A Biography Of Ralph Honner, Soldier and Statesman
Ralph Honner was born in 1904 into the last vestiges of pioneering Australia and combined many of the so-called "pioneering" values with a classical education to become an Australian hero. He fought as a senior officer in the first Australian battles of World War 2 in Libya in the capture of Tobruk and Derna, then in the heartbreaking disastrous campaigns in Greece and Crete, where he was one of the last Australians to be evacuated by submarine, three months after Crete's fall.
But it was on the Kokoda Trail and at Gona in Papua New Guinea in 1942 that he played a major role in the turning point of the war in the south western Pacific area and became part of an Australian legend. Worshipped by the men he commanded, he was severely wounded in 1943. After a long convalescence, Honnor served Australia with distinction as a public servant, political figure and diplomat.
