Gallipoli: The End of the Myth

Prof. Robin Prior

ISBN 10: 0300168942 / ISBN 13: 9780300168945

Published by Yale University Press, 2010

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26700837

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Gallipoli: The End of the Myth
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300168942
• ISBN 13: 9780300168945
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A decisive account of the dramatic Gallipoli campaign of World War I, with a devastating assessment of its pointless losses

The Gallipoli campaign of 1915–16 was an ill-fated Allied attempt to shorten the war by eliminating Turkey, creating a Balkan alliance against the Central Powers, and securing a sea route to Russia. A failure in all respects, the operation ended in disaster, and the Allied forces suffered some 390,000 casualties. This conclusive book assesses the many myths that have emerged about Gallipoli and provides definitive answers to questions that have lingered about the operation.

Robin Prior, a renowned military historian, proceeds step by step through the campaign, dealing with naval, military, and political matters and surveying the operations of all the armies involved: British, Anzac, French, Indian, and Turkish. Relying substantially on original documents, including neglected war diaries and technical military sources, Prior evaluates the strategy, the commanders, and the performance of soldiers on the ground. His conclusions are powerful and unsettling: the naval campaign was not “almost” won, and the land action was not bedeviled by “minor misfortunes.” Instead, the badly conceived Gallipoli campaign was doomed from the start. And even had it been successful, the operation would not have shortened the war by a single day. Despite their bravery, the Allied troops who fell at Gallipoli died in vain.

About the Author

Robin Prior is visiting professorial fellow, University of Adelaide, and visiting fellow, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy. He is the coauthor of Passchendaele: The Untold Story and The Somme, both published by Yale University Press. He lives in South Australia.