the legend of the Anzacs. The British lost more men on Gallipoli than did the Anzacs. The Anzacs lost more men on the Western Front than they did against the Turks at Gallipoli. Yet, rightly or wrongly, Gallipoli is etched deepest into the Australian and New Zealand psyches. Now, all the original Anzacs, the men of Gallipoli, are gone. This book records the lives of the last of them."--Back cover.

Turkey regards the victory to this day as a defining moment in its history, a heroic last stand in the defence of the nation's Ottoman Empire. But, counter-intuitively, it would signify something perhaps even greater for the defeated Australians and New Zealanders involved: the birth of their countries' sense of nationhood. Now approaching its centenary, the Gallipoli campaign, commemorated each year on Anzac Day, reverberates with importance as the origin and symbol of Australian and New Zealand identity. As such, the facts of the battle, which was minor against the scale of the First World War and cost less than a sixth of the Australian deaths on the Western Front, are often forgotten or obscured. Peter FitzSimons, with his trademark vibrancy and expert melding of writing and research, recreates the disaster as experienced by those who endured it or perished in the attempt.