Shadows of ANZAC: An Intimate History of Gallipoli

by David W. Cameron

On 25 April 1915, with the landing of the Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps (ANZAC) below the slopes of Sari Bair on the Gallipoli
peninsula, the ANZAC legend was born. Nine months later, having
suffered thousands of casualties from disease, hand-to-hand fighting,
bombing, sniping and forlorn charges across no man’s land, the
politicians and senior military commanders in London called it quits.
While the Turks also suffered terribly, they at least emerged victorious.
The fighting at Anzac was not restricted to the ANZACs and Turks
alone. British troops also fought at Anzac from the earliest days of
the invasion and large numbers of British and Indian troops were
committed to the Anzac sector during the failed August offensive
designed to break the stalemate. The invasion was also supported
by large numbers of men — often non-combatants — who performed
vital roles. Naval beach officers kept logistics operating in some form
of ‘orderly’ fashion; Indian mule handlers moved supplies of food,
water and ammunition to the front lines; and medical staff and army
chaplains worked on the beach, caring for the wounded and the dead.
All these men were frequently under fire from the Turkish battery
known as ‘Beachy Bill’. Others surveyed the narrow beachhead and
bored deep holes for drinking water; signallers tried desperately to
establish and maintain communications; and the gunners hunted the
battlefield for suitable places to site their guns. Off the peninsula, but
just as vital, were the nursing and medical staff on the hospital ships,
at Lemnos, Alexandria, Cairo and Malta, and the airmen who flew
above the battlefield spotting for the navy and artillery.
Shadows of Anzac: An intimate history of Gallipoli tells the story of the
‘ordinary’ men and women who participated in the Gallipoli campaign
from April to December 1915 and gave the Anzac legend meaning.
Drawing on letters, diaries and other primary and secondary sources,
David Cameron provides an intimate and personal perspective of
Anzac, a richly varied portrayal that describes the absurdity, monotony
and often humour that sat alongside the horrors of the bitter fight to
claim the peninsula.

Genres: Nonfiction, World War I

533 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 14, 2013

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

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

David W. Cameron is perhaps the best of a very talented slew of historians writing about the failed Gallipoli campaign.

'Shadows of Anzac' might be Cameron's best. He's taken a deep dive into diaries and memoirs to uncover the stories of men and women on both sides of the 1915 siege and the result is a tremendous record of forgotten acts of quite remarkable bravery and courage, mixed with decisions and arrogance that boggle the mind. He paints the picture of a confused battlefield, where the fight was lost on the first day, and shines a light on the truly multinational force that fought on that bloody peninsula.

Highly recommended, and very reasonable.