GALLIPOLI, ANZACS AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR
This page contains links to online resources about Gallipoli during the First World War (WW1). It includes links to official histories, ebooks, theses, films, images maps etc. They are the resources that I found most useful when editing the letters of Frederick Muir, War Letters 1914–1918, Vol. 3. As Fred was an Australian soldier, the selection is primarily focused on the Anzac experience at Gallipoli.
GENERAL / OFFICIAL HISTORIES / 25 APRIL 1915 / EBOOKS / THESES / ARTICLES / FILMS / IMAGES / MAPS
GENERAL
The Long, Long Trail has an excellent, short summary of the Gallipoli campaign.
New Zealand History Online provide a slightly more detailed account of the same events with a focus on the Anzac perspective.
Gallipoli and the Anzacs is a site run by the Australian Government’s Department of Veterans Affairs and has a good, broad range of articles and items about Gallipoli, many particularly geared to teachers and students.
The Australian Light Horse Studies Centre has a lot of original documents, including many excerpts from battalion diaries and Turkish accounts, but the site can be extremely difficult to navigate.
The Gallipoli Association website has a lot of good general information and an extremely useful forum. Annual membership of £20 gives access to back copies of the association’s journal, The Gallipolian, which is available online.
OFFICIAL HISTORIES [top]
The Official History of Australia in the War, Vol.1, by Charles Bean, starts with the outbreak of war and ends on 4 May 1915, just nine days after the landings of 25 April. The Australian War Memorial have made the whole series available online, and individual chapters can be downloaded as PDFs.
The Official History of Australia in the War, Vol. 2, by Charles Bean, takes events from 4 May 1915 to the final evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula in January 1916.
The Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, Vol, 1, by A. G. Butler, is the volume in which Gallipoli is covered.
New Zealanders at Gallipoli, by Fred Waite, was written as part of the New Zealand government’s Popular History Series immediately after the war, and is as close to an official history of the campaign as New Zealand has produced.
The British government produced two volumes of its own official history about the Gallipoli land campaign. Sadly, but entirely true to form, despite the work being in the public domain, they have not made it available online and have no plans to do so.
Naval Operations, Vol.2 by Julian Corbett is the volume of the naval British official history which focuses principally on Gallipoli. We have Canada to thank for it being digitised and made freely available.
25 APRIL 1915 [top]
The first day’s fighting on Gallipoli, later known as Anzac Day, would prove to be one of the most momentous and significant days of the war. As such there is a considerable amount of material available online.
‘Australians Win Imperishable Fame’ was one title given to a newspaper article by the British correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett. It was one of the first to appear in the Australian press about the first landings. His description of the fighting and of the heroism of the Australian soldiers would become a cornerstone of the Anzac legend. The Advertiser, 8 May 1915, p.15.
The Uncensored Dardanelles is Ashmead-Bartlett’s book about the campaign. Pages 44–53, are where he gives a more detailed account of the fighting on 25 April 1915.
‘How the Troops Landed – The Official Story’ was Charles Bean’s first press account of the landings. As Australia’s official war correspondent, Bean was subject to more stringent censorship. His report appeared a week later that Ashmead–Barlett’s. Barrier Miner, 17 May 1915, p. 4,
The Australian Official History, Vol. I, pp. 245–481 is where Bean covers the day’s fighting in extraordinary detail. Chapters XI through to XX are the relevant chapters which can be downloaded as PDFs.
Anzac to Amiens, pp. 80-113, (PDF 1.86 MB) is where Bean gives a briefer account of the same events.
Chapter IX – The Landing at Anzac from Military Operations, Gallipoli, Vol. I, by C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, is the official British account of events
Chapter X – The Landing at Anzac (The Main Body) continues with the day’s events. Although the books are not available online in their entirety, these two key chapters about 25 April 1915 have been made available by the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre.
Gallipoli – The First Day is a 3D interactive presentation of the Anzac landing on 25 April produced by the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). Amongst various options are the ability to use a timeline to explore a 3D map of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Gallipoli Diary, Vol. I, pp. 88–109 by General Sir Ian Hamiliton is where the commander of the operations gives his account of the landings.
Hamilton’s first official Gallipoli despatch covering the landings can also be read online.
The Dardanelles Campaign, pp. 88–122 is where Henry Nevinson, war correspondent for the Guardian, describes the British landings at Cape Helles.
Galliopoli pp. 37-73 is the poet John Masefield’s account. Unlike Bean, Ashmead-Bartlett and Nevinson, Masefield wasn’t present at Gallipoli.
Uncensored Letters from the Dardanelles, pp. 45–72 has a powerful, evocative first-hand account of the French landings as witnessed by Joseph Vassal, a French doctor serving on one of the hospital ships.
EBOOKS [top]
The Gallipoli Association have links to over forty books about Gallipoli which are available online. Of the many books listed are:
Gallipoli Mission by Charles Bean is the story of the trip made to Gallipoli in 1919 by Charles Bean and 7 other Australians, including the painter George Lambert. Accompanied by a Turkish officer they retraced the steps of the conflict and began to make plans for the Gallipoli war graves. A moving and powerful book.
The Anzac Book was put together by Charles Bean, the book is a collection of writings and drawings by some of the Australian soldiers who served at Gallipoli. It is available as a very large 173 MB PDF file.
The Uncensored Dardanelles by Ashmead-Bartlett. Bartlett’s reporting of the Australian landings was one of the foundation stones of the Anzac legend. Later his public criticisms of the way the campaign was organised and led played a key role in the removal of Hamilton from his post as commander-in-chief.
The first volume of General Sir Hamilton’s diary begins on 14 March 1915 and continues up to 10 July of the same year.
The second volume takes events from 11 July to 17 October 1915 when he left Gallipoli to be replaced by General Munro. (As the man leading the campaign until its final days, Hamilton’s writings are an essential work. They have the added advantage of being highly readable.)
Gallipoli by John Masefield is another important work. Masefield, who later became poet laureate, wrote Gallipoli in order to counter the idea that the campaign had been an abject disaster. Instead, Masefield argued that the Allies had been on the verge of triumph a number of times. It was an influential work and a line of argument which, perhaps surprisingly, continues to have a number of adherents.
THESES [top]
An Australian Story: Media and Memory in the Making of Anzac Day, Mascall-Dare, Sharon (Ph.D., University of South Australia, 2013)
The Grand Deception: Winston Churchill’s Role in the Dardanelles Disaster, Curran, Thomas (Ph.D., University of Queensland, 2007)
‘Our Second Great [Mis]Adventure’ A Critical Re-Evaluation Of The August Offensive, Gallipoli, 1915, Crawley, Rhys, (Ph.D,, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW, 2011)
The Story of the Story of Anzac, Ball, M (Ph.D., University of Tasmania, 2001)
ARTICLES [top]
‘Anzac Day in New Zealand, 1916-1939′ by M.R. Sharpe is and article from the NZ Journal of History which looks at how Anzac Day both expressed and contributed to a growing sense of national identity in New Zealand.
‘A Debt of Honour: New Zealanders’ First Anzac Days’ by S. Worthy, also from the NZ Journal of History, characteristic of the style and concerns of much early 21st century historiography, ‘rediscovers the other collective identities – imperial, local, racial and familial – that were discussed and developed through Anzac Day commemoration …’
MAPS [top]
The Australian War Memorial holds over 300 maps from the Gallipoli campaign and has a good online exhibition which gives an overview some of the different maps in their collection.
‘3D documentary of the Anzac landing’ produced by the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). A central feature of this is a 3D map of Anzac Cove that allows you to move up, down, around and over the landscape. The navigable map is in the section of the site titled ‘Anzac landing in 3D’ . At the bottom of chapter 1 you are invited to, ‘explore timeline and map’.
FILMS [top]
Gallipoli on Film is an interesting essay by Paul Byrnes disentangling some of the myths about Gallipoli created on film.
With the Dardanelles Expedition contains the only known moving images of the 1915 campaign at Gallipoli, shot mostly by English war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett.
The Hero of the Dardanelles is the first surviving feature film depiction of Australian troops of the First World War and includes images of a real army camp and real soldiers.
Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story is an hour-long documentary made in 1984 for Television New Zealand (TVNZ). Along with giving a good outline of the conflict, it includes very moving and powerful interviews with several veterans of the fighting.
Children of Gallipoli is a documentary made in 2001 for Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. It follows four young people, two Turks and two New Zealanders, all descended from men who fought at Gallipoli in 1915, as they visit the battlefields together.
IMAGES [top]
Paintings by George Lambert made on his trip to Gallipoli with Charles Bean in 1919 have been digitised by the Australian War Memorial. These paintings need to be found using the advanced search facility as they have not been given their own separate exhibition.
The Gallipoli watercolours and drawings of Major Leslie Hore. While serving in Gallipoli, Major Leslie Hore recorded what he saw in a series of watercolours and drawing which have been digitised by the State Library of New South Wales.
The Dardanelles–Colour Sketches from Gallipoli are a collection of Norman Wilkinson’s paintings and drawings of Gallipoli.