Summary The Cowra Breakout: The only WWII battle fought in Australia Part of Footsteps in the Pacific 2 Week Today we will hear the riveting story of a missing piece of Australia's history. In the town of Cowra in central New South Wales, Japanese prisoners of war were held in a POW camp. By August 1944, over a thousand were interned and on the icy night of August 5th they staged one of the largest prison breakouts in history, launching the only land battle of World War II to be fought on Australian soil. Five Australian soldiers and more than 230 Japanese POWs would die during what became known as The Cowra Breakout. Our guest is Mat McLachlan, one of Australia's leading war historians and battlefield guides who appears regularly as a historian on the ABC, The History Channel, Channel 7's Sunrise and Radio 2GB.

• War
• Documentary
• History
• Talk Show