Gallipoli

John Masefield was an English novelist and poet who would later be named England's Poet Laureate. In early 1916, immediately after the termination of the doomed Gallipoli campaign of World War I, he wrote this description of the campaign. Masefield covers the strategic reasons that Gallipoli was attempted, the logistical challenges, and the supreme difficulties of the task. Then he narrates the fierce fighting and relentless struggle of the British troops - including many Australians and New Zealanders - in their heroic efforts to take the barren and hostile coast of the Dardanelles from the Turkish army. (Summary by Ted Lienhart)