Australia's secret army

Resource Information

The work Australia's secret army represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Australia's secret army

Statement of responsibility

Michael Vietch

Creator

• Veitch, Michael

Subject

• Coast defenses -- Pacific Area
• Coastal surveillance -- Pacific Area
• Military surveillance -- Pacific Area
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Commando operations -- Pacific Area
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Military intelligence -- Pacific Area

Language

eng

Summary

Hidden deep in the jungles and high in the mountains of the Southwest Pacific during the Second World War, Australia's secret army - the Coastwatchers - reported every move of the Japanese invaders to Allied intelligence. Following the First World War, the Coastwatcher organisation was formed from European planters, missionaries and patrol officers living in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. All volunteers, they were tasked with keeping an eye on Australia's porous northern border and providing early warnings via radio. When the Second World War came to the Pacific, however, overnight the Coastwatchers found themselves no longer just observers but spies operating behind enemy lines. Besides evading the enemy's desperate efforts to hunt them down, the Coastwatchers battled exhaustion, tropical diseases and malnutrition, as well as the ever-present spectre of capture, torture and death. Yet without the Coastwatchers' crucial courage and intelligence, key moments of the Pacific War may have turned out very differently

Cataloging source

YDX

Dewey number

940.5486

Literary form

non fiction

Target audience

adult