Resources
Dr Karl James is the Head of the Military History Section at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. He has worked as a historian at the Memorial since 2006. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, his research focuses on Australia’s involvement in the Second World War.
See more by Dr Karl James here
Dr Lachlan Grant is a Senior Historian in the Military History Section. He joined the Australian War Memorial in 2011 and previously worked as a lecturer in history at Monash University, Melbourne, where he also completed a PhD (2010) and MA (2005). He has published widely on the Second World War, specialising in the social, cultural, and military history of the Australian experience of the conflict.
See more by Dr Lachlan Grant here
Introductory readings on Australia in the Pacific War:
Joan Beaumont, Gull Force: survival and leadership in captivity 1941–1945, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1988
Phillip Bradley, Hell’s battlefield: the Australians in New Guinea in World War II, Allan and Unwin, Sydney, 2012
Michele Cunningham, Hell on earth: Sandakan–Australia’s greatest war tragedy, Hachette, 2013
David Dexter, The New Guinea offensive, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1961
Peter J. Dean, MacArthur’s coalition: US and Australian Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, 1942–1945, University Press of Kansas, 2018
Lachlan Grant, Australian soldiers in Asia–Pacific in World War II, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2014
Lachlan Grant (ed.), The Changi book, NewSouth, Sydney, 2015
Rosalind Hearder, Keep the men alive: Australian POW doctors in Japanese captivity, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2009
Karl James, Double diamonds: Australian commandos in the Pacific War, 1941–45, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2016
Karl James, Kokoda: beyond the legend, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2017
Mark Johnston, Whispering death: Australian airmen in the Pacific war, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2011
Gavin Long, The final campaigns, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963
Dudley McCarthy, South-West Pacific Area – first year: Kokoda to Wau, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1959
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of war: Australians under Nippon, ABC Books, Sydney, 1985
Christina Twomey, Australia’s forgotten prisoners: civilians interned by the Japanese in World War Two, Cambridge University Press, 2007
Christina Twomey, The battle within: POWs in postwar Australia, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018
Lionel Wigmore, The Japanese thrust, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1957