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Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers' Words and Photographs
Richard van Emden & Stephen Chambers
£25 pp. 344
Bloomsbury, 2015
This is a beautifully written and illustrated look at the campaign, adorned with quotes from some marvellous personal experience accounts. Quite a few are well-known, almost like 'old friends', but simply too powerful to be omitted; others seem vibrantly fresh. Most seem all too believable, with perhaps best of all the excerpts from an account that was completely new to me by Petty Officer David Fyffe (3rd Armoured Car Squadron, RNAS), and also the poignant memoirs of Captain Albert Mure (1/5th Royal Scots) as presented in his 1919 published book 'With the Incomparable 29th'. I have some doubts over the contributions from Private Charles Watkins which seem a little too 'perfect' to ring entirely true. Yet this is a matter of personal judgement; overall the opportunity to follow the experiences of these carefully selected individuals at Gallipoli is fascinating. Indeed, this is a book written for the reader to savour while appreciating to the full the dreadful terrors of combat, the humiliating privations and the unremitting mental stress faced by the combatants on all sides during the Gallipoli campaign.

The linking text is cool and analytical, based firmly on the more recent histories of the campaign, which have sought to dispel some of the more romantic flights of fancy that once clung to the Gallipoli story. The overall narrative is at times slightly simplified, but perhaps this inevitable if the real drama is not to be lost amidst another litany of dry facts. This book aims for - and achieves - an emotional connection with the reader.

The copious photographs are outstanding and most have not been published before. A worm's eye view of Hamilton emerging from a tent, conjures up the feel of the moment, indeed it makes the reader feel 'in the frame' of great events. It is often things in the background that catch the eye: the Liver Buildings in the photo of the 52nd Division leaving Liverpool, the Pyramids looming behind the Australian camp at Mena, the dramatic shape of Plugges' Plateau at Anzac, a wonderful shot of an RNAS pusher aeroplane caught in flight over W Beach. In the foreground we see the almost forgotten minutiae of daily life in the scenes of trenches, dugouts, rest camps and beaches. And above all the faces of the men: some doomed, some not, but bringing home the multi-faceted moods of men at war: optimistic, jocular, confident, preoccupied, suffering, exhausted and of course stressed.

This book is both an excellent introduction to the campaign and the perfect present for the most jaded of Gallipoli aficionados. Thoroughly recommended for all.

Voices from the Past: The Wooden Horse of Gallipoli: The Heroic Saga of SS River Clyde, a WW1 Icon, Told Through the Accounts of Those Who Were There by Stephen Snelling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Stephen Snelling had already written the well-received VCs of the First World War: Gallipoli, but he still had an itch to scratch as he considered the epic story of the failed 25th April V Beach landing from the SS River Clyde. His interest had first been triggered by a 1967 Victor comic strip recounting the tale - it is perhaps a comment on our modern education systems that while in 1915 young officers were inspired by the great literature of the Iliad and the proximity of Troy; now a yellowing old comic holds sway on our imagination!

Assisted by a sympathetic publisher he was given the time to produce this wonderful study, that covers most aspects of that terrible day. The scene is set with a brief review of the naval campaign, culminating in the fatal decision to land an army to facilitate the passage of the fleet. We are also introduced to the main protagonists of the landing at V Beach � the 29th Division. Although sometimes treated as if it was an ‘elite� formation, they had been scraped up mainly from regular battalions serving across the Empire, flung together in the South Midlands, with Territorial Force artillery and no proper divisional exercises to enable them to bond together as a fighting unit. It’s limitations as a formation would become evident at Gallipoli, but also the inherent qualities of the men who served in it. Their commander, Major General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, was sceptical of the chances of success at Helles, but accepted he had to attempt the task � he and his division would do their best within the (overly) ambitious plans created by the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force commander, General Sir Ian Hamilton.

We are then introduced to Captain Edward Unwin, commander of gunboat, HMS Hussar. He was the man who came up with the idea of converting the old tramp steamer SS River Clyde into an improvised landing ship. He saw the need to get rapid support ashore from up to 2,000 men, to immediately support the boat landings at V Beach to be conducted by the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The conversion of the Clyde is next with the drudgery of cleaning out the odiferous evidence of its previous role transporting mules. He addresses the fascinating technicalities of the sally ports cut out on both sides of the Clyde and the jury-rigged platforms that linked them meeting at the front of the ship. This would be linked to the beach by a combination of lighters towed by a steam hopper. A strong machine gun battery from the Royal Naval Armoured Car Division was to provide supporting fire from the superstructure of the Clyde. We are made familiar with all the main characters and their back story � learning far more than there is usually space for in the ‘average� Gallipoli book. And so, the scene is set.

No spoilers for those not aware of the amazing events on V Beach on 25 April. What I can say is that once the action begins the book excels in the sheer amount of detail given covering the fighting through the medium of copious personal experience account. There are still ‘blurred� areas � indeed it would be suspicious if there were not problems with differing perceptions and slightly different chronologies. Few people had time in these circumstances to write down minute-by-minute accounts and many were in a state of shock. I was familiar with many of the accounts, but Snelling has turned up many new witnesses and overall presents a coherent and convincing account. I was hooked. After the action Snelling relates the subsequent - often all too short � lives of the survivors of the fighting. He also reviews the subsequent fate of the River Clyde herself, which was eventually salvaged, sold off and once more sailed the seas as a tramp steamer, before being sold for scrap in 1966. What an opportunity was missed for another floating IWM museum outpost floating on the Thames!

Overall, perhaps the book lacks any real analysis of the Turkish defences � or indeed much recognition of the stunning achievement of the single company defending V Beach. However, I am pleased that Snelling has not got overly excited by the dull controversy raging over the presence of Turkish machine guns - as many Briitsh witnesses assert - or not - as the Turks insist - backed up by all their official orders of battle and associated documentation. To me, it makes little difference � the reality is that the men landing from on V Beach were under a coruscating fire. In the end, for all the heroism, the whole River Clyde plan had been ‘off-the-cuff� and the details had not been thought through - the men emerging onto the platforms were sitting ducks. For the Briitsh it was a tragedy only ameliorated by the courage demonstrated by so many in the face of what seemed like certain death.

To me, both sides emerge as equally heroic protagonists in this amazing self-contained epic of warfare at its most dramatic. Highly recommended.




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