Nearly 1 million American soldiers passed through Australia between 1942 and 1945 as part of America's strategy to re-capture the Philippines and defeat Japan.They encountered a country full of reassuring similarities and strange differences. Here was a land of wide-open spaces, roughly the same size as the US, with a can-do, pioneering spirit, a history of swift development; a land of 'funny animals' and peculiar vowel sounds. But who were the Australians and how were Americans to behave in their midst? They were, of course, 'an outdoors sort of people, breezy and very democratic', with a gargantuan appetite for swearing.In the inimitable prose of the soldier's pocket book series, this pithy guide captures the essence of Australia and its people, their humour, vocabulary; their attitude to the Yanks, the British, the War and the world with remarkable economy and clarity. It also manages to squeeze in a précis of Australian history, politics, economics, sports, and musical tradition, as well as colourful lexicon of national slang, which defines for example sheila as 'a babe', cliner as 'another babe', and sninny as 'a third babe'. Like any self-respecting guide to Australian culture, it contains the text of Waltzing Matilda, together with a few bon mots about its cultural significance, particularly in wartime.Unlike cricket, which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart, usually the referee.The Australian has few equals in the world at swearing ...the commonest swear words are bastard (pronounced "barstud"), "bugger," and "bloody," and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly every other word.

Updated edition, covering Brexit, Trump, Xi’s ambitions for China, and the geopolitical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic Everything Australia wants to achieve as a country depends on its capacity to understand the world outside and to respond effectively to it. In Fear of Abandonment, expert and insider Allan Gyngell tells the story of how Australia has shaped the world and been shaped by it since it established an independent foreign policy during the dangerous days of 1942. Gyngell argues that the fear of being abandoned – originally by Britain, and later by our most powerful ally, the United States – has been an important driver of how Australia acts in the world. Covering everything from the White Australia policy to the South China sea dispute, this is a gripping and authoritative account of the way Australians and their governments have helped create the world we now inhabit in the twenty-first century. In revealing the history of Australian foreign affairs, it lays the foundation for how it should change. Today Australia confronts a more difficult set of international challenges than any we have faced since 1942 – this new edition brings the story up to date. Allan Gyngell is National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and an honorary professor at the Australian National University. His long career in Australian international relations included appointments as director-general of the Office of National Assessments and founding executive director of the Lowy Institute. He worked as a diplomat, policy officer and analyst in several government departments and as international adviser to Paul Keating. He is the co-author of Making Australian Foreign Policy and the author of Fear of Abandonment.

". . . unlike cricket which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart, usually the referee . . . " " . . . The Australian has few equals in the world at swearing . . . the commonest swear words are bastard (pronounced "barstud"), "bugger", and "bloody", and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly every other word . . . "

Following the devastating raids on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, lightning advances by Japanese forces throughout the Pacific and the Far East, and a desperate battle by the Allied command in the Dutch East Indies, it became evident that an attack on Australia was more a matter of 'when' and not 'if'. On 19 February, just eleven weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and two weeks after the fall of Singapore, the same Japanese battle group that had attacked Hawaii was ordered to attack the ill-prepared and under-defended Australian port of Darwin. Publishing 75 years after this little-known yet devastating attack, this fully illustrated study details what happened on that dramatic day in 1942 with the help of contemporary photographs, maps, and profiles of the commanders and machines involved in the assault.

The first ever attack on Australia by a foreign power occurred at Darwin on 19th February 1942. At the time of the raid, Douglas Lockwood was a correspondent for the Melbourne Herald in Darwin.

Based on private diaries and confidential papers, this study traces the spread of World War II across the Pacific. It reinterprets standard assumptions regarding the war in Europe and the eventual involvement of the USA in World War II, as well as the effect of the war in Australia.

Very few Australians today know of the fierce air battles fought across the Top End of Australia in World War II. For more than two years Japanese aircraft crossed the coast and bombed relentlessly. Savage dogfights were fought between the legendary Zero fighter and Allied Kittyhawks and Spitfires. Big twin-engine Betty bombers rained down blast and fire upon airfields and towns, even penetrating as far inland as Katherine, some 300 kilometres from the coast. Nearly 200 Japanese aircrew died in the onslaught. This book lists all of their names and describes all of the combat missions - and reveals for the first time that the number of combat flights, aircraft shot down, and aircrew who died is far higher than previously thought. Scores of aircraft were downed in combat operations ranging from Exmouth to Townsville, with the majority of action taking place in the Northern Territory. This new extensive research shows the number of air raids was higher than the previously suggested figure of 64, with 78 raids on the Territory alone, while 209 enemy combat flights were carried out across Northern Australia. 187 Japanese airmen died when their aircraft were brought down. In many cases their bodies lie in remote sites across the vast bush and coastal waters of the north. Many of the wrecks have never been found. The Empire Strikes South describes all of the aircraft used, and gives an insight into the world of fighter pilots and aircrew. With a full range of new colur graphics by renowned illustrator Michael Claringbould, this significant new research reveals a battle for Australia that has been previously unknown.