier of the Empire, the difficulties and dramas that followed Hutton's career at every step – from Cairo to Sydney, Aldershot to Ottawa, and Pretoria to Melbourne – provide key insights into imperial defence and security planning between 1880 and 1914. Richly illustrated, Britannia's Shield is an engaging and entertaining work of rigorous scholarship that will appeal to both general readers and academic researchers.

Soldiers and Gentlemen
  • Australian Battalion Commanders in the Great War, 1914–1918
  • William Westerman
  • Published online:
    07 September 2017
    Print publication:
    14 February 2017
  • Soldiers and Gentlemen: Australian Battalion Commanders in the Great War, 1914–1918 is the first book to examine the background, role and conduct of Australian commanding officers during the First World War. Though they held positions of power, commanding officers inhabited a leadership no man's land - they exerted great influence over their units, but they were also largely excluded from the decision-making process and faced the same risks as junior officers on the battlefield. A soldier's well-being and success in battle was heavily dependent on a commanding officer's competence, but little is known about the men who filled these roles. In his groundbreaking book, William Westerman explores the stories of the vitally important, yet often forgotten, commanding officers. Theirs is a story of the timeless challenges of military leadership, and this book prevents them from slipping from the public memory to enhance our knowledge of the conflict.

Guarding the Periphery
  • The Australian Army in Papua New Guinea, 1951–75
  • Tristan Moss
  • Published online:
    07 September 2017
    Print publication:
    05 July 2017
  • Based around the Pacific Islands Regiment, the Australian Army's units in Papua New Guinea had a dual identity: integral to Australia's defence, but also part of its largest colony, and viewed as a foreign people. The Australian Army in PNG defended Australia from threats to its north and west, while also managing the force's place within Australian colonial rule in PNG, occasionally resulting in a tense relationship with the Australian colonial government during a period of significant change. In Guarding the Periphery: The Australian Army in Papua New Guinea, 1951–75, Tristan Moss explores the operational, social and racial aspects of this unique force during the height of the colonial era in PNG and during the progression to independence. Combining the rich detail of both archival material and oral histories, Guarding the Periphery recounts a part of Australian military history that is often overlooked by studies of Australia's military past.

Destroy and Build
  • Pacification in Phuoc Thuy, 1966–72
  • Thomas Richardson
  • Published online:
    07 September 2017
    Print publication:
    08 June 2017
  • In 2002, Governor General Michael Jeffrey stated that 'we Australians had everything under control in Phuoc Tuy Province'. This referred not only to military control, but to the policy of 'pacification' employed by the Republic of Vietnam and external 'Free World' allies such as the US and Australia. In the hopes of stemming the tide of Communism, pacification aimed to win the allegiance of the populace through political, economic and social reform. In this new work, Thomas Richardson explores the 1st Australian Task Force's (1ATF) implementation of this policy in Phuoc Tuy between 1966 and 1972. Using material from US and Australian archives, as well as newly translated Vietnamese histories, Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966–1972 challenges the accepted historiography of the Western forces' fight against insurgency in Vietnam.

The Search for Tactical Success in Vietnam
  • An Analysis of Australian Task Force Combat Operations
  • Andrew Ross, Robert Hall, Amy Griffin
  • Published online:
    05 August 2015
    Print publication:
    08 September 2015
  • From 1966 to 1971 the First Australian Task Force was part of the counterinsurgency campaign in South Vietnam. Though considered a small component of the Free World effort in the war, these troops from Australia and New Zealand were in fact the best trained and prepared for counterinsurgency warfare. However, until now, their achievements have been largely overlooked by military historians. The Search for Tactical Success in Vietnam sheds new light on this campaign by examining the thousands of small-scale battles that the First Australian Task Force was engaged in. The book draws on statistical, spatial and temporal analysis, as well as primary data, to present a unique study of the tactics and achievements of the First Australian Task Force in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. Further, original maps throughout the text help to illustrate how the Task Force's tactics were employed.

The Proud 6th
  • An Illustrated History of the 6th Australian Division 1939–1946
  • Mark Johnston
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    07 November 2008
  • Following Mark Johnston's acclaimed illustrated histories of the 7th and 9th Australian Divisions, this is his long-awaited history of the 6th Australian Division: the first such history ever published. The 6th was a household name during World War II. It was the first division raised in the Second Australian Imperial Force, the first division to go overseas and the first to fight. Its success in that fight, in Libya in 1941, indicated that the standard established in the Great War would be continued. General Blamey and nearly every other officer who became wartime army, corps and divisional commanders were once members of the 6th Division. Through photographs and an authoritative text, this book tells their story and the story of the proud, independent and tough troops they commanded.

Pozières
  • Echoes of a Distant Battle
  • Christopher Wray
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    15 January 2015
  • From July to September 1916, some 23,000 Australians were killed or wounded in the Battle of Pozières. It was the first strategically important engagement by Australian soldiers on the Western Front and its casualties exceeded those of any other battle of the First World War, including Gallipoli. In this important book, Christopher Wray explores the influence of Pozières on Australian society and history, and how it is remembered today. In the opening chapters he revisits the battle and considers its aftermath, including shell shock and the psychological effects experienced by surviving soldiers. The concluding chapters examine the way in which the battle has been commemorated in literature and art, and the extent to which it has been overlooked in contemporary remembrance of the war. Generously illustrated with photographs, maps and paintings, Pozières: Echoes of a Distant Battle is essential reading for anyone interested in the First World War and Australia's post-war society.

Stretcher-bearers
  • Saving Australians from Gallipoli to Kokoda
  • Mark Johnston
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    23 December 2014
  • Stretcher-bearers is a compelling account of the experience of Australian stretcher-bearers during the First and Second World Wars. Respected military historian, Mark Johnston traces the development of formal stretcher-bearing from its origin in the early nineteenth century under Napoleon to the Second World War. Johnston draws on accounts by stretcher-bearers who worked on the front line, as well as tributes from rescued soldiers, to deepen our understanding of the crucial role these soldiers played in Gallipoli, Palestine, the Western Front in World War I, and in the Middle East and the Pacific in World War II. The narrative is further driven by rich imagery, featuring over 130 full-page photographs. This book provides a generously illustrated, engaging and moving account of the history of the stretcher-bearer, a figure praised by countless Diggers but never previously the subject of a book.

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