12 noon 1st November 2025 – Time online auction
This auction has approximately over 290 Unit histories and another 300 lots of military histories and personal accounts. The strength of the collection is the Second World War with dedicated sections relating to the Burma Campaign; the Eighth Army in North Africa and the Italian Campaign. These records are often from the perspective of the British and Colonial forces with at least 100 Australian related lots, but also includes India, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States of America.
In this world of uncertainty and destruction it has been a difficult collection to catalogue. Reading and seeing the atrocities of war was really tough. What struck me reading these unit histories and personal narratives was the camaraderie that formed from this shared experience but also a real need to spread the word – that war is devastating!
These men of war are often regarded to as heroes. For me it is not because of the battles but they won but the words they left behind.
In this moment we should be reminded of the detritus of war but not through in the sensational headlines and social media rage bait we are feed. We should return to long form, from the people who are directly affected and read our way through what is truly a complex matter. Maybe we can learn from the past….
This comprehensive collection of military books came from the library of Dr Nigel William Morris Warwick (1960-2025) who was a RAF Regiment Corps Historian and Plant Ecophysiologist and is the author of “Constant Vigilance: RAF Regiment in the Burma Campaign”.
