The 3rd Mountain Battery began life in 1759 as “Captain T.Smith's Company, 3rd Battalion Royal Artillery”. The opening pages of the narrative describe the dress, equipment and establishment noting that “every man had his hair combed back, tied in a club three-quarters of a yard long with a broad black ribbon and well powdered with white.” After a few designation changes, described in the narrative, the unit's title became No 3 Mountain Battery in 1889, the oldest mountain battery in the Royal Artillery by virtue of being the first to be equipped as one. This record goes from 1759 to 1908 and during that time the battery certainly saw plenty of action from the American War of Independence to Corunna to the Crimea and then, for thirty years (1878-1908) in India/Burma, in India mainly on the NW Frontier: Kabul, relief of Kandahar, Zhob Valley Field Force, Burma, Sikkim, Miranzai, Isazai, Chitral, Mohmand, Tirah. The last twenty pages contain the names of all the officers who served with the battery during the 150 years covered in the book, when they served and the expeditions or campaigns they were in with any medals.

The book is primarily based on the facts and figures culled out from official records such as regimental histories, war diaries of the units and higher formations of the Indian Armed Forces, maintained by the India Office Library, London; the National Archives of India, Delhi; and the records preserved in various States’ Archives. Correspondence between the Secretary of State for War and the Viceroy in India was another vital source material. The War Dispatches from the Force Commanders to the Commander-in- Chief also helped in understanding the nuances of the First World War ( WW-I). Authentic published sources, some of which are first - hand accounts by participating Commanders, have also been used.

Dust, Donkeys and Delusion examines and clinically debunks the myth that has grown up around Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the so-called `Man with the Donkey', the quintessential Australian `hero' of Gallipoli. While the various elements of the Simpson myth have now become popularly accepted as `history', Dust, Donkeys and Delusion shows clearly, based on historical documents, both official and unofficial, that almost every word ever spoken or written about Simpson following his death is false.

The Great War confronted Australia’s fledgling field and garrison artillery forces with a seemingly insurmountable challenge: to rapidly raise, prepare, deploy and engage in history’s most lethal war to date. By 1915, the Australian artillery entered into a bloody contest of learning and adaptation against resourceful and resolute opponents, where the stakes would be measured in thousands of soldiers’ lives. Far from popularly-held views of the Great War as one of stalemate and stagnation, Clash of the Gods of War: Australian Artillery and the Firepower Lessons of the Great War reveals a dynamic and rapidly evolving battle-scape, as artillery planners on each side sought to combine innovative concepts, technology and tactics into victory. The book draws on an unparalleled array of perspectives on artillery and firepower, presented by Australian and international experts and practitioners over four years during the Firepower: Lessons from the Great War seminar series, commemorating the Centenary of Anzac. From Anzac Cove to the Hindenburg Line, Clash of the Gods of War tells a gripping Australian story of the Great War through the lens of artillery – the most lethal and influential arm of the war – and considers the legacy that its evolutionary journey holds for warfare today.