Diggers: The Australian Army, Navy and Air Force in Eleven Wars (Vol 1)

From 1860 to 5 June 1944.

To the world, Diggers are Australian fighting men. Those who have battled for their country in wars around the globe. At home, the name Digger is also a term of friendship and comradeship.

First used of the miners who braved the colonial troops at the Eureka stockade, it was immortalised by the soldiers who fought the glorious and tragic battles on Gallipoli.
Digger since then has been a name proudly borne.

These books are a tribute to the servicemen and women of the past, and the warriors of the present, in the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force. This is their story, told through the drama, tragedy and heroism of eleven wars.

This volume begins in the 1860s, when over 2000 Victorians were sent to New Zealand to fight in Taranaki and the Waikato.

Next, in 1885, 1000 men were trained in Sydney's Victoria barracks for the war in the Sudan. Australia was now "decorated as a nation in the eyes of the world." 

In the Boer War, 50 Australian units joined in the bitter struggle, and by the end our troops who had seen action numbered 16,000. In 1901, troops sailed from Australia to fight the Boxer rebels in China over a long and dangerous winter.

Then came the First World War: the horror and endurance of Gallipoli, the muddy quagmires of the Somme, the birth of the Australian Flying Corps, the RAN's battles against German U-boats. After victory in 1918 when the battlescarred came home, the world had changed, and Australia counted the cost.

In the Second World War, Australian aces faced the Germans in the skies over the Channel and North Africa, the RAN fought the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean, and Diggers forged the legends of Bardia, Tobruk and El Alamein. And war came for the first time to Australia.

This book tells the story of the struggle against Japan in the Pacific, and recounts the war in Europe up to the eve of D-Day, and the push for final victory.