TY  - BOOK
AU  - Veitch,Michael
TI  - Australia's secret army: the story of the coaswatchers, the unsung heroes of Australia's armed forces during World War II 
SN  - 9780733648472
U1  - 940.5486 23
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Sydney, NSW
PB  - Hachette Australia
KW  - World War, 1939-1945
KW  - Military intelligence
KW  - Pacific Area
KW  - Commando operations
KW  - Coastal surveillance
KW  - Coast defenses
KW  - Military surveillance
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - Hidden deep in the jungles and high in the mountains of the Southwest Pacific during World War II, Australia's secret army - the Coastwatchers - reported every move of the Japanese invaders to Allied intelligence. Following World War I, the Coastwatcher organisation was formed from European planters, missionaries and patrol officers living in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. All volunteers, they were tasked with keeping an eye on Australia's porous northern border and providing early warnings via radio.When World War II came to the Pacific, however, overnight the Coastwatchers found themselves no longer just observers but spies operating behind enemy lines. Besides evading the enemy's desperate efforts to hunt them down, the Coastwatchers battled exhaustion, tropical diseases and malnutrition, as well as the ever-present spectre of capture, torture and death. Yet without the Coastwatchers' crucial courage and intelligence, key moments of the Pacific War may have turned out very differently
ER  -