John Laffin
The Middle East has always been the focal point of the world.,But it is more than that. Here Australian troops have fought several campaigns, here thousands of them lie buried in battlefield cemeteries.Their blood and their sweat bought them a place in the history of Egypt, Libya, Greece, Crete, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.,But all these countries are remote from Australia; some are virtually impossible to visit. Tobruk, where the fate of the world once hung in the balance, is now a dry, dusty, sleepy little port, battered and crumbling on the road to nowhere.,Many Australians who served in Tobruk and elsewhere around the Mediterranean talk about "going back one day." But very few do, and only one Australian has, in fact, revisited all the theatres of war in which Australians served. John Laffin travelled throughout the Middle East seeking memories of Australians. His journey, an arduous and often incredible one, took him from Cairo to Tripoli across the Western Desert.; across the rugged mountains of Greece from Athens to the Albanian and Serbian borders; to the blood-soaked beaches of Crete, the hills of Lebanon, the plains of Syria; to Jerusalem.,Apart from the bodies of their comrades, what did the returning members of the A.I.F. leave behind them in these countries? What memories? What tangible evidence of their brief and sometimes violent sojourn in the Middle East?,This book is the answer.
History
Middle East Journey