Dr Peter Pedersen joined the Military History Section as a Senior Historian in 2008. He has written six books on World War I, as well as numerous articles on campaigns f’rom the Second World War and the Vietnam War, and on battlefields and military and aviation museums worldwide.
Peter’s military history is informed by professional knowledge of his field. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, the Australian Command and Staff College and the University of New South Wales, where he undertook his doctoral thesis. He commanded the 5th/7th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, and was a political/strategic analyst in the Australian Office of National Assessments.
In 1990 Peter guided Prime Ministers Thatcher and Hawke over the Gallipoli Peninsula as part ofthe 75th anniversary commemoration of the Gallipoli campaign. He has appeared on Australian television and radio and spoken at military history seminars around the world. He has also led many tours to the Western Front and to other battlefields in Europe and Asia, which included organising and leading the first British tour to Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam.
Books
The Anzacs: Gallipoli to the Western Front. Penguin/Viking, Melbourne, 2007
Villers-Bretonneux. Leo Cooper, Barnsley, 2004
Fromelles. Leo Cooper, Barnsley, 2004
Hamel. Leo Cooper, Barnsley, 2003
Images of Gallipoli. Oxford UDiversity Press, Oxford, 1988
Monash as a Military Commander. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1985
Contributions to other books
“The Defence of Australia’ in D.M. Horner (ed.), Duty First. A History of the Royal Australian Regiment. Allen & Unwin, Melbourne, 1990
‘The AIF on the Western Front’ in M. Browne and M. McKernan (eds.). Australia Two Centuries of War and Peace. Australian War Memorial/Allen & Unwin, Canberra, 1988
‘Sir John Morrash’ in D.M. Florner (ed.), The Commanders. Allen & Unwin, Melbourne, 1984
Introduction to C.E.W. Bean, Official History of Australia in the War 1914-18. III. The AIF in France in 1916. Queensland University Press, St, Lucia, 1982
Contributions to television and radio documentaries
Advised on and appeared in ABC television documentary, John Monash, The Forgotten Anzac, 2008.
Advised on and appeared in ABC television documentary Gallipoli: the Fatal Shore, 1988.
Participated in ABC radio documentary on Kemal Ataturk, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1982.
