Pacific Fury, a just published hardback by Random House in June 2008, and written by Peter Thompson, an Australian journalist and writer who lives in London.
I was interviewed by the author last year during a research visit to Melbourne, and in his Acknowledgements is this entry.
I owe a great many debts of gratitude to those three soldiers and to the many men and women who shared their experiences for Pacific Fury, especially the following.
( Ten entries follow, and here is one of them, mine )
Mackenzie Gregory, a young Royal Australian Navy officer whom was on the bridge of HMAS Canberra when she was sunk in the Battle of Savo Island and lived to fight again in the Battle of Lingayen Gulf in HMAS Shropshire.
Within the the book are a photograph of Canberra at Savo, and a photo of me, plus 9 more references to my involvement during WW2 in the Pacific, including Canberra, and her sinking.
I wrote this note to Peter Thompson to say thank you:
Peter,
My thanks for the copy of your new book Pacific Fury which has just reached me from your publishers Random House.
Congratulations on your toils, the book looks great, and nice to see your approach from an Australian viewpoint.
You have given me very generous treatment both in your acknowledgements and within the text, and I am most grateful to you.
I trust it will gather a wide readership, and a quick scan delighted me to find you righting the slur by Hastings in his 2007 book Nemesis, his comments had made me boil, about which I could really do nothing. But now you have set the record straight.
Hope to see you when you are next in Melbourne.
Best regards,
Mac.
Sir Max Hastings had made ill advised and derogatory comments in Nemesis, about Australian forces and their fighting prowess in the Pacific war, this had made me cross, but there was nothing I could do about these comments.
Peter however was able to rebut these remarks.
His email to me in response reads:
Dear Mac,
I'm delighted the book arrived and that you are happy with it. It was quite a job putting it together and it took a bit longer than I had anticipated. Many thanks for your tremendous contributon and for very kind comments. I think the naval combat sections are the most powerful in the whole book thanks to you and Guy Griffiths. I was pleased to be able to take Max Hastings to task over his ignorant and ill-advised comments about Australian forces - I doubt he even visited Australia or spoke to any ex-servicemen.
I will be in Melbourne between July 21 and 27 and will give you a ring. There is a promotional video about the book at; http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Default.aspx?Page=General&Section=pacificfury
Many thanks once again,
All the best,
Peter.
Regards.
