More than ninety years on, the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still famous as perhaps the most disastrous, horrific and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. Masterminded by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its aim was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean. But the campaign went wrong from the start. Ignorant of the terrain, and hopelessly ...
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More than ninety years on, the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 is still famous as perhaps the most disastrous, horrific and pointless campaign of the entire First World War. Masterminded by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, following Turkey's entry into the war on the German side, its aim was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey, allowing the Allies to take control of the eastern Mediterranean. But the campaign went wrong from the start. Ignorant of the terrain, and hopelessly underestimating the Turkish army, the Allies found themselves entrenched on the hillsides for long agonising months, through the burning summer and bitter winter, in appalling, dysentery-ridden conditions. By the time they withdrew in January 1916, the death toll stood at 21,000 British troops, 11,000 Australian and New Zealand, and 87,000 Turkish. First published in 1956, when it won the first Duff Cooper Prize, Alan Moorehead's book is still the definitive work on the campaign. Vivid, analytical and highly readable, with compelling character sketches of the main players, it brings the complex operation to life, showing how and why it went so wrong.
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Add this copy of Gallipoli to cart. $10.44, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Aurum Press Ltd.
Add this copy of Gallipoli to cart. $10.45, good condition, Sold by Bookmans rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tucson, AZ, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Aurum Press Ltd.
Citing many sources, especially first-hand diaries from those who participated in the events, Moorehead reviews the decisions and their repercussions in the Battles for Gallipoli in WWI. It is hard to imagine worse decisions, for worse reasons, than those that precipitated the disaster at Gallipoli. The leaders were incompetent both in London AND on the battlefield. All that saves Churchill from ignominy is his brilliance in WWII.
