The Australian film Gallipoli brought worldwide fame to this tragic 1915 amphibious landing. British planners had hoped to outflank Germany's World War I Turkish ally by a landing on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Turkish troops and their German advisers proved capable of containing the British, Australian and New Zealand troops near their beachheads, under almost continuous fire. After nearly a year of suffering, the Allied troops were withdrawn in a brilliant night operation.
Turkish authorities have made the Gallipoli beaches more accessible to visitors in recent years. Major and Mrs. Holt cover this tragic battlefield with all the remarkable detail familiar to readers of their books on the Somme, Ypres and Normandy. Numerous color photographs and maps divide the region up into a series of tours. As the "tours" progress, all actions, units and important individuals of the campaign are covered. The region's geographical features, local accommodations, gravesites, monuments and surviving traces of the campaign are all described and illustrated.