{"title":"Peter Brune","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Peter Brune's compelling narratives, where military history and personal stories intertwine. Discover gripping accounts of courage, sacrifice, and the realities of war from a distinctly Australian perspective. Start browsing now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"those-ragged-bloody-heroes-book-peter-brune-9781741145595","title":"Those Ragged Bloody Heroes","description":"The Kokoda Trail is part of Australian military folklore.During July to September 1942 the Japanese set about the capture of Port Moresby by an overland crossing of the Owen Stanley Range, and a landing in Milne Bay. To oppose a force of 10,000 crack Japanese troops on the Kokoda Trail, the Allies committed one under-trained and poorly-equipped unit - the 39th Battalion, later reinforced by Veterans of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division AIF. These were then men of Maroubra Force.The Australians put up a desperate fight. They withdrew village by village, forcing the Japanese to fight for every inch of ground. Finally at Ioribaiwa, the Japanese turned away, beaten and exhausted. The Australian soldiers' reward for their remarkable achievement was denigration by the High Command - General Blamey called them 'running rabbits'.Then in December 1942 when the fighting at the beachheads had produced little success, the former members of Maroubra Force captured Gona after heavy fighting - but at tragic cost.Those Ragged Bloody Heroes is the story of those battles told as never before, through the eyes of the Australian soldiers who fought there. It is a story that raises serious questions about the planning and command of the Kokoda and Gona campaigns.Those Ragged Bloody Heroes is a stirring history of triumph, tragedy and controversy set in the mud and steaming jungle of the Kokoda Trail and the fireswept beaches at Gona.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49595995521297,"sku":"GOR003642529","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49618929975569,"sku":"GOR013670989","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49644981616913,"sku":"GOR009635939","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1741145597.jpg?v=1758968497"},{"product_id":"bastard-of-a-place-book-peter-brune-9781741144031","title":"A Bastard of a Place","description":"'...Brune's book is a timely reminder that despite the warmest alliances, nations sometimes have to stand up and save themselves.' - The Weekend Australian Financial Review'...A Bastard of a Place undeniably ranks as the best book ever written about the Aussie battles in Papua ...Very highly recommended, and certainly one of the best books of the year.' - Bill Stone, Stone + Stone Second World War Books websiteIn 1942 and early 1943 Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place' to fight a war. Peter Brune gives us the final, all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever. Peter's compelling narrative resonates with the voices of both the well-trained AIF volunteer, and the young Militia conscript who triumphed together. He interviewed hundreds of these soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many of their mates perished. Peter reveals the inside story of how Generals MacArthur and Blamey sacrificed many of the senior Australian field commanders as scapegoats to protect their own positions.A Bastard of a Place restores Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda to their rightful place beside Kokoda to what they should collectively be for all Australians sacred ground.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49982117019921,"sku":"GOR002926022","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53108369129745,"sku":"GOR004125123","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53601540997393,"sku":"CIN1741144035G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1741144035.jpg?v=1758968215"},{"product_id":"descent-into-hell-book-peter-brune-9781741145342","title":"Descent Into Hell","description":"Descent into Hell is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the most traumatic calamities in Australian history - the Malayan Campaign, the fall of Singapore and the subsequent horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. Unpicking the myths and legends of the war, Peter Brune goes to the heart of the Australian experience. He describes the shambolic planning by the British in Singapore and the failures and incompetence of some of the Australian command. He debunks the claims about Australian deserters in Singapore, and we learn of the black market in Changi and the beatings, torture and murder on the Thai-Burma Railway.  Here too are stories of the war's many heroes and villains: of officers who looked after their men and optimised their chances of survival, and others who looked after themselves at their men's expense; the heroes of battle who became ineffectual and lost in the camps and on the Railway, and the least liked and least respected battlefield officers who came to be great leaders. And then there are countless acts of kindness and decency performed by one POW for another in the most cruel of circumstances.  Impressive, compelling and rich in human spirit, Descent into Hell is an unprecedented chronicle by one of Australia's finest military historians.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51092466401553,"sku":"GOR011880805","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51232066339089,"sku":"GOR008727636","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51379281821969,"sku":"GOR014247341","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51860649312529,"sku":"CIN1741145341G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1741145341.jpg?v=1758968310"},{"product_id":"those-ragged-bloody-heroes-standard-large-print-16-pt-edition-book-peter-brune-9780369370396","title":"Those Ragged Bloody Heroes [Standard Large Print 16 Pt Edition]","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51196832121105,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51196834873617,"sku":"NIN9780369370396","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52410235814161,"sku":"NLS9780369370396","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0369370392.jpg?v=1751292475"},{"product_id":"ralph-honner-book-peter-brune-9781741753721","title":"Ralph Honner","description":"Ralph Honner: Kokoda Hero is the story of one of Australia's great  World War II battalion commanders.  Honner fought as a junior officer in the first and triumphant North African battles of Bardia, Tobruk and Derna. He then took part in the heartbreaking and disastrous campaigns in Greece and Crete where he was one of the last Australians to be evacuated by submarine-three months after Crete's fall.  But it was during 1942, at Isurava on the Kokoda Trail and at the Japanese beachhead of Gona in Papua New Guinea, that Ralph Honner played a decisive role in the making of an Australian legend. Worshipped by his men, he was severely wounded in 1943 and, after a long convalescence, served Australia with distinction as a public servant, political figure and diplomat.  Written by one of Australia's bestselling military history authors, who knew Ralph Honner and had access to his private letters and papers, Ralph Honner: Kokoda Hero contains gripping, action-packed descriptions of the fighting in North Africa, Greece, Crete and Papua New Guinea. The story of a remarkable man, it covers events from Honner's adolescence in the last vestiges of pioneering Australia through to his distinguished political and diplomatic career, spanning nearly a century of his nation's history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52612212031761,"sku":"GOR002250167","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781741753721.jpg?v=1761468044"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-peter-brune.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}