Mike Rosel

Mike Rosel’s broad interest in military history was triggered by his father’s gentle refusal to talk about exactly how he won a MC as one of the Rats of Tobruk in 1941. While Mike and his siblings soon unearthed the citation and other references in histories to the actions of the former Hawthorn bank clerk, they were never to know their father’s personal recollections of combat. They came to understand that this was a common response by returned soldiers.

Mike’s service as a public affairs officer in embassies in Washington and London , and later travel, gave him the opportunity to explore battlegrounds from Gettysburg to Quebec , from Biggin Hill to Hue , from Pozieres to the dawn service at Gallipoli, from the Eureka Stockade to Aboriginal massacre sites.