The Lost Battalions

Tom Gilling

Feb 2019 · Bolinda · Narrated by David Tredinnick

1 review

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9 hr 34 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

They were thrown into a hopeless fight against an overwhelming enemy. Later, hundreds died as prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and in the freezing coal mines of Taiwan and Japan. Through it all, wrote Weary Dunlop, they showed ‘fortitude beyond anything I could have believed possible’. Until now, the story of the 2000 diggers marooned on Java in February 1942 has been a footnote to the fall of Singapore and the bloody campaign in New Guinea. Led by an Adelaide lawyer, Brigadier Arthur Blackburn VC, and fighting with scrounged weapons, two Australian battalions – plus an assortment of cooks, laundrymen and deserters from Singapore – held up the might of the Imperial Japanese Army until ordered by their Dutch allies to surrender. Drawing on personal diaries, official records and interviews with two of the last living survivors, this book tells the extraordinary story of the ‘lads from Java’, who laid down their weapons, but refused to give in.

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1 review

AMBASSADOR MOSBY AKA Tino and ROBERT J C New Jersey

July 15, 2020

Very, very good!!!Thank YOU!!!

About the author

Tom Gilling is an acclaimed novelist and non-fiction author who was born in England, but has lived in Australia since 1983. His first two novels, The Sooterkin and Miles McGinty, were New York Times notable books of the year. His non-fiction works include Bastard behind the Lines, The Lost Battalions and The Witness. He is also co-author with Clive Small of the bestselling true crime books Smack Express, Blood Money, Evil Life, and Milat. His most recent work of non-fiction is Start Digging, You Bastards!: Australian and New Zealand Forces' Desperate Battle with Rommel and the Axis at El Alamein (2025).

David has been narrating audiobooks for over 25 years, working on a number of award-winning titles. He has also worked extensively in theatre, radio, film and television, most notably appearing in all four seasons of The Secret Life of Us. When not lending his voice to books he is employed as an archivist, audio producer and librarian.

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