Men at War: Australia, Syria, Java 1940-1942

By James Mitchell
Published by Hardie Grant
RRP $49.99 in hardback  |  ISBN 9781743799932

The Australian 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was formed in Victoria in 1940 as Australia entered the Second World War.

In 1941 and 1942 the battalion fought two short and costly campaigns. The first, against the Vichy French in Syria, was victorious and won them fame.

The second, in Java against the Japanese, was doomed from the start, with no heavy equipment, little ammunition, and barely enough food to survive.

Eventually abandoned by Canberra and the Generals the battalion was overwhelmed by the superior strength of the Japanese army and became their prisoners of war, forced to work on the building of the Thai-Burma railway (which will be covered in a later volume).

As Mitchell writes, the social linkages that had been created over the previous years and had added to the Pioneers’ coherence as soldiers, would prove crucial to their endurance as prisoners.

Two-thirds of the Pioneers would outlive the horrific conditions and cruelty of the next three and a half years.

VERDICT: Men at War is an epic book (493pp) offering the reader not only a military history but a social history too of the men and their families and the toll war takes on not only the men and women who fight it but on the loved ones left behind. It is a very personal story of the individuals who were among the first to volunteer when war became inevitable and of the price they paid for their service to their country.

DETAILED REVIEW: There is a longer review by Michael McKernan in the Australian Book Review, linked here, but you will need a digital subscription to the magazine to read it in full. Australian Book Review, December 2023