For the first time, the Gallipoli story is told in the words of the ordinary soldier fighting in the trenches, day by day starting with the landing on 25 April 1915, right up to the last day on 20 December 1915, the world of the Gallipoli soldier is starkly revealed.
It is as if you, the reader, are there sharing the soldier's experience - dodging bullets, scrounging for bully beef, breaking your teeth on Anzac biscuits, going mad with the flea bites, burying your mates day after day, swapping cigarettes with enemy Turks when officers aren't looking, sheltering from rain, shivering in snow, warding off frostbite, thinking of death when your turn comes up to 'go over the top', scribbling a last letter home, praying for deliverance, or shooting yourself in the foot to get out of this hell hole.
Although generals, historians and war scholars might have told their versions, it is only when you hear the words of the men in the frontline that you know what it was really like!
Jonathan King has gathered together an unequalled series of extracts from letters and diaries written by hundreds of soldiers who fought in the trenches at Gallipoli. This beautifully illustrated volume will make a superb addition to anyones library.
Preface: Listening to the Anzacs
Introduction: Into the Firing Line - At Last
Prologue: Anzac Eve, 24 April 1915
Chapter 1. The Landing - 25 April
Chapter 2. The Morning After - 26-30 April
Chapter 3. Burying the Dead - May
Chapter 4. All Hell Breaks Loose at Helles - June
Chapter 5. Talk of Mutiny - July
Chapter 6. Sending Lambs to Slaughter at Lone Pine and the Nek - August
Chapter 7. Murdoch Exposes the Disaster - September
Chapter 8. Trading Tucker with the Turks - October
Chapter 9. November - Lord Kitchener Calls on the Boys - November
Chapter 10. Retreating with Honour - December
Appendix 1. Army Ranks, Abbreviations and Glossary
Appendix 2. Gallipoli Timeline
Appendix 3. Who Was Who
Appendix 4. The Roll of Honour