Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force with a section on women in the Army Medical Services – Allan S. Walker and others (1961) Allan S. Walker was a pathology specialist who served with Australian Army medical units in both world wars and taught at the University of Sydney. He declined Long's initial invitation to write the Medical series in 1944, but accepted it after Long's second choice, Rupert Downes, was killed in 1945. Downes had intended to engage specialist authors, but Walker regarded this a being impractical and wrote the series himself. Walker wrote the first three volumes and completed much of the work for the final volume before ill-health forced him to resign in 1956 and the book was completed by other writers. The five chapters on the experiences of women in the Army Medical Services in Volume IV are significant as they cover the first time large numbers of female members of the Australian military had been posted overseas. The medical volumes were written primarily for the benefit of practitioners of military medicine, but have a wider appeal as they contain military detail not found in other volumes. The books proved relatively popular, and were reprinted in the years after publication. The Six Years War The Six Years War was Gavin Long's short history of Australia's role in World War II. In 1943 Long proposed producing a short history of Australia's role in the war as soon as possible after the war ended. This did not eventuate, and The Six Years War was the second-last volume to be published. Long began work on the book in 1945 and continued on it throughout the official history project. The Six Years War is "derived almost entirely" from the work of the 13 authors of the official history series, and these authors drafted substantial parts of the book. Long completed the book's manuscript in 1967, but its publication was delayed until 1973 while the second volumes in the Navy and Civil series were completed. Long did not live to see the book published as he died in October 1968. Reception Australia in the War of 1939–1945 had less of an impact on later Australian histories of World War II than the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 has had on histories of World War I. The series has been criticised as lacking the authority of Bean's