Chester Wilmot was born in 1911, and studied history and law at the University of Melbourne. After working briefly as a legal clerk, he became a war correspondent for the ABC and later the BBC, working in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and New Guinea. A dynamic, innovative and sometimes controversial journalist, Wilmot reported from the frontlines of many key battles. He later settled in England, where he became a broadcaster and military historian. His second book, The Struggle for Europe (1952), was a bestseller and is still considered one of the finest books about World War II. Wilmot died in a plane crash in 1954.