Doomed Battalion: Mateship and Leadership in War and Captivity: The Australian 2/40 Battalion, 1940-45

By Peter Henning

This is the story of a dozen Australian soldiers of the 2/40 Battalion - mainly Tasmanians - who were sent to garrison an airfield in Dutch Timor immediately after the Japanese entered the Second World War. Assigned a hopless military task with a misguided strategy, they were captured a week after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. For the next three and a half years they were more thoroughly scattered in prison camps throughout Asia than the men of any comparable Australian unit. Their experiences represent a microcosm of the experience of Australians in Japanese hands in the Pacific theatre.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1863737634
• ISBN13: 9781863737630
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia
• Length: 407 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.