The chain of events that led to the death of over 2,500 Prisoners of War – one of Australia’s worst wartime tragedies – the cancellation of the rescue mission Operation Kingfisher. Finally, the true story of why the Sandakan POWs of World War II were not rescued despite a fully planned and resourced operation – including men, aircraft and naval vessels – all equipped to carry out the rescue mission. There have been several published theories on Operation Kingfisher which explore if the plan really existed, why it was cancelled and who was to blame for its cancellation. For the first time, Operation Kingfisher analyses the effects government policy and the relationships of Churchill, Roosevelt and Curtin had on the mission and its final outcome. Using recently released archival documents, the author uncovers the mistakes made by Allied governments and special forces in Borneo that triggered the Death Marches Number 2 and Number 3. It reveals the mistaken intelligence which caused the cancellation of the rescue mission of the POWs at the Sandakan POW camp – a decision that ultimately resulted in their deaths. Operation Kingfisher discloses the actual chain of events that led to the tragic sacrifice of all but six survivors of the Sandakan POW camp.

Occupied France is a dangerous place for two teenagers, especially when they are the children of a French mother and a British father. Desperate to escape and get back to England they take refuge on a canal barge and find themselves immersed in the complex Operation Kingfisher.

This is the fourth volume in an operational and chronological series covering the U.S. Marine Corps’ participation in the Vietnam War. This volume details the change in focus of the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF), which fought in South Vietnam’s northernmost corps area, I Corps. This volume, like its predecessors, concentrates on the ground war in I Corps and III MAF’s perspective of the Vietnam War as an entity. It also covers the Marine Corps participation in the advisory effort, the operations of the two Special Landing Forces of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and the services of Marines with the staff of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. There are additional chapters on supporting arms and logistics, and a discussion of the Marine role in Vietnam in relation to the overall American effort.

First published in 1989, this account of the experiences of the prisoners of war at Sandakan in Borneo also examines the motives and characteristics of the Japanese involved, and discusses the legal, moral and practical issues inherent in the trial of war crimes. The secret plans for rescuing the Sandakan POWs and the reasons for the failure to carry them out are also discussed. The author is a former QC and president of the Court of Appeal in NSW. He was a prosecutor in the collaborator trials in Borneo in 1945, and at the Sandakan war crimes trials at Labuan. The diary he kept during these trials provides material for this book.

Previously published in 2007 by AuthorHouse under the title: Arc Light: A Marine's journey through South Vietnam.

In 1967–68, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) was on the front line of the defence of South Vietnam's Quang Tri province, which was at the very heart of the Vietnam conflict. Facing them were the soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), men whose organization and equipment made them a very different opponent from the famous, irregular Viet Cong forces. From the 'Hill Battles' in April 1967 to the struggle for the city of Hue (January–March 1968) this bloody campaign forced the two sides into a gruelling trial of strength. The USMC held a general technological and logistical advantage – including close air support and airborne transport, technology, and supplies – but could not always utilize these resources effectively in mountainous, jungle, or urban environments better known by their Vietnamese opponents. In this arresting account of small-unit combat, David R. Higgins steps into the tropical terrain of Vietnam to assess the performance and experience of USMC and NVA forces in three savage battles that stretched both sides to the limit.

Book Two, the second of a three-book series, continues from 1966 in Book One, to cover the action of Marine Corps Tankers and Ontos crewmen fighting the locally-grown Viet Cong, the better armed, trained, organized, and equipped Viet Cong Main Forces, and the North Vietnamese Army Regulars from 1967 thru 1968 in I Corps, South Vietnam. As in Book One, and to continue in Book Three, it features hundreds of personal stories, on-the-spot in real time, interviews of Marines just returning from their fight – all which is framed within the official unit command chronologies and after action reports, including documented “lessons learned”. The maps, personal pictures, organizational charts, and the citing of each Marine who gave his life are, also linked to the Vietnam Wall and to the Foundation’s web site, with volumes of additional information about the Marines who left their sweat and blood in Vietnam battling their communist enemy.