Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth by Mike Carlton, ISBN 9781741668391

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Author: Mike Carlton

Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navy's finest fighting sailor, 'Hardover' Hec Waller. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. CRUISER, by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story. And the story of those who loved them and waited for them.

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Reviews of Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth by Mike Carlton

Cruiser. The life and loss of HMAS Perth and her crew
Reviewed by Anonymous, 28/10/2010

Hi Mike, I have been a fan of yours for a very long time and I want to thank you for your initial book Cruiser. I have in my library many great true and factual war books with likes of The Outsider Who Won A War, Gallipoli Sniper, The Wolf, Beneath Hill 60. Tobruk and many more great page turners. I congratulate you on your research and effort to write it. It is one of the best. Cruiser will now be placed with them on my book shelf for others in my family to enjoy. Including all of my 3 sons and my eight grandsons to enjoy and learn from when they are old enough to read an appreciate how and when Australia was in peril and why we have our freedom today.
Greg Brown.