Derrick VC by Murray Farquhar

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket has light creasing at edges and spine. Interior and binding are still excellent.

This is the true story of one of Australia's most courageous heroes, Thomas Currie Derrick. He is the recipient of the highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross.

There is nothing in his early life to indicate that he would one day receive such a high honour. Born in suburban Adelaide just before the start of the First World War, he knew poverty and hardship as a child. When the Great Depression of the 1930s arrived, he rode a bicycle to the South Australian Riverland to join an army of unemployed men seeking work on the fruit blocks. His early struggles were a portent of what was to come later.

When the Second World War broke out, Derrick was married and living in Berri, but in June 1940, he enlisted in the 2nd/48th Australian Infantry Battalion. From the start, Derrick revelled in the camaraderie of army life. Modest, unassuming, with a sardonic sense of humour, and an inveterate gambler, he was often to be found playing in a two-up school or sharing a drink with his mates.

Through four bitter campaigns at Tobruk, El Alamein, Sattelburg and in Borneo, where he was killed in action on the island of Tarakan, he revealed his courageous temper. In a fight against Rommel's Afrika Corps in the Western Desert or against General Adachi's Eighteenth Army in the swamps and jungles of New Guinea, Derrick epitomised the fighting spirit of the Australian soldier at all times.

Using Derrick's own diaries, which he kept throughout the war, official war records, interviews with former members of his battalion, and the personal reminiscences of his family and his widow, the author has recreated an authentic detail of the life and exploits of this remarkable, enigmatic man. (book flap)