Nearly 1 million American soldiers passed through Australia between 1942 and 1945 as part of America-s strategy to re-capture the Philippines and defeat Japan.They encountered a country full of reassuring similarities and strange differences. Here was a land of wide-open spaces, roughly the same size as the US, with a can-do, pioneering spirit, a history of swift development; a land of -funny animals- and peculiar vowel sounds. But who were the Australians and how were Americans to behave in their midst? They were, of course, -an outdoors sort of people, breezy and very democratic-, with a gargantuan appetite for swearing.In the inimitable prose of the soldier-s pocket book series, this pithy guide captures the essence of Australia and its people, their humour, vocabulary; their attitude to the Yanks, the British, the War and the world with remarkable economy and clarity. It also manages to squeeze in a pr-s of Australian history, politics, economics, sports, and musical tradition, as
