Gallipoli

A concise and very readable account of the whole Gallipoli campaign written in Michael's very personable style. Describes the planning, or rather the lack of planning, that went into the campaign; the actual campaign itself—while it does describe the main battles, the landing, and withdrawal, it doesn't get into the minute details that most other books have, and which can become incomprehensible to the general reader. It describes the impact of the campaign on the folk at home and the way the nation changed from a feeling of great pride early in the campaign to one of horror as the casualty list mounted, and it describes the agonizing that went into the decision to withdraw from the peninsular. While describing in graphic details the horrors of the campaign and the ultimate failure it does certainly also gets across the message that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps did a fantastic job and against all odds nearly succeeded in their campaign.