Gallipoli 1915

by Joseph Murray

The Gallipoli Campaign stands out as a landmark in the history of the First World War, and it was perhaps the most controversial action of that war; it certainly ended in tragedy.

The author, Joseph Murray, was among the 400,000 British and Empire troops taking part; he served as a naval rating turned soldier in the Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division. This book is based on a diary he kept at the time and his later letters home.

The battle was a war of nerves, largely played out underground in the tunnels constantly being built by either side. This is a thoroughly riveting and detailed account of that important but tragic operation.

Genres: History

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1977

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

This is Joseph Murray (1896- )

Reviews

[Ben U · Rating 5 out of 5]

A contemporaneous account from an 18-year-old boy at the front lines of 1915 Gallipoli, published 50 years later by the same individual. Fortunately for the reader, Joseph Murray (even as a young man, it seems) is quite the observer and writer. I am grateful that he survived the many close calls that he describes, which allows us to experience this campaign so intimately.

It's probably impossible to know which if any of these stories have been embellished over the years, though the fact that he recorded his experiences in a daily journal (the book is presented in a journal format) suggests things are reasonably grounded. Consequently, this account is startling, visceral, palpitating, and depressing. "In war you kill and expect to be killed," he writes, "Every now and then you realise you are still alive and thank God and wonder." War makes a philosopher of the 18-year-old boy.

Near the end of the campaign, Murray is allowed a three-day leave as a reward for some particularly heroic work. He travels most of the line, learning how the fight goes beyond his own narrow piece of land. At this moment, the limited perspective of a boy digging trenches at the front lines reaches out, beyond him, beyond soldiers, to the generals calling the shots from the safety of ships in the distance. In that sense, this book serves as a critique of the campaign, though more than anything it is an up-close look at war through the eyes of a boy forced into a decidedly adult (and not the good kind of adult) world. Very, very worth the read.

PS An example of his terrific writing style (not a spoiler, but marked as such if you'd rather stumble across this stuff on your own):
CONTEXT: The soldiers had been recently ordered to stay completely silent for long stretches, so the enemy couldn't detect them:
The air was much cleaner as the no-talking ban also included swearing. There is nothing like a good swear word to make things go the way you want them and the work suffered accordingly. Trying to be a choir-boy when you are a trooper is very difficult, to say the least. When the silence period was over the working party gave vent to their feelings with added stress when they bumped their heads in the dark, as they often did. The air returned to normal.

[Susann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous Account!

The author was a sapper (tunneler) in the Gallipoli campaign in WWII. Coming from a coal mining family and having worked in the mines at a young age may have helped him survive a full year there when the rest of his division died. He was able to work extremely hard, live on scarce and mostly inedible food, go without regular sleep, withstand constant shelling attacks from the Turks, dig himself out of being trapped twenty five feet underground after being buried alive, see so many men die horrible and often needless deaths and still have a sense of humor about it all. Amazing tale of survival, incredible luck and at least twenty lives. He then went on to the trenches in Europe and lived through that too to achieve a grand old age of 97. If you are interested in the nitty gritty details of everyday life during war at that time, dive in! A unique and perceptive retelling of one man's experience replete with wounds, fly infused tea and jam, and the sheer bravery of men and some officers in a no win situation as well as the idiocy of the higher commanding ranks. Very well written and heart in mouth reading.

[Pamela Valladares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible first person perspective on the events of Gallipoli. I actually found myself appreciating the author not elaborating too much on the grandeur of the campaign, but merely on his own perspective. It shows how little a basic soldier really knew about the overall war effort. Even at the end he states how he didn't understand the idea of retreating and abandoning the campaign, believing for months that they were winning. incredible work of history