The Twenty Thousand Thieves

THE NORTH AFRICAN DESERT: WORLD WAR II

Their officers called them a stinking, lazy, drunken rabble and their friends said they took the colonel prisoner, burnt down their officers' mess and drove off the military police with heavy rifle-fire. This is the unforgettable story of the gallant men of the A.I.F.: the fearless and fatalistic Diggers of the Western Desert.

From the induction camp in Australia to their arrival in Palestine and the siege of Tobruk to the battle of El Alamein, the savage intensity of their experiences in battle is not for the faint hearted.

Eric Lambert, who shared their bitter experiences, skilfully depicts the lives of these soldiers as they came face to face with death in all its gruesome, shocking reality. A startling and true-to-life story of men at war.