GALLIPOLI by Moorehead, Alan

NOONTIDE PRESS, Costa Mesa, 1991 reprint edition, hardbound in dj, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, VG/VG- ( very slight dj edge wear), 384 pages, illus, maps, index, bibliog.-----------------------------In an exceptionally well-told story, Alan Moorehead describes the first great amphibious campaign of the twentieth century. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was its strongest proponent. He was inevitably, if unfairly, blamed for the fiasco that followed: a plan so admirable in concept and so abominable in its execution.The idea was born from the stalemate already developing on the Western Front late in 1914. An Anglo-French campaign to force the Dardanelles was designed to link up the allies and at the same time sever Turkey from the other Central Powers.During the course of the fierce fighting that followed, the potentialities of the fledgling submarine and air services were first explored. Modern naval guns were pitted against shore batteries, the landing force experimented with dozens of boat types to get their men ashore in the first assaults. Command and control of combined arms in the ship-to-shore movement evolved from a series of tactical blunders For this, and an understanding of men in heavy fighting, Gallipoli is a storehouse of information on the complexities of modern warfare. It is also an enduring literary achievement.