Desert Diggers

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Publisher Place: Australia
Publisher Year: 2024
Edition: First Edition

Description: 438 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Desert Diggers: Writings from a War Zone ‘Somewhere in the Middle East 1940-1942 draws upon hundreds of soldiers letters in a fresh and captivating narrative of the war in North Africa.Desert Diggers follows the first men to volunteer after the outbreak of war in 1939, tracing their adventures in exotic ports before further training in Palestine. A hunger for action grew: ‘Most of the chaps are ... anxious to get into anything that looks like a fight, one soldier wrote to his brother.From Egypt, ‘the hottest and dustiest place on Gods earth was the Diggers next destination and their ‘blooding in the battles for Bardia and Tobruk. After Rommel failed to storm Tobruk in April-May 1941, Nazi propaganda denigrated the garrison, ‘caught like rats in a trap. Amid frequent bombing and shelling, Berlins scornful broadcasts were an unintended tonic. ‘Frequently we laughed and joked until the tears came into our eyes, a Digger quipped.From Tobruk, to the blunting of Rommels attacks at El Alamein, the price of victory was palpably high: ‘some of my best mates didnt come out of it, lamented a lieutenant to his mother. Returning to Australia in 1943, some men maimed or traumatised, brought a further test for the Diggers ...Told in the words of the men who served, Desert Diggers offers a new personal perspective on the Western Desert campaigns. With immediacy and raw emotion, these skilfully woven letters provide a remarkable and compelling account of the Australian experience of war.

ISBN: 9781923004849