The Hell of Gallipoli

“The gateway to victory has not yet closed, in fact it’s standing wide open and the enemy won’t stride through!“

Although the disastrous outcome at Gallipoli in 1915 is well known and documented, this personal account of the view from the Turkish trenches of allied landings and the bitter struggle to gain control of the Peninsula show just how close the Anzacs, the Irish, the French and British soldiers were to victory. The account almost reads like a thriller, how the Turks, passionately fighting for their homeland, with assistance from German commanders and even sailors, improvised an effective defence from virtually nothing. How vital time was lost by the Allies that gave the Turks time to strengthen defences and resolve. How bitter and bloody the fighting and dying was, as terrible as the Western Front but fought on a postage stamp of terrain. How the landings at Suvla created one final desperate attempt to wrest the advantage to the Allied side, and how the future Atatürk led his men up the slopes into the bullets and won himself legendary status.

Well over one hundred years later, this is the other side of the story of Turkey’s remarkable victory and Churchill’s costly failure. The author relives the incredible intensity of the attacks on the Turkish positions and the series of extraordinary events that led to the final defeat and evacuation of the vastly superior Allied  forces.