This riveting book follows a small group of Australian front-line soldiers from their enlistment in the dark days of 1940 to the end of World War II.No ordinary soldiers, they were members of Don Company of the Second 43rd Battalion, part of the famous 9th Australian Division, which - during campaigns in Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea, and Borneo- sustained more casualties and won more medals than any other Australian division. It is an evocative and detailed account of the day-to-...

Leading military historian Mark Johnston tells stories of the courage of individual soldiers across every battle in which Australians fought in World War II.When Australians defended against Rommel's tanks at Tobruk and Alamein, tackled paratroopers landing among them on Crete, attacked French Foreign Legionnaires in Syrian forts, held off Japanese tanks in Malaya, fought hand-to-hand on the Kokoda Track, and took on well-hidden and tenacious Japanese in countless ...

In Whispering Death, Mark Johnston, one of Australia's leading experts on World War II, explains vividly how more than 130,000 Australian airmen fought Japan from the Pacific War's first hours in 1941 to its last in 1945. They clashed over a vast area, from India to Noumea, Bass Strait to the Philippines. Merely flying over that region's boundless oceans and wild weather was dangerous enough for Australia's fliers, but their formidable enemies made it much more perilous. In their ...

This book recounts the organization and deployment of one of the most important fighting armies of World War II.Australian divisions made a large and distinctive contribution to victory both in the deserts of the Middle East and the jungles of the South-West Pacific, earning for the second time a unique reputation for aggressiveness, endurance and independence of spirit.The text is illustrated with original wartime photos from all fronts; and with full colo...

From a very young age, Mark Johnston grew up around pubs, parties, drunks, drug addicts and criminals. He was a victim of physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse. By the age of 19 Mark had attempted suicide numerous times and was put into 7 drug induced comas, self mutilated, planned on murdering other people, and was an extremely violent individual that detested life. Knocking at death's door, ready at any time to go in, Mark encountered Christ in 2011. This encounter was set to chan...

A bold and persuasive case for abandoning old religions and still believing in GodIn this book, Mark Johnston argues that God needs to be saved not only from the distortions of the "undergraduate atheists" (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris) but, more importantly, from the idolatrous tendencies of religion itself. Each monotheistic religion has its characteristic ways of domesticating True Divinity, of taming God's demands so that they do not ra...

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 sold...

This is a unique and powerful visual history of the men who fought in the 9th Division, the most famous Australian division of World War II. Many never before published photographs, some from veterans' private collections, illustrate dramatic and moving stories of Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea and Borneo.The 9th Division gained renown as 'Rats of Tobruk' in 1941, were eulogised as 'that magnificent 9th' by General Montgomery after the battle of El Alamein in 1942, and drew praise ...

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 b...

Trees are now in the public eye as never before. The threat of tree diseases, the felling of street trees, and the challenge of climate change are just some of the issues that have put trees in the media spotlight. At the same time, the trees in our parks, gardens, and streets are a vital resource that can deliver environmental, social, and economic benefits that make our towns and cities attractive, green, and healthy places.Ever since Roman times when amenity trees were first pla...

Why supernatural beliefs are at odds with a true understanding of the afterlifeIn this extraordinary book, Mark Johnston sets out a new understanding of personal identity and the self, thereby providing a purely naturalistic account of surviving death.Death threatens our sense of the importance of goodness. The threat can be met if there is, as Socrates said, "something in death that is better for the good than for the bad." Yet, as Johnston shows, all exis...

Anzacs in the Middle East is a compelling exploration of the experiences of soldiers who fought in the Middle East during World War II. Spurred by a sense of adventure and duty, they set sail to countries of which they knew very little. The book examines the relationships between Australians and their allies and also how they related to the local people: Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians. Mark Johnston draws on extensive research to provide a new perspective on the famo...