Arthur Blackburn, VC

An Australian hero, his men, and their two world wars

by Andrew Faulkner

Wakefield Press, 2008, large centre section of sepia plates, paperback, ISBN 9781862547841

As New Condition, minor edge and shelf wear

'Gallipoli hero, Victoria Cross recipient, battalion and brigade commander, conqueror of Damascus and defiant antagonist of the Japanese - by measure Arthur Seaforth Blackburn was one of Australia's remarkable soldiers.  The skinny solicitor from Adelaide had the knack for gravitating to the hottest part of a battle.  As one of the first ashore, Blackburn made it further inland on Gallipoli's first day than any other soldier whose name is known.  At Pozieres, the biggest and costliest battle in Australia's history, he closed a potentially calamitous gap in the Australian line, personally leading a succession of bloody grenade attacks n which more than half of his force was killed or wounded.

This, the first Blackburn biography, details the famous battles that shaped Australia - Lone Pine, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm - plus the unfairly marginalized conflicts Syria and Java.  It tells Blackburn's story through the eyes of his comrades, including many from his battalion who survived the horrors of the Burma Railway, and includes photographs taken by Blackburn never published before.'