The truth about the battle that came to define our Vietnam War - from the men who were there.18th August, 1966. 1pm…D Company entered the plantation. They thought that, if they were lucky, they were closing in on perhaps 30 or 40 VC. They were horribly wrong.Over twelve long, bloody and brutal hours, 105 Australian soldiers and three New Zealanders fought off mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire, unaware they were facing up to 2500 Viet Cong a...

Michael Caulfield presents accounts of Australian prisoners of war, capturing the Aussie spirit that manages to endure through all.

Drawn from engagements ranging from World War I through to operations in East Timor and Iraq, these stories are taken from the Australians at War Film Archive, a collection of the memories of more than 2000 Australians who have served, both on the front line and at home.Some are unbelievably, unbearably tragic, even after sixty or seventy years; others are the golden memories of happy, albeit unusual, times. And, more often than not, they are stories that have never been shared wit...

The Vietnam War was the longest and most divisive war in our history. Almost 60,000 Australians served and more than 500 were killed. At home, thousands protested against the war and conscription and hundreds were sent to jail.THE VIETNAM YEARS is the story of both sides of that war, from the vicious fighting of the jungle patroles and the bravery shown by so many Australians at the famous Battle of Long Tan, to families back home, ripped apart by confusion and anger.From V...

In April 1982 Harry Benson was a 21-year-old Royal Navy commando helicopter pilot, fresh out of training and one of the youngest helicopter pilots to serve in the Falklands War. These pilots, nicknamed 'junglies', flew most of the land-based missions in the Falklands in their Sea King and Wessex helicopters. Much of what happened in the war - the politics, task force ships, Sea Harriers, landings, Paras and Marines - is well-known and documented. But almost nothing is known of the young co...

The true story of Australia's SAS and the soldier who was there from the start.Clint Palmer has spent much of his adult life in the SAS and has fought in this elite military unit as it developed from its fledgling beginnings into the highly trained, specialised fighting force it is today. He is an insider with the long view and this is his unique story of life in the SAS.As a bush kid in the Northern Territory of Australia, growing up in a one dog mining to...

The Vietnamese hilltribes made him a demi-god. The CIA wanted to kill him. This is the remarkable true story of Australian war hero Barry Petersen.As he flew over South East Asia towards Vietnam, Captain Barry Petersen struggled to keep an aura of calm. Inwardly he was incredibly excited. Aged 28, highly trained, with experience in anti-communist guerilla warfare, he was about to embark on the biggest and most important mission of his life.In 1963, Australi...

Explosive SAS action in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.The command came: 'Stop those vehicles!'It was like a red rag to a bull. Instantly streams of 7.62 mm tracer and 50 mm calibre machine gun rounds arced across the night sky and smashed into the bus and truck.Elite SAS Patrol Commander Stuart 'Nev' Bonner takes us inside the extraordinary and dangerous world of secret combat operations in this explosive, behind-the-scenes look at life inside the...

“The story of Sergeant Major Maurice Jacques is the story of a true warrior. With close to fifty months’ combat in Korea and Vietnam, he’s one of that rare breed, men who have looked the Devil in the eye—for a long time—and never blinked!”**—**LtCol. Oliver North, USMC (Ret.)COMBAT AND DEATH, SACRIFICE AND HONORMaurice Jacques served for thirty years with the U.S. Marine Corps, nearly six of them in combat. As an accomplished infantryman, parachutist, recon...

'We make and we break.'They were the forward scouts, the mine clearers, the bridge builders and the tunnel rats. They were frequently not just on the front line, but right at the sharp end of the action. They were the legendary Aussie sappers, the army engineers, who were literally everywhere in the fighting against the Vietcong.This special breed of soldier lived hard and played hard. They were there at the beginning of the war. They were also among the last to le...

More than 10,000 Australians served with Bomber Command, a highly trained band of elite flyers who undertook some of the most dangerous operations of World War II. They flew raid after raid over France and Germany knowing that the odds were against them. Stretched to breaking point, nearly 3500 died in the air. Their bravery in extreme circumstances has barely been recognised.Peter Rees traces the extraordinary achievements of these young aviators. He tells their hair-raising stori...

In John Bede Cusack's fictionalised military memoir 'They Hosed Them Out', fact and fiction intersect to tell the powerful story of one man's experience as an air gunner during the Second World War. Cusack transcends the limitations of non-fiction and traditional war literature to evoke not only the well-documented horrors of war but also the adventure. Written with a profound mixture of bitterness and cynicism, humour and camaraderie, Cusack's sardonic Australian humour offers a unique an...