Charles’s Beans Gallipoli
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 5, 2014
Author Ed: Phillip Bradley
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ISBN: 978-1-74237-123-8
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Release Date:
Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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Charles Bean was and has been heralded as the top Australian War Correspondent of the First World War for his comprehensive reports home. His detailed diaries of the Australian Army on the move and their time spend in Gallipoli told it like it was mud, blood, blunders, bravery and all.
As a young man he joined the troops heading off on an adventure of a lifetime as they sailed from Albany to Gallipoli to support the British troops in their quest to capture the Dardanelles. As history has recorded it was one of the bloodiest campaigns of WWI, with thousands of lives lost for very little gain.
Through the eyes of Charles Bean we are able to appreciate and understand better the daily grind of survival, hunger, sickness and feats of incredible bravery.
Phillip Bradley, in creating this tribute to the men who served at Gallipoli has presented a masterful and fascinating perspective of just what it was that created the ANZAC tradition and spirit born by facing hell and surviving.
Charles Bean was prolific in his writing, not just as a War correspondent but also from a personal perspective. He often wrote at night and at times it was so dark he could not see where he was writing, discovering in the light of day that he had written over the top of other words.
His description of his landing at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915 is memorable as by his accounts it was a perfect moonlight night as they past the point of what he thought was Limnos and out on the deck amongst the horses, gear and military equipment are some of the men of the 1st Battalion: the dawn was soon to come and with it disembarkation under enemy fire to a place they were not to leave for the next eight months; Many never left.
He talks about building his dugout, the wet and trying to write in the dark. The next day and the days to follow saw him confronting the reality of war. The constant firing of the enemy and the danger; the charge of 4th Battalion where he notes Australia seems to be losing huge numbers of men and offices being established on the beach in stacks of provisions , as the staff were protected from the shrapnel pellets.
In June he was still there faithfully recording and on 1 August ironically and sadly records the fate of the newly promoted officers, four of whom were killed soon after their promotions.
The photography lavishly used throughout the pages is magnificent. Many of the pictures have been culled from a number of old photograph albums found in a second hand shop. Many are also from Charles Beans own collections.
Many Australians took their cameras to war, making this the most photographed war ever with so many of the pictures taken finding their way back to Australia and latterly into the pages of this incredibly detailed work on Gallipoli.
8 January 2016 finally saw the remainder of the troops evacuated from Gallipoli and the legend of the ANZAC created forever to live in the pages and history.