The Cowra Breakout

The riveting story of the missing piece of Australia's World War II history, told by bestselling historian Mat McLachlan (Walking with the Anzacs, Gallipoli: The Battlefield Guide).

During World War II, in the town of Cowra in central New South Wales, Japanese prisoners of war were held in a POW camp. By August 1944, over a thousand were interned and on the icy night of August 5th they staged one of the largest prison breakouts in history, launching the only land battle of World War II to be fought on Australian soil. Five Australian soldiers and more than 230 Japanese POWs would die during what became known as The Cowra Breakout.

This compelling and fascinating book, written by one of Australia's leading battlefield historians, vividly traces the full story of the Breakout. It is a tale of proud warriors and misfit Australian soldiers. Of negligence and complacency, and of authorities too slow to recognise danger before it occurred - and too quick to cover it up when it was too late. But mostly it is a story about raw human emotions, and the extremes that people will go to when they feel all hope is lost.

Mat McLachlan is one of Australia's leading battlefield historians and media presenters in the history space. He is the author of two previous books, both published by Hachette - Walking with the Anzacs and Gallipoli: The Battlefield Guide.

As a media presenter, Mat is a regular on TV and radio, and in print. His Living History podcast reaches more than 50,000 Australian history enthusiasts each week, and he produces two other leading history podcasts, Peter Hart's Military History and BattleWalks.

Mat also produces and presents history documentaries for various networks, including the global History Hit network based in the UK. He appears regularly as a history expert on all major Australian television and radio networks, and more than 500,000 viewers tune in to Mat's YouTube channel each year.