Het epos van Gallipoli ( The Epic of Gallipoli)

[Guest kraaijestein]

(Provisionally only in Dutch language)

Martin Kraaijestein, Paul Schulten, Het Epos van Gallipoli. Feiten, verhalen en mythen over de geallieerde aanval op Turkije tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog (Soesterberg 2009), Publisher Aspekt, Soesterberg, The Netherlands. ISBN: 9789059117587.

Summary:

The Epic of Gallipoli

Towards the end of 1914 the Western Front had come to a stand still in Belgium and France. Intense debates over a possible break-through elsewhere resulted in the 1915 decision of the English government to attack Constantinople through the Dardanelles, considering that the Ottoman Empire was a German ally. On 18 March 1915 a British-French fleet tried to silence the Turkish forts on both sides of the Dardanelles, an attempt that failed miserably. One month later four divisions of the allied Army landed on the beaches of the Peninsula of Gallipoli; the resistance of the Ottoman Army proved too strong there as well. Unable to defeat the enemy, the allied troops were evacuated by the end of the year. The ranks of the Allies numbered Australians, New Zealanders and Irish alongside British and French soldiers. German troops supported the Turkish army.

All parties involved in this dramatic struggle constructed their own stories and myths. Some stories remained unchanged for the almost hundred years since that battle was fought; others were told for a while and eventually faded from the collective memory; yet others changed their content entirely. This book combines the narrative of the battle for Gallipoli with the stories and myths generated by that momentous event.