02/07/2026
Good news from Nottingham!
I completed the first draft of the second volume of my Gallipoli history yesterday.
“Alive With Death,” the first volume, outlined the campaign's origins, the naval attacks on the Dardanelles and the fighting following the landings on 25th April 1915 up to the end of the month. (See link in the comments below.)
“Even The Most Savage Must Weep” picks up the story on 1st May 1915 and ends in July after the first of the New Army divisions have arrived to take part in the August Offensive. And, boy, there was a lot to cover.
May begins with the Turkish attempts to throw the allies back into the sea, followed by the Second Battle of Krithia, the three day battle of doing more of the same to see how things worked out. While that action was being fought, the Lusitania was sunk, and we explore the connections to some prominent figures at Gallipoli and that disaster.
That month also saw the collapse of the Asquith administration and Churchill's removal from the Admiralty, following Jackie Fisher's resignation and the scandal about the shortage of shells. The Turks did not wait to see how all that played out and launched their attack at Anzac on 19th May. What happened then is well-known, saw the first Victoria Cross awarded to an Australian during the war, but I bring some less familiar voices to the fore to explain what went on.
Three British battleships were sunk in May: the first by an Ottoman destroyer; the other two by a German u-boat. I have accounts by those firing the torpedoes and those on the receiving end. When things go wrong at sea, they go very wrong, very quickly indeed.
British submarines were very active too and we discover that vomiting and diarrhoea was not restricted to those on land. The conditions in a submerged submarine as men do what they do when they're that unwell don't bear thinking about.
Also in May patrols are sent out north and south of Anzac to explore the beachhead's flanks and the scope to breakout from there. I reproduce the reports of the men who explored the areas around Gaba Tepe and at Suvla.
No account would be complete without recounting the events of the armistice at Anzac to bury the dead on 24th May 1915. Indeed, my title, “Even The Most Savage Must Weep,” is taken from the words of a Turkish officer said after taking in the battlefield covered, quite literally, in the dead.
In June the focus of the fighting was at Helles and attempts were made to make more effective use of artillery. It opened with the Third Battle of Krithia and after that fighting focused on narrower front. This had the benefit of concentrating artillery power and relieved the Nomenclature Committee of the need to name more than three battles after Krithia, lest anyone suspect that the attacks in its direction had not quite got there.
On 4th June one battalion was destroyed in its first action in about half an hour. There are accounts of that but, for obvious reasons, not that many.
Fighting off one Turkish counter-attack saw an 18 year-old Second Lieutenant, then acting as a battalion commander as every other officer was out of action, awarded the Victoria Cross when he halted the retreat of his men with the aid of his revolver.
June saw the first experiments with what was known as 'bite and hold' tactics — first by the French on 21st June and then the British on 28th June. There was some success but the cost was terrible, especially for the Lowland Scots. And then salt was added to Scottish wounds by two other Scots, who failed to mention them in the official despatch celebrating the advance that had been made.
Also in June the decisions were made that saw reinforcements, men from the New Army as well as the Territorial Force, five divisions in all, sent to the peninsula in July. We track their journeys there and their reaction to what they found when they got there.
In July the health of the men worsened and flies, the millions of flies feature in many men's letters. But the most significant fighting took part on 12th/13th July 1915. The fate of the 52nd (Lowland) Division at that time is gone into in a lot of detail. Their story merits it and, as I have said before, deserves to be told much more widely than in the Scottish Borders.
The accounts of the battle itself and its aftermath are horrific. Imagine the stench of the decomposing dead being so bad that men put on their respirators in the attempt to control their gag reflex.
All of this takes place as preparations are made for the August offensive. We find that the Ottomans and Germans expected a renewed attack to be made. And that one of the clues came in a speech made in Dundee.
There's a quite a tale to tell.
Further details will be posted about its publication in due course.
Image: I bring together first-hand accounts from letters, diaries and memoirs but we need to understand their context to appreciate what they tell us. Fortunately, there are many books that can help with that.
