The Top Brass is the most comprehensive study of Australian generalship in the Second World War, revealing how the Army chose, tested and judged its senior leaders. Based on decades of research and rare interviews by Australia’s leading soldier-scholar, it’s a gripping account of leadership, conflict and command under fire.
For many years David Horner has written highly respected books about Australian leadership in WW2.
Professor Emeritus David Horner AM FASSA has spent decades cementing his status as an Australian premier military historian, but his latest release, The Top Brass, is undeniably his finest masterpiece. Horner is no stranger to the intricate, high-stakes world of wartime leadership. His previous authoritative works—most notably his seminal High Command: Australia and Allied Strategy, 1939–1945 (originally published in 1982) and his groundbreaking 1978 debut Crisis of Command—firmly established the standard reference material for Australian World War II studies. Those earlier books masterfully exposed the political friction and macro-strategic tensions behind allied warfare, whereby this book goes straight to the battlefield.
The book explores the leadership, command styles, and operational friction experienced by Australia's high command—including figures like Thomas Blamey, Sydney Rowell, and Leslie Morshead—across pivotal campaigns in the South-West Pacific, North Africa, and Greece. Rather than offering standard biographical overviews.
In this book, Horner focuses heavily on the mechanics of command under intense battlefield pressure. A central feature of the book is its high-utility inclusion of detailed unit position maps paired directly with operational breakdowns. These maps allow readers to visualise the spatial reality of the battlefield, showing exactly where battalions, brigades, and divisions were positioned during crucial turning points.
By integrating these visual aids, Horner meticulously reconstructs the fluid tactical situations that forced commanders to make split-second choices. The narrative deeply examines the decisions of commanders, illustrating how personality clashes, communication breakdowns, and intelligence failures directly impacted movements on the ground. Horner analyses the justification and consequences of controversial orders, such as the command decisions during the Kokoda Track campaign and the defensive strategies at Tobruk. Ultimately, the book serves as both a historical record and a tactical manual, demonstrating how the decisions made in the headquarters manifested as physical unit movements on the mapped battlefields.
