INFERNO
Australians on the Western Front

by Phillip Bradley
Published by Allen & Unwin
RRP $36.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781761069086

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How books come into being is often fascinating.

This book, by Phillip Bradley, is the culmination of decades of interest in the Western Front, in Bullecourt in particular.

He was assisted by locals in the area who were keen to help him explore what remains of the battlefield and to see the souvenirs they’d carefully collected and cherished.

The Australian statistics of involvement in World War I make sobering reading: more than 295,000 Australians fought on the Western Front of a total of 331,781 who left Australia; 46,000 died on the Western Front; many more returned home ‘wounded in body and mind’.

From Bradley’s initial intention to write only about Bullecourt, the book instead became a compilation of experiences of over 500 participants in the horror of the Western Front.

Fromelles, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres, Polygon Wood, Amiens, Bradley traces the war in its awful progression until the Armistice on 11 November 1918.

Charles Bean, who was to write the official history of the war from an Australian perspective, drove to Fromelles, wanting to see the battlefield before the grave recovery units moved in.

‘We found the old No Man’s Land simply full of our dead,’ he wrote.’ 

This is a book rich in detail despite the breadth of the topic.

VERDICT: Phillip Bradley is a fine historian with the capacity to engage a general reader’s undivided attention.

More books by this author

Phillip Bradley is a leading Australian military historian and has had a lifetime interest in the field. His extensive research on the battlefield, in the archives and with veterans has given him an intimate knowledge of Australia’s military past.

Eight of his books, On Shaggy Ridge, The Battle for Wau, To Salamaua, Wau 1942-43, Hell’s Battlefield, D-Day New Guinea, The Battle for Shaggy Ridge and Salamaua 1943, are groundbreaking works on the Australian role in Papua New Guinea in World War II, all characterised by extensive battlefield research and unique interviews with battlefield veterans.

His other books, Charles Bean’s Gallipoli Illustrated and Australian Light Horse, combine extracts from World War I diaries with unique collections of photographs to illustrate these classic campaigns. Bradley’s latest book, Inferno, completes his trilogy of World War I volumes.