Where the Flaming Hell Are We?: The Story of Young Australians’ and New Zealanders’ Fight Against the Nazis in Greece and Crete

March, 1941: 40,000 Australian and New Zealand troops are rushed to Greece in a desperate attempt to stop the Wehrmacht overrunning the country. Most of them overseas for the first time in their lives, they seek excitement and adventure. What they get are experiences they could never have imagined. The operation is doomed to fail, but not before the Aussies and Kiwis succeed in holding up the German advance and evacuating thousands, mainly to Crete, where Hitler next sets his sights. As the Nazis assault the island, they deploy a devastating new weapon of invasion-paratroopers-for the very first time, meeting desperate resistance as the Allies fight for their lives.

Craig Collie is one of Australia’s leading writers of military history and author of the critically acclaimed The Path of Infinite Sorrow, Nagasaki, The Reporter and the Warlords, Code Breakers and On Our Doorstep. He formerly worked as a TV producer-director and was Head of Television Production at SBS.