Eagle and Lamb

Book excerpt: Leonard Kentish. aged 35, was the only Australian captured by enemy forces in Australia during World War 2. In January 1943 he was travelling on a naval supply vessel in North Australia when it was bombed by a Japanese floatplane. The pilot, believing his superiors wanted information, landed on the ocean and captured Kentish. Why only one prisoner? Why him?Within his story is that of his wife, Violet, and their son and two daughters. It describes her courageous struggle as a sole parent to raise their children during her three-year quest to find him and an account of the War Crimes tribunal that brought three criminals face to face with the consequences of their action.Written by his son, drawing from family records and public sources, Eagle and Lamb combines personal memoir, history and biography.¿Noel Kentish¿s book tells a powerful story, one of faith and love overshadowed, though not extinguished, by acts of bastardry almost unique in the Australian experience of war ¿ it would be fitting if one day Len Kentish¿s name, and those of his fellow civilians who died in the Pacific war, could be acknowledged in the national memorial to Australia¿s war dead.¿Prof. Peter Stanley, UNSW Canberra