Gallipoli

By Major General Julian Thompson, Dr Peter Pedersen and Dr Haluk Oral

(AAndre Deutsch Ltd, 6 4 pages, £30) GallipoliG is a richly illustrated laarge format hardback book, wwhich boasts photographs, mmaps and diagrams on every ppage, supplemented by a group of 15 reproduction documents held in envelopes bound inside. It covers the events which took place during the First World War at Gallipoli in 1915.

The book is arranged in approximate date order; but surprisingly, between July and August are pages relating to ‘The Naval Campaign’ (starting April 1915), ‘Airmen over the Dardanelles’ (starting February 1915) and ‘Submarines in the Dardanelles’ – which is incorrectly dated 13 December 1915 instead of 1914.

No doubt many readers want to know what action their ancestor saw at Gallipoli. However, the text refers mainly to army divisions and does not state which battalions made up those divisions. A table listing the regiments, battalions and divisions, like the one on the Gallipoli Association’s website, would be helpful.

Nevertheless, this book provides a very readable account of the Gallipoli campaign, describing operations for both Turkish and Allied Forces. It gives a clear view of what conditions were like, the mistakes that were made, and a full account of the major success of the campaign: the Allied evacuation of almost 135,000 men in December 1915 and January 1916.

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