Valiant for Truth The Life of Chester Wilmot, War Correspondent

Chester Wilmot (1911–1954) was a renowned Australian war correspondent, broadcaster, journalist and writer. Covering the first triumphant North African battles of Bardia, Tobruk and Derna, the heartbreaking disaster of the Greek Campaign, the epic struggle along the famed Kokoda Track, the momentous amphibious invasion at Normandy and the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany, his voice stood above all others during BBC and ABC broadcasts throughout WWII. Following the war he continued reporting and broadcasting, and published The Struggle for Europe, his classic account of the Normandy invasion and its aftermath. He was tragically killed in the crash of the BOAC Comet over Greece in 1954, returning from Australia where he had been covering the Royal Tour. Valiant for Truth charts Wilmot’s exceptional life as he reported key events of the twentieth century. It contains the most complete account to date of the command crisis in New Guinea in 1942 and his extraordinary feud with Australian Commander-in-Chief General Sir Thomas Blamey.

Peter Brune is bestselling author of A Bastard of a Place: the Australians in Papua; Those Ragged Bloody Heroes: from the Kokoda Trail to Gona Beach 1942 and most recently Descent into Hell: The fall of Singapore – Pudu and Changi – the Thai Burma railway. Neil McDonald is a film historian and author. His books include Kokoda Front Line: the amazing story of legendary Australian war cameraman Damien Parer (Hachette 1994, 2004, revised edition 2012). He is co-author with Peter Brune of 200 Shots, a pictorial account of Australian fighting on the Kokoda Track.