Most of the books that have been written about this pivotal campaign are only about Gallipoli, and no other has included Palestine, Mesopotamia and the Balkans, too. This is an historically important campaign as the destruction of the Ottoman Empire led to the political turmoil in the Middle East that we are living with today. But it also has a big emotional pull.

With extracts from the letters, diaries and other papers of those involved, this is a moving and hard-hitting book. Casualties were high, both in action and from disease. There were many examples of great courage and endurance, and some instances of a significant lack of these qualities. Heights of incompetence at the higher levels were seen at Suvla Bay and in some actions in Mesopotamia. The accounts in this book provide a stark reminder of what the soldiers endured.