"Murder At Gallipoli" relates the strategy and action of the Battle Of Gallipoli. It begins with the campaign of a naval attack being conceived by Winston Churchill amidst much opposition. After the failure of the naval attack it tells of the landings on the beaches and the extreme difficulty of fighting in such terrain. In the mine-strewn Dardanelles and upon the blood-baked, sun drenched rocky slopes of Gallipoli, death always partnered every sailor and soldier. As at Balaclava, virtually everyone knew that someone had blundered but the army and navy fought to the bitter end to try and tear triumph out of impossibilities. There is also an account of the work of the Fourth Field Ambulance of the Australian Imperial Force there. I have concluded the book by looking at the reasons of the failure of the Campaign and examining if some of the Generals behaved in an inhumane way by a number of their commands they gave to their men.
Author's Notes
As it was the one hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War this year I decided to do more research about this and to write one or two books. Before I began writing I had held a number of the Generals in high esteem but as I continued with my research and writing this changed dramatically. Some of their commands given, or lack of them, they must have known that the soldiers would be killed instantaneously without a chance of fighting. In some instances, after the first wave of soldiers had been decimated, they immediately ordered another wave to attack with the same result. I questioned if this was actually murder by the Generals and those in command. On a number of occasions I was writing with tears in my eyes because of the treatment of the brave, courageous soldiers. When I thought of the pathetic help the ordinary soldier, who had fought with such heroism, received from the government after the war had ended I was appalled and angry. To think that the many injured and those suffering from the terrible traumas of the war received so little help was beyond belief. Compare this to the promotion and extra titles that many of those Generals received -- what more can I say.
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