The Oxford Campanion to Australian Military History edited by Peter Dennis, Jeffrey Grey, Ewan Morris & Robin Prior

Complied by academic historians, this book is a guide to Australia’s military history. Arranged in an encyclopaedic format, it is analytical and informative in it explanations, while still being accessible through its language to the general reader. The information included is vast, yet specifics of each entry are detailed, with maps and images included. This book provides useful information in regards to clarifying any topic, such as the Brisbane Line and New Guinea conflict, and can be used for academic support for chronology and events. It also explores concepts, such as the ANZAC legend. It has been academically referenced; so further reading may be obtained on a particular topic if required.
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Dennis, P, Grey, J, Morris, E & Prior, R (eds) 1995, The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.
BOOKS
The New Guinea Offensives by David Dexter

The New Guinea Offensives is one volume in a series of books called Australia in the War of 1939-45. It focuses on the military movements that took place in New Guinea from 1943-44, explaining how the Australian Army, with the Allied forces, drove Japan back. David Dexter, an academic historian, goes into great detail analysing and describing the events, using many academic sources, and supporting his writings with maps and statistics. The book is dense, but the language used is clear, allowing anyone who is interested in the topic access, and providing further reading through referencing. This book provides a lot of details, comprehensively covering a complex time and topic. It contains many references to the 3rd Division and Headquarters 3rd Division, so that it can be seen exactly how the unit was involved in the war effort.
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Dexter, D 1961, The New Guinea Offensives, vol. VI, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Griffin Press, Adelaide.
The Hard Slog: Australians in the Bougainville Campaign, 1944-45 by Karl James

Karl James, doctor of philosophy, uses this book to both present the history of the Bougainville Campaign in 1944-45 from an Australian perspective, and analyse it. As an often forgotten part of the Second World War, James aims to highlight and bring credit to the efforts made by the men that were crucial in the eventual surrender of Japan, using memoirs, letters, official histories, and Japanese sources. As opposed to his thesis on the same conflict, James has a broader target audience with this book, and it is written in a style that is easy to understand and accessible. This book gives an in depth look into this campaign of the war, giving more details than other sources. It gives specific reference to the 3rd Division and Headquarters 3rd Division, furthering understating of the conflict and decisions made at the time, which will be useful in writing a book on the men of Headquarters 3rd Division.
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Click here for an abridged online copy.
James, K 2012, The Hard Slog: Australians in the Bougainville Campaign, 1944-45, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Defenders of Australia: The Third Australian Division by Albert Palazzo

This book, written by Albert Palazzo an academic historian, looks at the 3rd Division’s involvement in war and peace efforts from 1916-91. Focusing on the 3rd Division specifically gives a boarder overview of the war campaigns, but a more through analysis of the unit’s involvement. Sources are academically referenced and include journal articles, statistics, maps, illustrations, photographs and other historical documentation. The book is arranged chronologically and the language is simple to understand, without jargon. This book is unique in how its focus is on the 3rd Division as opposed to a certain part of the war. It begins to mention Headquarters 3rd Division from page 100 in regards to the Second World War, and offers a great many resources that could be used for further research, although a lot are not available online and are situated at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.
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Palazzo, A 2002, Defenders of Australia: The Third Australian Division, Australian Military History Publications, Australia.
Great ANZAC Stories: The Men and Women Who Created the Digger Legend by Graham Seal
Graham Seal, a professor of folklore, has complied a book that explores the ANZAC legend through stories, sourcing from diaries, academic papers, books, speeches and newspapers. The book looks at individual efforts, while splicing in historical facts for context, making the stories detailed and specific to those in the telling. The book is for those who are interested in what it was like at times of war, and those interested in the ANZAC mythos. The small chapter on the Brisbane Line is descriptive and explains how over time it is challenged if it existed. This will be useful within the book about men of Headquarters 3rd Division, as many were stationed in this area before being sent to New Guinea.
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Seal, G 2013, Great ANZAC Stories: The Men and Women Who Created the Digger Legend, Allen & Unwin, Australia.
