Alec Hill

[2] Hill joined the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939,[2] receiving the service number NX380.

While there, he influenced a new generation of soldiers and military historians, including David Horner, Peter Pedersen, Chris Coulthard-Clark and Brett Lodge.

It advanced Australian military historiography "through the then unfashionable notion that generals were at least as important as privates in winning battles.

"[2] Hill was associated with the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) for more than 30 years, becoming a member of its Armed Forces Working Party on its formation in 1974, and was its chairman from 1982 to 1994.

He wrote 38 articles on such prominent generals as William Birdwood, Frank Berryman, Harry Chauvel, Harold Elliott, Leslie Morshead, Sydney Rowell, and George Wootten, in some cases drawing on his personal knowledge of the subject.

Man in shorts and long socks holding his slouch hat in his hand, in front of a small tent stretched over a hole in the sand.
Captain Alec Hill outside his covered dugout (doover or dingus) at El Alamein. He described it as having "ants, beetles, an occasional scorpion and a mouse".