The story of ANZAC from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase of the Gallipoli campaign, May 4, 1915

This is a book which - as part of a set - has considerable value. As such it is more often owned than read. Nevertheless it is exceptionally well written by a former journalist who was embedded with the Australian troops at Gallipoli in the First World War. Bean was present at every battle involving Australian troops in Gallipoli and France bar one. His descriptions of actions combined his eyewitness experiences, first hand accounts, reports from both sides of the battlefield (Allied and Axis) and archeological work done after the war. Bean brought a skeptical view to the ability of higher command to conduct battles, and to the ability of anyone to report them accurately. However, he maintained a highly idealistic view of the virtues of show more the common soldier. Bean's preference to detail every action down to the level of individual soldiers makes the text somewhat dense at times, but this is balanced by the human quality this gives his storytelling. As the official historian he takes care to describe all of the elements of battle (army units on both sides), which again may daunt the reader, but his presence at those battles is obvious in the vividness of his description of the actions. The futility, courage, and humanity and inhumanity of war comes through clearly in his narrative, and his attention to the perspective of the 'other side' is generous and thoughtful. Bean was the General Editor of all twelve volumes of the Australian Official History of WW1, and the author of the first six volumes. All are worth reading, but particularly these first two. While this volume has photos and a great many maps, an appreciation of his description of the landscape over which this fighting occurred is immeasurably enhanced with any modern photographic record of ANZAC cove and Sulva Bay. The book is hard to obtain, but the text is available free online at the Australian War Memorial website. show less

Not a book for anyone, even those who have an interest in military history. However, you will not find a better series of books explaining in both broad brush and fine detail; the history of the Australian Forces and the home-front in WWI.
This volume of a multi-volume series of WWI, covers the establishment of the Australian Imperial Force and up to the end of the 1st Phase of the Gallipoli campaign.
Like other histories, this does cover the major strategy and key events, but unlike most histories this book also covers in detail what takes place behind the scenes of the whole mammoth enterprise and for the military actions you often go to platoon level and in many cases descriptions of the efforts of individual soldiers. A worthy show more official history and a fantastic resource from a person who was at all the actions on the day of near enough to them, basically a first and/or second hand study of the events.
Anyone with a deep interest in WWI in general and in Australia's efforts in particular can not go past this book and its sister volumes! show less

O'Neill"," Robert