PACIFIC FURY
How Australia and Her Allies
Defeated the Japanese Scourge
Peter Thompson
William Heinemann: Australia
"The monsoon had broken early. The thickly timbered hillsides ran with rivers of slush… Blind, blood-sucking leeches reached out from leaves and blades of grass in search of human flesh; malarial mosquitoes bit into exposed arms and legs…"
The setting is Burma, "one of the remotest and most pitiless battlefields of the Pacific War." Peter Thompson has cast his net broadly in telling the story of the many fronts on which Australians and their allies fought the invading Japanese in World War II.
Melbourne-born Thompson is a journalist as well as a biographer and author of books like The Battle of Brisbane and The Battle of Singapore. His style is that of a good story-teller, what's more, he has found plenty of good stories in the archives of Australia's fighting forces.
Flight-Lieutenant Alexander Roberts, already a veteran of the Battle of Britain, had the job of directing Mustang fighter-bombers to attack the Japanese at Mogaung, in Burma's sugar-cane belt.
Others fought in the Solomon Islands and other islands of the Pacific, and, of course New Guinea. Still others fought in the top levels of the military and government to turn back the tide that seemed to be sweeping ever closer to Australia itself.
This is a great story for Australians, particularly those of us who are the children of veterans of the Pacific War. Many of those veterans said little about the hardship, focusing instead on the mateship of those who served alongside them. Pacific Fury is the book to fill in the gaps, and increase our appreciation and gratitude for what our parents endured for all our sakes.
Review by Kerry Hennigan
Book from Random House Australia
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