Guts and Glory
Diggers, Sport and War
By Peter Rees
Published by ABC Books; Dist. by Harper Collins
RRP $36.99 in paperback
ISBN 9780733344220

War holds a fascination for Peter Rees. It’s a topic that has been the inspiration for six previous books, including Desert Boys (Allen & Unwin, 2011), Anzac Girls: The extraordinary story of our World War I Nurses (Allen & Unwin, 2015, and Lancaster Men: The Aussie Heroes of Bomber Command (Allen & Unwin, 2016). 

He writes that this book stemmed from an idea from Brigadier Phil Winter, the inaugural Director General of the ADF Sports Branch in 2022. And so began Rees’ task of documenting many different sports over 110 years of war and conflict. 

The spirit of Australia can be seen so clearly in the sporting events that unfolded against the backdrop of war – and, of course, the commanding sporting personalities who left their mark. 
From the famous cricket match played on the beach at Gallipoli as a decoy for the evacuation of Australian troops; to the hero of Tobruk, Changi and the Thai Burma railway, Colonel Sir Ernest Edward 'Weary' Dunlop AC, who so respected his hard-won Wallaby jersey, he insisted on being buried in it; to legendary Test cricketer Keith Miller, fighter pilot in WWII, who famously said 'Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse, playing cricket is not' - sport has always been an important part of Australian life, no less so in wartime when it acted as a welcome distraction while building teamwork and loyalty among those serving. 

Guts and Glory is a book about the way that sport is so often an intrinsic part of war; how sport provided a means for the diggers to cope with the pressures of the battlefield; how the lessons that were learnt playing sport were applied to the art of leadership. Through it all, the Australian character and spirit shines through.

VERDICT: This is an uplifting book that celebrates the healing power of sport. One for the sporting fanatics.

*****