Gallipoli Diary Vol. II [Illustrated Edition]

Book excerpt: Includes Gallipoli Campaign Map and Illustrations Pack –71 photos and 31 maps of the campaign spanning the entire period of hostilities. The desperate losses and ultimate failure of the Gallipoli campaign are legendary even among the holocaust of the First World War. The man ultimately held responsible for the failure was General Ian Hamilton, the officer in charge of the operation; criticism has been heaped on him since the last Allied soldier left the Turkish peninsula in 1915. His diaries however paint a different picture; that of a General struggling with a task that was night-on impossible to begin with; Thrust in to a mad-cap operation he was given the scantest of details; “But my knowledge of the Dardanelles was nil; of the Turk nil; of the strength of our own forces next to nil. Although I have met K. almost every day during the past six months, and although he has twice hinted I might be sent to Salonika; never once, to the best of my recollection, had he mentioned the word Dardanelles.” Short of men, supplies and most all ammunition; his failure was not from a lack of effort. Fighting uphill against an entrenched enemy, the ground that he and his men fought over was some of the toughest on Earth to attack. Always too close to the fighting line he was out of his depth with the strategic thinking necessary in an army commander. There is much in his diaries that is of interest the serious student of the Gallipoli campaign and the casual reader of the story of the First World War.