Unsung, Ordinary Men was inspired by Sally's own experiences when her father returned from World War II. Sally's father died when she was 12 years old. Through the pages of this book she will give a voice to the sorrow she and many others still feel, for they were not aware of what their fathers, brothers, husbands (as well as the brave women who were POW nurses) had to go through. Max Butler, Sally's father, was a member of the 2/40th, a battalion one historian called the 'Doomed Battalion'. They were volunteers from the bottom of the world, mostly Tasmanian, some Victorian, almost 900 men; who were never given a fighting chance when they were effectively abandoned on Timor. The prisoners they became were spread throughout the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps scattered over the Pacific. And the fortunate ones came home, three-and-a-half years later. When Max Butler returned to Australia - like most of the 20,000 Australian POWs of the Japanese - he would not, or could not, tell what happened. This will be his story and the story of his fellow soldiers. But it is also the story of wives, and families; Australians far and wide, who comforted, and nursed, and grieved.