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Great Battles
Gallipoli
The British-led Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that attacked the Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli in 1915 was a multi-national affair, including Australian, New Zealand, Irish, French, and Indian soldiers. Ultimately a failure, the campaign ended with the withdrawal of the Allied forces after less than nine months and the unexpected victory of the Ottoman armies and their German allies.In Britain, the campaign led to the removal of Churchill from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and the abandonment of the plan to attack Germany via its 'soft underbelly' in the East. Thereafter, it was largely forgotten on a national level, commemorated only in specific localities linked to the campaign. In post-war Turkey, by contrast, the memory of Gallipoli played an important role in the formation of a Turkish national identity, celebrating both the ordinary soldier and the geniusof the republic's first president, Mustafa Kemal. The campaign served a similarly important formative role in both Australia and New Zealand, where it is commemorated annually on Anzac Day. For the southern Irish, meanwhile, the bitter memory of service for the King in a botched campaign was forgottenfor decades.Shaped initially by the imperatives of war-time, and the needs of the grief-stricken and the bereft, the memory of Gallipoli has been re-made time and again over the last century. For the Turks an inspirational victory, for many on the Allied side a glorious and romantic defeat, for others still an episode best forgotten, 'Gallipoli' has meant different things to different people, serving by turns as an occasion of sincere and heartfelt sorrow, an opportunity for separatist and feministprotest, and a formative influence in the forging of national identities.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 4, 2015
2 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Jenny Macleod
11 booksJenny Macleod is a Lecturer in 20th Century History at the University of Hull, having previously worked at the University of Edinburgh and King's College, London. A graduate of Edinburgh and Pembroke College, Cambridge. she is the co-founder of the International Society for First World War Studies and an associate editor of its journal, First World War Studies.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 31, 2015
Not the best book on the Gallipoli campaign, but a useful addition to the already bulging shelves on this subject.
The author concentrates on the post-WWI events and sentiments rather than the campaign itself.
Worth reading if you are interested in the Gallipoli campaign.
The author concentrates on the post-WWI events and sentiments rather than the campaign itself.
Worth reading if you are interested in the Gallipoli campaign.
June 27, 2015
I'm Turkish, so I know our side of things; what we did, why we did it, how we got prepared for it... Yet, I have very limited knowledge as to what the other side(s) did and how their efforts turned out to be. I've got this book (via NetGalley) to solve that problem.
Gallipoli is a well-written, I should say this before everything else. I've been reading so many boring non-fictions recently, I almost left the rest for another time, but this book was a good exception and got me interested again.
While I feel like it's missing some information, it's very neat and nice. I'm not sure I would recommend it from the rooftops, but it might be read to get an idea at least. I will be looking forward to other books in the Great Battles series.
Gallipoli is a well-written, I should say this before everything else. I've been reading so many boring non-fictions recently, I almost left the rest for another time, but this book was a good exception and got me interested again.
While I feel like it's missing some information, it's very neat and nice. I'm not sure I would recommend it from the rooftops, but it might be read to get an idea at least. I will be looking forward to other books in the Great Battles series.
November 19, 2015
On the 100th year anniversary of the battle, this book is written to give a more complete history, looking at both sides of the battle. It also reviews the effects that the battle had on the histories and cultures of the combatants.
The battle was an important loss for the allies, but also fostered a sense of nationalism in the ANZAC countries and gave rise to a Turkish state.
The author is well-versed in the history of this campaign, and has a perspective that was interesting.
The battle was an important loss for the allies, but also fostered a sense of nationalism in the ANZAC countries and gave rise to a Turkish state.
The author is well-versed in the history of this campaign, and has a perspective that was interesting.
August 20, 2015
NOTE: this was a free eBook from NetGalley
This attack was originally a poorly planned invasion of the Dardenelles that was meant to take pressure off the Eastern Front and force the Ottoman Empire out of the war. It has become the foundation for the founding myths of two countries. Macleod has presented an unusual combined historical and anthropological study of not just the story of the battle and its’ outcomes, but also how the ‘myth’ of the battle has come to be used in the hundred years that followed.
The battle has become a synonym for unrestrained waste of soldier’s lives when there was no hope of any accomplishment of purpose. Once the soldiers of the MEF (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force) had been landed on the peninsula, anyone with any military sense would have understood that this landing was a dead end.
The soldiers were asked to land on a barren beach overlooked by highlands that were held by Ottoman soldiers who had dug in and built and trench system with enfilading gunfire (machine guns and howitzers). The beaches themselves had no discernable cover, and the heights could only be taken by direct attack. Though both sides fought bravely, the Tommies never had a chance.
The toll on the landing forces from lack of water (dysentery), the inability to evacuate the sick and wounded, the constant danger had an immediate effect on the morale of the troops. Being asked to attack in the same wasteful manner, over and over again, led the troops to question the strategy and sanity of those who were in charge. There is no question that the leaders of the invasion were only in charge of this battle because they weren’t any use on the Western Front.
Regardless of the final outcome (the retreat of the troops off the peninsula), two myths were born of this battle. Mustafa Kemel (later Ataturk) was the best commander of the Ottoman forces, and later went on to become the first president of the Republic of Turkey. The ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) became the equivalent of the Colonials at Valley Forge. This battle is looked at as the time when the Australian identity was born.
The post-war stories are important to understand how Turkey, Australia and New Zealand see themselves as members of the world community in the 21st century.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com zebsblog@gmail.com
This attack was originally a poorly planned invasion of the Dardenelles that was meant to take pressure off the Eastern Front and force the Ottoman Empire out of the war. It has become the foundation for the founding myths of two countries. Macleod has presented an unusual combined historical and anthropological study of not just the story of the battle and its’ outcomes, but also how the ‘myth’ of the battle has come to be used in the hundred years that followed.
The battle has become a synonym for unrestrained waste of soldier’s lives when there was no hope of any accomplishment of purpose. Once the soldiers of the MEF (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force) had been landed on the peninsula, anyone with any military sense would have understood that this landing was a dead end.
The soldiers were asked to land on a barren beach overlooked by highlands that were held by Ottoman soldiers who had dug in and built and trench system with enfilading gunfire (machine guns and howitzers). The beaches themselves had no discernable cover, and the heights could only be taken by direct attack. Though both sides fought bravely, the Tommies never had a chance.
The toll on the landing forces from lack of water (dysentery), the inability to evacuate the sick and wounded, the constant danger had an immediate effect on the morale of the troops. Being asked to attack in the same wasteful manner, over and over again, led the troops to question the strategy and sanity of those who were in charge. There is no question that the leaders of the invasion were only in charge of this battle because they weren’t any use on the Western Front.
Regardless of the final outcome (the retreat of the troops off the peninsula), two myths were born of this battle. Mustafa Kemel (later Ataturk) was the best commander of the Ottoman forces, and later went on to become the first president of the Republic of Turkey. The ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) became the equivalent of the Colonials at Valley Forge. This battle is looked at as the time when the Australian identity was born.
The post-war stories are important to understand how Turkey, Australia and New Zealand see themselves as members of the world community in the 21st century.
Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com zebsblog@gmail.com
May 2, 2020
Jenny MacLeod provides a short overview of the campaign to force the Dardanelles straights as a naval operation and the subsequent landings on the Gallipoli peninsula. The majority of the book however is given over to a history of the memoralisation of the campaign in Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland. In particular focusing on the export of “ANZACary” which has often been the main memory of the campaign, despite the British providing the greater proportion of troops and incurring the greater casualties. The role this has played in rebuilding the relationship between Turkey and the West is significant and a fascinating example of enemies using a shared sacrifice to become allies.
An interesting study of the history of memorialisation and how this has changed over time and in different countries. However this is not a study of the campaign itself, or the underpinning politics; anyone looking to understand the events in 1915, or specific actions will need to look elsewhere.
An interesting study of the history of memorialisation and how this has changed over time and in different countries. However this is not a study of the campaign itself, or the underpinning politics; anyone looking to understand the events in 1915, or specific actions will need to look elsewhere.
September 16, 2019
Went into this expecting a nice, tidy description of the Gallipoli battle(s). This is the 'Great Battles Series' after all. What I got was a very brief but highly readable description of the campaign, with the bulk of the remainder being a history of anzac and the social impact of the various remembrances across the Dominion. Jenny Macleod describes the dramatic growth and popular revival of war memorials in these countries. It's an interesting perspective and a phenomenon worthy of further analysis.
Not what I expected, but not disappointing either.
Not what I expected, but not disappointing either.
February 12, 2026
~1.5 - honestly my fault for thinking this would be an easy war read. Very informative but reads like a thesis paper so very boring. So much focused on after the war to commemorate the battle that i forgot what happened in the battle. So many name drops of various figures
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2018
Excellent for historical impact and context. Intelligently written.
May 29, 2020
Very enjoyable. Succinct and well written.
October 15, 2021
Okay. I'm a New Zealander and it just smells of a British person lamenting the loss of the empire, through thinly veiled academic independence?
May 4, 2022
A good book on the subject, but I found it too much of it centered on post event connotations of the event, ie ANZAC day remembrances rather than the battle itself.
April 4, 2024
This book started out good, it actually had some information about the battle. Most of it, however, contained how the countries involved (except France?) remembered and commemorated the battle, mostly by people who weren't even alive when the battle happened. What really set me off though, was all the references about the "Armenian genocide". I am not in denial of it, but this had not relevance to the battle.
August 3, 2015
Bookshops have seen no shortage of new products with the word ‘Gallipoli’ in their titles over the past few months, so my challenge here is to explain what makes Gallipoli a little different.
The book is one of four titles in Professor Hew Strachan’s ‘Great Battles Series’ with Oxford University Press. The series seeks to tell the story of the world's most important battles – how they were fought, how they have been commemorated, and the long historical shadows that they have cast.
Leaving aside the debate whether Gallipoli was a ‘battle’ or a ‘campaign’ in the Dardanelles region, we are now all reasonably familiar with the fact that the British-led Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that attacked the Ottoman Empire in early 1915 was a multi-national affair, including English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, French, and Indian soldiers; and that, ultimately a failure, the campaign ended with the withdrawal of the Allied forces after less than nine months.
The first 67 pages of Gallipoli cover the historical facts surrounding the event. The remaining 124 pages consider how the battle has been remembered, from the immediate aftermath to the present day. Four chapters address this issue from the Australian, New Zealand, British and Irish, as well as the Turkish perspectives.
In Britain, the campaign led to the removal of Churchill from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and the abandonment of the plan to attack Germany via its ‘soft underbelly’ in the East. Thereafter, it was largely forgotten on a national level, commemorated only in specific localities linked to the campaign. For the southern Irish, meanwhile, the bitter memory of service for the King in a botched campaign was forgotten for decades.
In post-war Turkey, by contrast, the memory of Gallipoli played an important role in the formation of a Turkish national identity, celebrating both the ordinary soldier and the genius of the republic’s first president, Mustafa Kemal. The campaign served a similarly important formative role in both Australia and New Zealand, where it is commemorated annually on Anzac Day.
Shaped initially by the imperatives of war-time and the needs of the grief-stricken and the bereft, the memory of Gallipoli has been re-made time and again over the last century. For the Turks an inspirational victory, for many on the Allied side a glorious and romantic defeat, for others still an episode best forgotten, ‘Gallipoli’ has meant different things to different people, serving by turns as an occasion of sincere and heartfelt sorrow, an opportunity for separatist and feminist protest, and a formative influence in the forging of national identities.
The author’s characterisation of Gallipoli as a ‘civil religion’ in Australia, however, doesn’t sit comfortably with me although I appreciate the point she is trying to make about our national veneration of the campaign and the Anzac diggers.
Doctor Jenny Macleod is a Senior Lecturer in 20th Century History at the University of Hull, having previously worked at the University of Edinburgh and King's College, London. A graduate of Edinburgh and Pembroke College, Cambridge, she is the co-founder of the International Society for First World War Studies and an associate editor of its journal, First World War Studies. Gallipoli draws from her earlier book Reconsidering Gallipoli published by Manchester University Press in 2004. Macleod was also a speaker at the Australian War Memorial’s “Gallipoli 1915: A Century On” international conference in March 2015.
Gallipoli includes 26 figures and four maps – all black and white. The notes and bibliography are comprehensive which will make the work valuable to scholars. A good quality index will similarly make the book easy to navigate for those interested in specific topics.
So much more than a dry historical account, Gallipoli provides several perspectives on the how the Gallipoli campaign has been remembered and what effect it has had on the societies that participated in those events. Macleod’s skill at comparing and contrasting those separate but parallel national evolutions is commendable. This is what makes this book different from the others and worth reading.
Marcus Fielding
The book is one of four titles in Professor Hew Strachan’s ‘Great Battles Series’ with Oxford University Press. The series seeks to tell the story of the world's most important battles – how they were fought, how they have been commemorated, and the long historical shadows that they have cast.
Leaving aside the debate whether Gallipoli was a ‘battle’ or a ‘campaign’ in the Dardanelles region, we are now all reasonably familiar with the fact that the British-led Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that attacked the Ottoman Empire in early 1915 was a multi-national affair, including English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, French, and Indian soldiers; and that, ultimately a failure, the campaign ended with the withdrawal of the Allied forces after less than nine months.
The first 67 pages of Gallipoli cover the historical facts surrounding the event. The remaining 124 pages consider how the battle has been remembered, from the immediate aftermath to the present day. Four chapters address this issue from the Australian, New Zealand, British and Irish, as well as the Turkish perspectives.
In Britain, the campaign led to the removal of Churchill from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and the abandonment of the plan to attack Germany via its ‘soft underbelly’ in the East. Thereafter, it was largely forgotten on a national level, commemorated only in specific localities linked to the campaign. For the southern Irish, meanwhile, the bitter memory of service for the King in a botched campaign was forgotten for decades.
In post-war Turkey, by contrast, the memory of Gallipoli played an important role in the formation of a Turkish national identity, celebrating both the ordinary soldier and the genius of the republic’s first president, Mustafa Kemal. The campaign served a similarly important formative role in both Australia and New Zealand, where it is commemorated annually on Anzac Day.
Shaped initially by the imperatives of war-time and the needs of the grief-stricken and the bereft, the memory of Gallipoli has been re-made time and again over the last century. For the Turks an inspirational victory, for many on the Allied side a glorious and romantic defeat, for others still an episode best forgotten, ‘Gallipoli’ has meant different things to different people, serving by turns as an occasion of sincere and heartfelt sorrow, an opportunity for separatist and feminist protest, and a formative influence in the forging of national identities.
The author’s characterisation of Gallipoli as a ‘civil religion’ in Australia, however, doesn’t sit comfortably with me although I appreciate the point she is trying to make about our national veneration of the campaign and the Anzac diggers.
Doctor Jenny Macleod is a Senior Lecturer in 20th Century History at the University of Hull, having previously worked at the University of Edinburgh and King's College, London. A graduate of Edinburgh and Pembroke College, Cambridge, she is the co-founder of the International Society for First World War Studies and an associate editor of its journal, First World War Studies. Gallipoli draws from her earlier book Reconsidering Gallipoli published by Manchester University Press in 2004. Macleod was also a speaker at the Australian War Memorial’s “Gallipoli 1915: A Century On” international conference in March 2015.
Gallipoli includes 26 figures and four maps – all black and white. The notes and bibliography are comprehensive which will make the work valuable to scholars. A good quality index will similarly make the book easy to navigate for those interested in specific topics.
So much more than a dry historical account, Gallipoli provides several perspectives on the how the Gallipoli campaign has been remembered and what effect it has had on the societies that participated in those events. Macleod’s skill at comparing and contrasting those separate but parallel national evolutions is commendable. This is what makes this book different from the others and worth reading.
Marcus Fielding
April 14, 2022
At first i felt like this book gave too little room for a description of the campaign itself and focused too much on the memory of the campaign - an aspect that i did not expect to be as important as i believe it to be after reading the book. My interest in the gallipoli campaign comes from it being featured in a book that i enjoyed a lot when i was younger, so i thought this book might be an interesting read and provide me with background knowledge on this chapter of the first world war. I ended up a bit disappointed on that front, because the books focus lays much more on the meaning this campaign took on in australia, new zealand, great britain, ireland and turkey. I also felt that the latter part of the book was way easier to read and i felt like it was the true meat of it, the part the author looked forward to write about. The first part about the campaign itself felt a bit dry and a bit tedious - even though it was the part i was more interested in. however all in all i enjoyed this book very much, i learned a lot of new information about the role the campaign played for the participating nations and how its remembrance has changed over the last 100 years. i would recommend it to anyone who is interested in history, especially in anzac history probably.
July 22, 2015
I read and reviewed a copy from Netgalley. Gallipoli is the third of five GREAT BATTLES SERIES books scheduled to be published in 2015. The others are Waterloo; Agincourt; The Boyne and Aughrim; and Hattin. They are all studies of the battles, but what sets them apart from other books is their detailed examination of how they have been remembered and memorialised since.
Gallipoli was the last great gasp of the Ottoman Empire. It also strongly influenced the emerging independence of Australia and New Zealand from British rule. Anzac Day was born from it, and it is highly celebrated and commemorated each year. These are just the prime examples of the campaign's aftereffects. If I have a quibble, it's with the title. I think the cover is misleading in that it ignores the great focus put on post-WWI events and sentiments in relation to the campaign. That said, I believe the objective of the book, and the entire series, is a worthy endeavour. And I believe MacLeod achieved that objective.
Gallipoli was the last great gasp of the Ottoman Empire. It also strongly influenced the emerging independence of Australia and New Zealand from British rule. Anzac Day was born from it, and it is highly celebrated and commemorated each year. These are just the prime examples of the campaign's aftereffects. If I have a quibble, it's with the title. I think the cover is misleading in that it ignores the great focus put on post-WWI events and sentiments in relation to the campaign. That said, I believe the objective of the book, and the entire series, is a worthy endeavour. And I believe MacLeod achieved that objective.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews