The Uncensored Dardanelles [Illustrated Edition]

Book excerpt: The Gallipoli campaign has been written about by many authors. However, few have been as well placed to offer eyewitness testimony of the higher echelons of command as the famed War Correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett. His dispatches from the field were instrumental in forming the public opinion of the campaign and were at the forefront of creating the enduring Anzac legend. In this volume he recounts the pain and suffering of the troops in the field juxtaposed with bitterly critical vignettes of the commander’s errors. He moved in the highest and lowest circles of the expeditionary force, writing of the men as much as the dithering generals at the top. His acerbic dispatches, which were printed at the time, although highly censored, led to his dismissal as correspondent. He lobbied in the highest circles in London to get the troops recalled, in the British government starved sober information from the front listened, and his intervention was pivotal in ending the murderous campaign. After the war, he set his sights on ensuring that the events which he witnessed would be left to posterity without the pen of the censor, giving his account in this book. Author — Ashmead-Bartlett C.B.E., Ellis, 1881-1931. Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, 1928 Original Page Count – 286 pages. Illustrations – 25 and 2 maps.