Gallipoli

Description

One of the most famous battles in history, Gallipoli forced Churchill from office, established Turkey's iconic founder Mustafa Kemal ('Ataturk') and 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 and 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 Drawing on unpublished personal accounts by individuals at all levels and from all sides -not only from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but unusually from Turkey and France too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.

Peter Hart is the Oral Historian at the Imperial War Museum and the author of several acclaimed books about the First World War. He is an internationally acknowledged expert on Gallipoli and has guided British Army staff tours around the battlefield.

A marvellous book ... vivid and compelling * Economist * All good history books should be an assault on myth, and in Gallipoli Peter Hart mounts a supremely effective attack * Mail on Sunday * An impressive and timely reminder of the futility of war * Morning Star * [A] stirring account * Irish Examiner * Superb... a serious and important work on Gallipoli. It is researched in fine detail and written in Peter Hart's increasingly excellent style. If you are interested in this campaign, or the Great War, or just appreciate a well written book, then this is for you. -- David McLoughlin * Press Association * An account filled with insight and poignancy -- Craig Gibson * TLS *