Australia. Australian Army - Across the sea to war: Australian & New Zealand troop convoys from 1865 through two World Wars to Korea and Vietnam

This book had its beginnings about ten years ago, when I decided to write a short article for a local shipping magazine about the convoys that carried Australian troops to the Middle East in World War Two. However, I found there was so much to write about it could not be contained in just one article, and so I began what turned out to be the long haul of putting the facts into a book. At times the research was fascinating, at other times tedious, but in the end I feel it was all well worth the time and effort. I would like to express my warmest appreciation for the encouragement I received from my good friend David Finch to continue working on this project, especially when it seemed to have reached a dead end.

I have used many sources. As can be seen by the extensive bibliography, much of the material came from books published over the years on the wartime exploits of numerous military outfits or individuals, but the sections describing trooping voyages comprised only a small part of each book. This is the first time all these individual stories have been brought together in one book, to provide an extensive overview of the conditions and hardships faced by troops on their way to war, and sometimes coming home too.

During my research I came across several books written in Dutch and published in Holland which included extensive information on some of the larger Dutch flag liners that carried Australian and New Zealand troops during the Second World War. As I have no knowledge of the Dutch language, my attempts to translate the relevant sections using a dictionary were not very successful, but then I was fortunate to find that the father of a close friend of mine was of Dutch origins. When I asked Joseph Hoogendoorn if he could assist me by translating the material I had obtained, he could not have been more helpful. Within a couple of weeks I had all the material available to me in English, and this added greatly to the sections in the book in which they are included, for which I am very grateful.

When it came to gathering pictures, I had already compiled a reasonably extensive selection over a number of years in my own collection, but I knew that more were required. I first went to the obvious sources, only to be faced with extreme disappointment. Although extensive photograph collections are held by various public bodies, the excessive charges they levy for the publication of such material made it impractical to include them. Instead I turned to other sources, and was able eventually to secure a varied and interesting selection of photographs covering all the various war periods.

Taking photographs of merchant or naval ships in Sydney Harbour during the Second World War was officially not allowed, and film was also very difficult to obtain. However, a few individuals did manage to hide their activities well enough to obtain pictures of some of the notable liners that came to Australia to transport troops overseas. One of these was the late Charlie Reddings, who also later obtained an extensive set of pictures taken by the Royal Australian Air Force during the war years. Photographs from the C T Reddings collection form the bulk of the images in this book, for which I am most grateful to Robert J Tompkins, who also allowed me free access to his own very extensive photo library. In addition, I would like to express my thanks to Stephen Card, Ross Gillett, Stuart Braga, the family of Allan Batt, the late Fred Roderick, the late Vic Scrivens, the National Library of Australia and the Wellington Maritime Museum for assisting me with some wonderful pictures.

The period that caused me the most problems in seeking suitable photographs was the Vietnam War. My initial attempts to locate good pictures of HMAS Sydney brought no success, but eventually I was fortunate to get in touch with Rodney T Nott in Brisbane, who had already authored a book on the trips made by the Sydney to Vietnam. He could not have been more helpful, and kindly supplied me with most of the photographs I have included in my chapter on the Vietnam War, and gave me permission to quote material from his book.

I would like to extend my thanks to my good friend and noted maritime artist Stephen Card for allowing me to use on the cover of this book his superb painting of the Queen Mary.

I have drawn on a number of first hand accounts published in various books over the years. I have made every attempt to contact the the copyright owners for their permission to use this material, but in some instances this proved impossible. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the University of Queensland Press for allowing me to use material from The War Diaries of Kenneth Slessor , which added greatly to several chapters on Second World War troop movements. In the chapter on the Vietnam War, I would like to thank Allen & Unwin for permission to use extracts from In Good Company by Gary Mckay. Permission to use extracts from Down a Country Lane to War by Gary Blinco, View From a Long Bough by Barrie Crowley was granted by the authors, while Rodney Nott very kindly allowed me to use a considerable amount of material from The Vung Tau Ferry .