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Scarecrow Army: The ANZACS at Gallipoli
On 25 April 1915, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders landed at an unnamed cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. They had come to fight the Turks. They thought the battle would be over in three days. Months later they were still in the trenches they'd dug at the landing. Anzac Cove became a graveyard where bodies lay above the ground and the living slept under it. They had gone looking for the adventure of a lifetime.
...a book for a young audience that corrects much of the starry-eyed jingoism but that will nevertheless leave its readers with pride and a warm glow on Anzac Day
— Australian Book Review
...tries to get beyond the dry facts and give a sense of how it was to be there, under fire, surrounded by corpses, rats and mud... an admirable starting point for young people wishing to peel back the veil of history
— Sydney Morning Herald
...a book for a young audience that corrects much of the starry-eyed jingoism but that will nevertheless leave its readers with pride and a warm glow on Anzac Day
— Australian Book Review
...tries to get beyond the dry facts and give a sense of how it was to be there, under fire, surrounded by corpses, rats and mud... an admirable starting point for young people wishing to peel back the veil of history
— Sydney Morning Herald
- GenresNonfictionWorld War I
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 15, 2008
I too should 'fess up that Leon is a friend of mine - and I can only admire his work ethic!
This is just the sort of creative "faction" I love - getting under the skin of history and personalising it. There are so many myths about Gallipoli and this book addresses and corrects many of them without fact-bashing. I had no idea, for example that 10,000 Frenchmen died there. You would have thought their losses in Europe were awful enough...
My grandfather was a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli and was part of my decision to visit the peninsula, in the quiet of a bitter, snowy winter in 1997. This book captured BETTER than even visiting the place, which is so altered by time and the packaging of war tourism (trenches re-created with neat, creosote-smelling duckboards), the sheer stupidity of trench warfare, and the horror of close living in literally infernal conditions (Dante himself envisaged the horror of a place where one had to tread on bodies constantly. The Anzac trenches in some places were actually shored up with corpses).
It also made clear to me for the first time the actual strategic and topographical advance of the campaign, and the sheer craziness of what command asked their footsoldiers to achieve; impossible positions to hold with handfuls of men that made it over the top to take new ground, digging for their lives. And yet they did.
This is written for younger readers, but I had no sense of that distinction, other than the fact that schoolkids are made to study history and most of us don't choose to read it. Which is a great pity when historical material is this engaging.
A highly recommended read for those that don't love history - this book will really surprise you. If you have a child thinking of entering the armed forces, it probably wouldn't go astray for them to read it either.
My grandfather would never march on Anzac Day. He just didn't get memorialising the most horrific period of his life in any way at all. He feared going mad for the rest of his long life.
This is just the sort of creative "faction" I love - getting under the skin of history and personalising it. There are so many myths about Gallipoli and this book addresses and corrects many of them without fact-bashing. I had no idea, for example that 10,000 Frenchmen died there. You would have thought their losses in Europe were awful enough...
My grandfather was a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli and was part of my decision to visit the peninsula, in the quiet of a bitter, snowy winter in 1997. This book captured BETTER than even visiting the place, which is so altered by time and the packaging of war tourism (trenches re-created with neat, creosote-smelling duckboards), the sheer stupidity of trench warfare, and the horror of close living in literally infernal conditions (Dante himself envisaged the horror of a place where one had to tread on bodies constantly. The Anzac trenches in some places were actually shored up with corpses).
It also made clear to me for the first time the actual strategic and topographical advance of the campaign, and the sheer craziness of what command asked their footsoldiers to achieve; impossible positions to hold with handfuls of men that made it over the top to take new ground, digging for their lives. And yet they did.
This is written for younger readers, but I had no sense of that distinction, other than the fact that schoolkids are made to study history and most of us don't choose to read it. Which is a great pity when historical material is this engaging.
A highly recommended read for those that don't love history - this book will really surprise you. If you have a child thinking of entering the armed forces, it probably wouldn't go astray for them to read it either.
My grandfather would never march on Anzac Day. He just didn't get memorialising the most horrific period of his life in any way at all. He feared going mad for the rest of his long life.
July 2, 2024
Finished this excellent book about the Gallipoli campaign. I read it aloud to my middle son as part of his WWI unit study and we both enjoyed it - as much as one can enjoy a book written about WWI battles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn new information, and the format of the book was interesting to read.
August 29, 2012
I liked this book! It told me a lot about what happened at ANZAC Cove in World War I and what the soldiers went through.
November 21, 2015
i loved it
March 28, 2016
Amazing book giving perspective and facts from both sides. Moving, confronting, and a must-read for all Australians.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews