Echoes Of Gallipoli In The Words Of New Zealand's Mounted Riflemen

Description

The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 played an important part in making New Zealand the nation it is today. The heavy sacrifice of life affected the country for generations, and our annual remembrances on Anzac Day are still dominated by those battles 90 years ago. It is 20 years since the last book to tell the full story of Gallipoli from the New Zealand perspective was published. Now we have a new account that adds significantly to our understanding of what happened during those fateful months. Terry Kinloch tells the story through the eyes of the men of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, which fought at Gallipoli from May to December 1915. He has thoroughly researched their letters and diaries, cleverly weaving their eyewitness comments into his text. Much of this material has not been published before; the result is a book that reads with the immediacy of actually being there. The full story of the brigade is told: the mobilisation of the volunteers and their preparations in New Zealand, the long sea journey with thousands of horses, the frustrations of training in Egypt while the real war went on in Europe, the eventual arrival of the brigade at Gallipoli, the battles and skirmishes that were fought there, the disillusionment as the realities of trench warfare sank in, and finally their remarkable evacuation. The brigade emerged from the campaign battered and depleted, but with its reputation enhanced. More than 700 of the 4000 mounted riflemen who served on Gallipoli did not survive, and another 1200 were wounded. Heavily illustrated with original photographs, Echoes of Gallipoli is the ideal book for anyone wanting to understand what it was like to be a young soldier in 1915, what really happened at Gallipoli and the impact these events had on one of our finest fighting formations.