25 April 1915: The Day the Anzac Legend was Born

by David W. Cameron

On the 25th of April 1915 Australian troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in what is now called Anzac Cove. They rushed from the beach up to Plugge's Plateau into Australian military history suffering many casualties on the way. Just after midday troops from New Zealand landed at Gallipoli and together the Australians and New Zealanders created the Anzac legend. It was the events of this first day that set the course of the whole battle leading to the evacuation of the Anzac troops in December 1915.

This is the story of that day telling the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish side of what was to become a tragedy for all three countries and an ultimate triumph for Turkey. It concludes with the visit of Charles Bean, the official Australian war correspondent, to the peninsula in 1919 as part of the Australian Historical mission to organise the burial of the dead that had lain exposed to the elements for the last four years, and to the formation of the cemeteries that are today visited by thousands.

Genres: Military History, World War I, Nonfiction, History

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

David W. Cameron is a Canberra based author and has written several books on Australian military and convict history and human and primate evolution including over 60 internationally peer reviewed papers for various journals and book chapters. He received 1st Class Honours in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Sydney and later went on to complete his Ph.D. in palaeoanthropology at the Australian National University.

He is a former Australian Research Council (ARC) Post Doctorial Fellow at the Australian National University (School of Archaeology) and an ARC QEII Fellow at the University of Sydney (Department of Anatomy and Histology). He has participated and led several international fieldwork teams in Australia, the Middle East (Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates); Europe (Hungary) and Asia (Vietnam and India) and has participated in many conferences and museum studies throughout the world.

Reviews

[Jonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the toughest achievements in history these days seems to me to be the ability to just describe events accurately and trust your readers to think for themselves. I'd suppose it's a further order of magnitude when the event in question is one of national significance.

So what a pleasant surprise it was to pick up this one, a Middlebrookian "just the events" (more or less) account of the landing of the Australians, New Zealanders and Indians on the Galllipoli peninsula and their subsequent day long struggle to maintain a foothold.

The narrative flows as a description of the day's events, both onshore with the infantry, gunners and support units of both sides,and also following the fortunes of the Royal Australian Navy's submarine AE2 on an epic attempt to force the Straits and disrupt Turkish shipping. The narrative is backed up with a plethora of well chosen personal accounts, from the top down, giving a vivid impression of just how confused the day was, and how tough it was for both sides to read and react to events.

All in all, with enough of a scene setting introduction to explain why boots were needed on the ground (and a masterclass in how to approach historical controversy - in this case, who got lost on the way to the beach? - point of view #1, point of view #2, authors opinion, move on) the book manages a lot in its 289 pages of text. There are maps, which I'm sure those to whom maps matter will get uptight - there aren't really any landmarks (one of the recurring themes of the day), it's all just contours, but at least you know where people are in relation to one another. No myth busting or tub thumping, just a readable, concise and accurate description of the first day of Australia's First World War. Thanks for putting some meat on the bones of Les Carlyon's history of the campaign, and I'm certain you did the lads proud. Certainly up there with Middlebrook's two First World War titles.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

David W. Cameron, one of my favourite Australian historians, leaves no stone unturned in telling the story of April 25, 1915, the first day of the Gallipoli campaign from many perspectives: Turk, Australian, New Zealander, Brit. I've read plenty about Gallipoli over the years, but this book detailed dozens of events that I never knew happened.