In Holding the Line, David Cameron tells the extraordinary story of Australian troops at Villers-Bretonneux in World War I. The Anzacs had one of their greatest victories at Villers-Bretonneux, defeating the Germans there in an attack later described by a British general as 'perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war'.
As part of the German Spring Offensive on the Western Front, German forces captured the town of Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens, from exhausted British defenders on 24 April 1918. The Australian 13th and 15th Brigades were brought forward and, in a model of a well-planned and co-ordinated night attack, successfully recaptured the town.
It was a bloody victory - 1200 Australians lost their lives - but this battle marked the end of the German offensive on the Somme and contributed to the Allies' eventual victory. As with his previous books, Cameron places the reader right in the action by weaving vivid minute-by-minute descriptions drawn from the diaries and letters of soldiers who were there.
