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  • Published: 29 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780143008521
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Tobruk 1941



The gripping first-hand account of the battle that made the Rats of Tobruk an Australian legend.

March 1941. The Allied forces have suffered one brutal defeat after another. For Hitler's forces the conquest of Egypt, and the rich oil fields of the Middle East, lie next on the horizon. All that stand in their way are a few Australian brigades defending a town called Tobruk.

For eight months the Australian Imperial Forces defended the North African coastal fortress, battling almost unbeatable odds in the dust and the heat of the Libran desert. Under the command of General Morshead, the troops used unorthodox methods and sheer grit to withstand the superior might of General Rommel's elite 'Afrika Korps'.

In this timeless classic, celebrated war correspondent Chester Wilmot shows us why dogged resistance, courage and sacrifice have become synonymous with the spirit of Australian troops.

'Truly one of the greats of Australian journalism' PETER FITZSIMONS

  • Published: 29 June 2009
  • ISBN: 9780143008521
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

About the author

Chester Wilmot

Chester Wilmot was born in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton in 1911 and later graduated from the University of Melbourne. He became a war correspondent during the Second World War, working first for the ABC in Greece, Syria, Libya and New Guinea, and later covering the whole of western Europe for the BBC. He was noted for his remarkable ability to research and distil information, for the clarity of his despatches, and for his spirited, sometimes controversial, style. After the war he became a broadcaster, journalist and military historian. In 1954, at the peak of his career, Wilmot died in a plane crash.

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