REVIEW Gallipoli: A Ridge Too Far

We always tend to focus on Gallipoli as an Anzac story but it was a battle involving seven countries, all of which suffered in the hell of the 1915 campaign.

This new book takes a fresh approach to telling the story of Gallipoli, with prominent historians from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Germany and India involved in the writing of this volume.

When allied forces from New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, France and India landed on that peninsula in April 1915, the expectation was that they would take little or no time to beat the Turks, which would shorten the war with Germany. However, as we now know, tragedy lay ahead and what followed was a bloody and long battle with massive losses.

What’s interesting with this book is that as well as getting the facts of the battle, the reader also gets a range of views by historians from every country involved in the campaign.

They say hindsight is 20/20, so it’s easy to be dismissive of the historians who point out what went wrong and why, but they insight they provide is fascinating.

This book is great for anyone interested in our military history, but it also leads you to wonder what might have been, could have been, or should have been.

Gallipoli: A Ridge too Far
Edited by Ashley Ekins
(Exisle Publishing, RRP $50)

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