Gallipoli. Virtually unheard of prior to 1915, the very
name of the Turkish peninsula bordering the Dardanelles -
the narrow waterway linking the Mediterranean with the
Black Sea - now conjures up visions of privation and
hardship and death which een surpass the horrors of the
trench warfare on the Western Front. The barren landscape
- of no value itself other than for its command of the
seaway - was the backdrop to an horrific campaign between
April 1915 and January 1916 in which upwards of 100,000
men lost their lives. For the Allies it was a battle
fought in vain for the invasion forces were withdrawn for
no gain, but for the Turkish Army it was a marvellous
victory in what they refer to as their Canakkale War.
Steve Newman has visited Gallipoli several times in his
study of the campaign and spent a strenuous ten days on
the peninsula in June 1999 to take the comparisons in a
temperature of over 100 degrees! Gallipoli Then and Now
provides a unique link between past and present; from one
century to the next; that the deeds of those whose bones
lie buried in a foreign field shall not be forgotten.
