This is a gripping, revisionist account of an epic tragedy, the battle of Gallipoli. ` The scene was tragically macabre: the image of desolation, the flames spared nothing. As for our young men, a few minutes ago, so alert, so self-confident, all now lying dead on the bare deck, blackened burned skeletons, twisted in all directions, no trace of any clothing, the fire having devoured all.` Vice Admiral P. E. Gueprette recalls the damage to the French ship Suffen during a naval battle in 1915. One of the most famous battles in history, Gallipoli forced Churchill from office, established Turkey`s iconic founder Mustafa Kemal (` Ataturk`) & marked Australia`s emergence as a nation in its own right. It had begun as a bold move led by the British to ultimately capture Constantinople, but this definitive new history explains that from the initial landings
- which ended with so much blood in the sea it could be seen from aircraft overhead
- to the desperate attacks of early summer & the battle of attrition that followed, it was a lunacy that was never going to succeed. Drawing on unpublished personal accounts by individuals at all levels & from all sides
- not only from Britain, Australia & New Zeal&, but unusually from Turkey & France too
- Peter Hart combines his trademark eye for vivid personal stories with a strong narrative to bring a modern view of this military disaster to a popular audience.