Dr Garth Pratten
Research interests
Dr Pratten's research interests include the conduct of ground operations in the Second World War, with an emphasis on the Australian experience, British and Commonwealth counter-insurgency operations, the employment of reserve forces, peace support operations in the 1990s, and unit level command.
Biography
Dr Garth Pratten is Acting Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. An historian by training, he has had a varied career having worked for the Australian Army’s Training Command and the Australian War Memorial, and taught at Deakin University and in the War Studies Department at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Dr Pratten was a member of the research staff for the Official History of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts and an author for the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations.
In 2010, while working for the British Ministry of Defence, Dr Pratten deployed to Afghanistan as part of the team compiling the war diary for ISAF’s Regional Command South. Dr Pratten’s interest in the conduct of military operations has led him to conduct field work in France, Belgium, Libya, Brunei, Indonesia, Malayasia, Singapore, Turkey and Cyprus. In April 2006, Dr Pratten was awarded the Australian Army’s CEW Bean prize for his PhD thesis, the book of which - Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War - was runner up for the Templer Medal in 2010.
Career highlights
Consultant Historian Australian Army Doctrine Centre (1995-1997); Historian, Australian War Memorial (1997-2000, 2003-2007); Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (2007-2010).
Current student projects
American soldiers as citizens in the war on terror
Allied logistic integration in the Asia-Pacific during the Second World War
Past student projects
Australian, Briutish and United States naval gunfire support
Australian military advisers in Papua New Guinea
Experiences of Australian peacekeepers in the Solomon Islands, Bougaiville and East Timor
Australian battalion commanders in the First World War
Australian special forces in Afghanistan
Indonesian capability acquisition
Publications
- Pratten, G. M., 'Doing history in the digital age', in Peter Stanley (ed.), Charles Bean: Man, Myth, Legacy, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017, pp. 199-214.
- Pratten, G. M., 'Fighting for Time',Wartime: The Official Magazine of the Australian War Memorial, 77 (Summer 2017).
- Pratten, G. M., 'Papua's overlooked legacy: The AMF as a learning institution', in James, K. (ed.), Kokoda: Beyond the legend, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, pp. 266-287.
- Pratten, G. M., 'Indirect Fire: The AIF's Artillery and Mortars on the Western Front', in Jean Bou (ed.), The AIF in battle: how the Australian Imperial Force fought, 1914-1918, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2016, pp. 70-107.
- Pratten, G. M., 'Overcoming Geography, but still Struggling with Terrain: Balikpapan, 1945', in (ed.), Geo-Strategy and War: Enduring Lessons for the Australian Army, Big Sky Publishing, Newport, 2016.
- Pratten, G. M., ''Calling the tune': Australian and Allied Operations at Balikpapan', in P.J. Dean (ed.), Australia 1944-45: Victory in the Pacific, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2016, pp. 320-340.
- Pratten, G. M., ''Unique in the history of the AIF': Operations in British Borneo', in P.J. Dean (ed.), Australia 1944-45: Victory in the Pacific, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2016, pp. 298-319.
- Pratten, G. M., 'New Model Diggers: Australian Identity, Motivation, and Cohesion in Afghanistan', in Anthony King (ed.), Frontline: Combat and Cohesion in the Twenty-First Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015, pp. 167-199.
- Pratten, G. M., 'Applying the Principles of War: Securing the Huon Peninsula', in Peter J. Dean (ed.), Australia 1943: The Liberation of New Guinea, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2014, pp. 255-284.
- Farrell, B. P. & Pratten, G. M., Malaya 1942, Canberra, Army History Unit, 2009.
- Pratten, G. M., Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2009.
- Pratten, G. M. & Harper, G. J. (eds.), Still the Same: Reflections on Active Service from Bardia to Baidoa, Army Doctrine Centre, Georges Heights, 1997.
