In the Fight

Australians and the War in Burma 1942-1945

By Dr Andrew Kilsby and Dr Daryl Moran (editors)

Published by Big Sky Publishing

RRP $34.99 in paperback

ISBN 9781923144552

This book consists of a number of stories that highlight the little-known contribution of Australians involved in the longest campaign of WWII, in Burma, in what was called ‘a forgotten war’.

While Australian airmen attached to the Royal Air Force were heavily engaged, many other Australians both, uniformed and civilian, were part of the monumental struggle to turn ‘defeat into victory’ in Burma despite the fact that no Australian units were committed to this theatre of war, with the exception of several destroyers assigned to the British Eastern Fleet in early 1942 to support operations in the Bay of Bengal.

Australian war correspondents, Red Cross nurses, RAN sailors, war artists, commandos and saboteurs, soldiers serving with the British Indian Army, the Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma), well known sportsmen, Qantas crews and POWs in the Rangoon Jail are all covered in these detailed accounts.

There is a fascinating chapter on Richard Casey, who served as Governor of Bengal in the last years of the war, later serving as a minister in the Menzies Government, before becoming Australian Governor-General. His time in Bengal would influence later policy directions in regards to engagement with Asia.

Women too, often overlooked in military history, feature in the chapter on the Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma).

This group provided essential services such as food and drinks for the troops, tending the wounded, driving transports and helping with evacuation, necessary but often overlooked contributions.

In total there are twelve excellent chapters, each on a different topic and each illuminating previously little known aspects of how Australians made vital contributions to the ultimate defeat of the Japanese.