Larrikins in Khaki: Tales of Irreverence and Courage from World War II Diggers

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY

 With a reputation for being hard to discipline, generosity to their comrades, frankness and sticking it up any sign of pomposity, Australian soldiers were a wild and irreverent lot, even in the worst of circumstances during World War II. In Larrikins in Khaki, Tim Bowden has collected compelling and vivid stories of individual soldiers whose memoirs were mostly self-published and who told of their experiences with scant regard for literary pretensions and military niceties. Most of these men had little tolerance for military order and discipline, and NCOs and officers who were hopeless at their jobs were made aware of it. They laughed their way through the worst of it by taking the mickey out of one another and their superiors. From recruitment and training to the battlegrounds of Palestine, North Africa, Thailand, New Guinea, Borneo and beyond, here are the highly individual stories of Australia’s World War II Diggers told in their own voices – warts and all.

First Edition. (Scribbled page numbers on inside cover, light crease to front cover corner.)

• x, 436 pages ; 24 cm #081223
• Introduction
• Military units
• 1 Joining up
• 2 Very basic training
• 3 Sailing to war
• 4 Desert Diggers prepare for war
• 5 High junks in Egypt
• 6 Fighting in the desert
• 7 Ill-fated Greek adventure
• 8 Out of the frying pan into the fire
• 9 The Allied invasion of Lebanon and Syria
• 10 The tide turns
• 11 Return to Australia
• 12 Prisoners of war of the Japanese
• 13 The railway of death
• 14 Service at home
• 15 The saga of the flying footsloggers
• 16 The Kokoda Track and the bloody beachheads
• 17 The battle for New Guinea
• 18 An unnecessary campaign
• 19 Savagery in Bougainville
• 20 Bloody Borneo – Tarakan and Balikpapan
• 21 The lost years and damaged lives
• 22 Retain all prisoners of war indefinitely
• 23 Final thoughts
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index.