Description
Title: Armies of Empire – The 9th Australian and 50th British Divisions in Battle 1939-1945
Author: Converse, Allan
Condition: Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 9780521194808
Cover: Hard Cover with Dust Jacket – 347 pages
Comments: Armies of Empire uniquely reflects upon the experience of two divisions from different armies facing similar challenges in the Second World War. The 9th Australian Division and the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division both saw long service and suffered heavy casualties, and both encountered morale, discipline and battlefield effectiveness problems. In this illuminating, comparative study of Australian and British divisions at war, Allan Converse draws extensively on primary sources as well as recent scholarship on morale and combat efficiency. His fresh approach questions the popular mythology surrounding the Australian Digger and the British Tommy, and shows how it was a combination of leadership, loyalty and tactics, rather than intrinsic national qualities, which resulted in victory for Churchill’s armies.
Contents
1. Morale and Battlefield Performance in the Second World War;
2. Operations and the Curve of Morale, 1939–1945;
3. Organisation;
4. Other Ranks;
5. Leaders and Leadership;
6. Training, Weapons, and Tactics;
7. Discipline and Psychiatry;
8. Morale in Action;
Conclusion: a New Paradigm of Morale.
