The Australian Imperial Force: Volume V
The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War
By Jean Bou, Peter Dennis, Paul Dalgleish, Jeffrey Grey

Published by Oxford University Press
Link here for purchase
RRP $59.95 in hard cover
ISBN 9780195576801

This is the final book in The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Series published by OUP and supported by the Australian Army. Other titles were:

• Vol. 1: Australia and the War in the Air;
• Vol. 2: The War with the Ottoman Empire;
• Vol. 3: The War with Germany and
• Vol. 4: The War at Home.

This last book is an examination of how the AIF came to function as an efficient fighting force. It is the story of how the AIF was created, dispatched overseas, organised, expanded, administered, trained and supported.

We know the Great War came at a terrible cost. For the young Commonwealth of Australia the raising, sending and maintenance of an expeditionary force that eventually totalled 330,000 men was a massive undertaking.

The book brings together for the first time a range of information regarding the AIF’s organisation and internal workings that could previously only be found by surveying a large number of disparate works. It also draws on up-to-date statistical information from the AIF Database, a database created as part of a research project undertaken at the UNSW Canberra, ADFA.

This is an excellent book for an interested general reader.