Tarakan: An Australian tragedy

In 1945, 240 Australians died taking the small Borneo island of Tarakan from the Japanese. The tragedy of Tarakan was that by the time they succeeded, they need not have begun.Peter Stanley explores that battle, what it was like and what it means to us over fifty years on. He traces the operation from its origins in MacArthur's GHQ, down to the rifle sections patrolling in Tarakan's rugged jungle.Tarakan: An Australian Tragedysuggests new ways of looking at Australia's experience of war. It critically appraises the view that the Borneo campaign was unnecessary, arguing that it was a justifiable operation doomed by the politics of coalition warfare and by bad planning.Tarakan: An Australian Tragedyilluminates the Australian experience of war. Through it, we can hear the men on Tarakan - scared, angry, humorous, proud, bitter and, above all, Australian - the voices of a vanished Australia.Tarakan: An Australian Tragedyis the story of people at war, how it affected them, and how we have remembered it and them. Royalties from sales of the book will go to the Australian War Memorial to further its mission of assisting Australians to understand, interpret and remember the Autralian experience of war.Peter Stanley is the author of 'Tarakan: An Australian tragedy', published 1997 under ISBN 9781864482782 and ISBN 1864482788.