Start Digging, You Bastards!: Australian and New Zealand forces' desperate battle with Rommel and the...

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Tom Gilling

Start Digging, You Bastards!

Australian and New Zealand forces' desperate battle with Rommel and the Axis at El Alamein

Tom Gilling

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English

Allen & Unwin
01 July 2025

History; Second World War

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'We were to go through and take on targets of opportunity, to shoot up anything we could. Never at any stage can I remember any plan of us coming back, none of that was ever talked about ... We felt it was a suicide mission.'

July 1942: the North African campaign rages and the Allies have been forced to retreat from Gazala, chased through the sandy wastes by Field Marshal Rommel, 'the Desert Fox', and his Panzerarmee. The Axis target is Cairo-if they take it, they will control the Suez Canal and be within striking distance of the oil fields of the Middle East, tipping the balance of the war firmly in Hitler's favour.

In their way is the Eighth Army, spearheaded by the battle-hardened troops of the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. General Montgomery's stand will turn the tide of the war but he depends on the tenacity of these soldiers to break the resistance of the formidable Afrika Korps.

Bestselling author Tom Gilling recounts in vivid detail the brutal hand-to-hand fighting, deadly artillery barrages and momentous tank battles that characterised the desert war, culminating in two immense clashes involving hundreds of thousands of troops around an isolated Egyptian railway halt at El Alamein. Rich in historical insight and heart-pounding action, Start Digging, You Bastards! brings to life the fateful conflict in the Egyptian desert, evoking the desperate, dust-choked struggle through the eyes of the troops, whose courage and endurance were tested to the very limit.

By: Tom Gilling
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
Weight: 358g
ISBN: 9781761471766
ISBN 10: 1761471767
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 July 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

TOM GILLING is an acclaimed novelist and non-fiction writer. His first two novels, The Sooterkin and Miles McGinty, were New York Times notable books of the year. His non-fiction works include Bastard Behind the Lines and The Lost Battalions. He is also co-author with Clive Small of the bestselling true crime books Smack Express, Blood Money, Evil Life and Milat.