The untold story of Australian soldiers

AN author’s debut book sheds light on how Australian prisoners of war broke out and became resistance fighters, double agents and spies during World War II.

Anzac Guerrillas tells the true story of the soldiers who escaped during the Greek campaign of 1941, including that of Geelong resident Private Stewart Brown, who worked at the Commonwealth Bank before enlisting.

Edmund Goldrick said he was drawn to write the story because it was something that hadn’t been written about before, and stumbled upon the idea while researching for another book.

“The more I pulled on the threads, the more extraordinary the stories became,” he said.

“Because they hadn’t shared any details about it or written any memoir or done any oral history, I knew that it would be a leviathan of a task to reconstruct their service.

“But I knew I had the skills and the familiarity with the relevant records to do it, so I felt like I had a duty to tell their stories.”

Anzac Guerrillas is told through the eyes of two Australians, Ross Sayers and Ronald Jones, who escaped German captivity.

Once escaping, their path wasn’t smooth sailing, as they became involved in a civil war in Yugoslavia and faced war from all sides.

The book took about two-and-a-half years of full-time work to write, with the process involving a great amount of research and gathering all the relevant sources.

 

The thrill of chasing the archival sources was a highlight for Goldrick, enjoying the satisfying feeling of digging for information and unravelling what had actually taken place.

“Occasionally I would stumble on a really, sort of critical lightning bolt document that added so much and the rest of the time it was scrounging,” he said.

“It’s a case of taking those sources and stripping them for valuable information, filing them into my chapter notes documents and then when I reach enough notes, writing begins in fits and starts.”

Throughout Jones and Sayers’ journey they met Geelong’s Private Brown, who was later killed by the Bulgarian Army. His gravestone now lies at the Commonwealth War Grave in Belgrade.

Goldrick will launch the book at Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Library on August 7.

At the launch, the author will be in conversation with Medal of the Order of Australia recipient Jim Claven.

Goldrick said he looked forward to telling the Anzac Guerrillas story but also knew it would be sombre in many ways, especially when it came to speaking about Private Brown.

“Often with casualties of war, they’re young enough that they don’t have any descendants of their own. Once their immediate family dies, there’s no one left to remember them.

“But I get the impression that folks in Geelong are very interested to hear his story and to commemorate him.”

For more information on Anzac Guerrillas, head to hachette.com.au