Doomed Battalion: Mateship and Leadership in War and Captivity: the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-1945 [Paperback]

Peter Henning (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995

This is the story of a dozen Australian soldiers of the 2/40 Battalion - mainly Tasmanians - who were sent to garrison an airfield in Dutch Timor immediately after the Japanese entered the Second World War. Assigned a hopless military task with a misguided strategy, they were captured a week after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. For the next three and a half years they were more thoroughly scattered in prison camps throughout Asia than the men of any comparable Australian unit. Their experiences represent a microcosm of the experience of Australians in Japanese hands in the Pacific theatre. Using a combination of documentary material and interviews, the book represents a reconstruction and analysis of the fighting in Dutch Timor. It is a study of the complexities of the prisoner of war experience: the psychology of incarceration; the nature of prisoners' relationships with other Australians, their officers and prisoners of other nationalities; and the operation of mateship and leadership under extreme hardship.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1863737634
• ISBN-13: 978-1863737630
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,339,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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