Military History Section Staff Biographies
Karl James
Karl James is a Senior Historian in the Military History Section, where he has worked since 2006. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, he has specialised in Australia’s involvement in the Second World War. He has worked on several exhibitions, including the refurbishment of the Second World War galleries, and more recently was the curator for the special anniversary exhibition, Rats of Tobruk, 1941 on display during 2011.
Karl’s first book, The hard slog: Australians in the Bougainville campaign, 1944–45 will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2012 as part of the Australian Army History Series. He is currently writing a new history of the siege of Tobruk, while continuing his research on the Kokoda campaign. Please feel free to contact him if you have unpublished documents relating to either of these topics.
Selected publications
“Desert war”, Capital, 52, 2011
“The great siege”, Wartime, 54, 2011
“The Grecian disaster”, Wartime, 54, 2011
“The six year war”, Capital, 48, 2010
“Those ‘army-navy freaks’“, Wartime, 51, 2010
“The first kill”, Wartime, 49, 2010
“The greyhounds of Kokoda”, Wartime, 48, 2009
“Kokoda ‘Track’ or ‘Trail’?”, Wartime, 48, 2009
“Hell was let loose’: The RAN Beach Commandos at Balikpapan, July 1945”, International Journal of Naval History, 8, 2, 2009
“‘The track’: a historical desktop study of the Kokoda Track”, report commissioned by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 2009
“Soldiers to citizens”, Wartime, 45, 2009
“Gallant fighter”, Wartime 43, 2008
“Australia’s other Asian wars”, Wartime,41, 2008
“The ‘atmosphere of the place and the spirit of the people’: Why historians visit battlefields when writing operational history”, Sabretache, 48, 2007
“The Hawker Demon”, Wartime, 37, 2007
“The army’s ugly duckling”, Wartime, 37, 2007
“Hell at Porton”, Australian Army journal, 3, 2005–06
“A ‘prend’ indeed”, Wartime, 33, 2006
“‘Uncle Stan’ and the Staff Corps”, Sabretache, 45, 2004
“‘White, black, and brown’: attitudes to race as reflected during the Bougainville campaign, 1944–1945”, Alpheus 1, 2004
Conferences and seminars
“The Rats of Tobruk”’, History Teachers Association of NSW State Conference 2011, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 22–23 July 2011
“The ‘immortal Kokoda Trail’: The riddles of Kokoda”, Contested memories: case studies from the World Wars, University of Queensland, QLD, 20 November 2009
”Heroes and villains: Australian militia battalions in the Kokoda campaign, July – August 1942”, Constructing the past: Australian Historical Association Conference, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD, 30 June – 3 July 2009
“Hell was let loose’: Making order from confusion. The RAN Beach Commandos at Balikpapan, July 1945”, 2007 Naval History Symposium, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, 20–22 September 2007
(with Kazuhiro Monden) “Return to New Guinea: comparing Australian and Japanese memories of the New Guinea campaign”, War and Our World, University of Manchester, UK, 19–21 July 2007
“‘To sniff or not to sniff’: should historians visit battlefields when writing operational history?”, Genres of History: Australian Historical Association 2006 Biennial Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 3–7 July 2006
“The 39th Battalions at war”, The CO’s Hour, Deployed Force Services Unit, Randwick Barracks, NSW, 28 April 2006
“Gavin Long and the ‘Bean’ tradition”, Mars and Minerva: Intellectuals and War in Australia and New Zealand, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 4–6 February 2006
“‘Fellow citizens, the war is over’: Bougainville, August 1945”, Canada and Australia: Experiences of War, University of Wollongong, NSW, 10 November 2005
“‘It is considered that no nurses or AWAS should be brought into the area until American Negroes have departed’: attitudes to race as reflected during the Bougainville Campaign, 1944–45”, Visions: 12th Biennial National Conference of the Australian Historical Association, Newcastle, NSW, 5–9 July 2004
“Uncle Stan and the Staff Corps”, Feast by the Murray: Australian Historical Association 30th Anniversary Conference, Mildura, Vic., 28 September – 1 October 2003
“‘An enemy worthy of Australia’s sword’: Australian aspirations and frustrations during the final year of the Second World War”, History and Politics: Staff and Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Wollongong, NSW, 16 August 2002
“Australia’s war in the South-West Pacific, 1944–1945: a work in progress”, People and War: Aspects of Military History, University of Wollongong, NSW, 16–18 July 2001
