At Dawn They Landed

Before the sun rose on Gallipoli, the 11th Battalion had already stepped into hell.

‘Their stories, long buried in letters, diaries, and distant graves—revealed in a powerful history of courage.’

At Dawn They Landed follows the 11th Australian Infantry Battalion from their homes in Western Australia to the cliffs of Gallipoli, and onward through the grinding years of the Great War. Drawn from cities, farms, towns and coastal communities, these men left behind families, work and familiar lives to enlist in a conflict they could not have conceived.

Their early service took them to Egypt, where training, boredom and anticipation shaped their expectations of battle. On the morning of 25 April 1915, those expectations were shattered. Landing in the first wave at Anzac Cove, the 11th Battalion climbed into intense enemy fire, enduring chaos, courage and devastating loss. Gallipoli would forge the battalion, but it would not define the limits of their war.

In the months after the Landing they fought in five significant engagements, including a seaborne, daylight raid and a night assault that captured an important Turkish position – surely an unrivalled record. By the end of the campaign, only a handful of those who had landed before dawn on 25 April were still with their battalion – their friends and comrades were dead, wounded or recovering from the ravages of the harsh Gallipoli Campaign.

This is the story of the men in the famous ‘pyramid’ photograph, a remarkable image of a healthy, youthful battalion arrayed on the stones of the Great Pyramid outside Cairo, before their baptism of fire ‘on Gallipoli’s grim shore’.

James Hurst brings their full story to life through previously unpublished letters, diaries and personal accounts uncovered during years of research in family collections, archives, battlefields and cemeteries. These intimate voices—honest, resilient and often heartbreaking—form the heart of a narrative that follows the battalion beyond Gallipoli and through the long campaigns that followed.

More than a record of battles, At Dawn They Landed is a portrait of a community in uniform: sons, brothers and husbands who endured years of fighting, separation and sacrifice. With clarity, empathy and deep scholarship, Hurst reveals the human cost of a war that did not end at the landing and ensures the men of the 11th Battalion are remembered not just for how they began, but for how long they carried on.

‘The book is a rare beast – a work of academic history with a compelling narrative. It brings the characters to life in a way that many history books fail to do’ - Ian McPhedran, Daily Telegraph

‘The firsthand extracts are enthralling … the ability to turn masses of data into a living, breathing work is not only extremely interesting, but also very readable.’ – Defence Family Matters