The New Guinea Offensives by David Dexter.

The New Guinea Offensives by David Dexter.  Hardcover book published by Australian War Memorial 1961, 851 pages with black and white photographs and maps.

This title is part six of an extensive series of books documenting Australia’s involvement in the Second World War.  There are a total of 22 volumes in the “Australia in the War of 1939-1945” series, which is a hefty number of books by any standards.  I have only the one volume for sale at this point in time but I’m always on the look out for other volumes in the series and if my memory is correct, have had only a few single copies of the other volumes over the years. 

The entire series was published by the Australian War Memorial which lends these books a certain amount of credibility here in Australia.  I’m not sure how this is viewed in foreign lands but I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with it as long as they keep in mind that it was written and published in Australia.  In other words there is a chance that the emphasis is a little Australia centric.  But I guess that’s the idea behind a series entitled Australia in the War of 1939-1945.

851 pages is a lot of reading about only one aspect of a global conflict (WWII… in case you need reminding), but the author has embellished the text with excellent maps and photographs*.  The maps appear to be quite detailed unlike some war histories where the authors/map makers scribblings can sometimes be a bit difficult to decipher.  But if you’re the Australian War Memorial you probably have access to some fairly detailed information which can easily be added to the 851 pages of a volume such as this.

So how sellable is a book like this?  Well, I’d like to think a book about Aussies in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War, for sale on and around Anzac day**, has a pretty good chance of selling.  …and if not on ebay, then it’s a book that I’m happy to have listed with Books and Collectibles as it is a quality book that I have certain amount of faith in being able to sell. 

* I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on whether the text is excellent.  It looks excellent…

** Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand.