Gallipoli

As a fifteen year old midshipman serving on the cruiser HMS Bacchante Eric Bush had commanded a picket boat towing ships’ boats ashore during the first wave of landings at Anzac on the morning of 25 April 1915. He was awarded the DSC for his service during the Anzac landings and the first of four mentions in dispatches. From text/a review on Goodreads.com "Much has been written about Gallipoli, but no one has ever agreed whether that controversial campaign was justified or how success could have been assured. This look (probably the last from a combatant's point of view) vividly portrays the hopes and fears of the men who fought there and their commanders, and seeks to answer both these crucial questions. Eric Bush was at Gallipoli as a midshipman aged fifteen. Since then he has visited and re-visited the scenes of the landings and has patiently pieced together a meticulously fair and accurate picture of the campaign. Aided by his experience of combined operations in World War II, he is singularly well equipped to assess what was attempted and what was achieved. Moreover, throughout his distinguished career he has made a point of meeting and talking to the men and officers who served at Gallipoli and has also had access to a vast quantity of unpublished reports, letters, and diaries. Captain Bush's account is profoundly moving, though that is hardly surprising, for the beaches of Gallipoli saw man act of valour, of selflessness and of patriotism and those who fought there were always proud to have done so. This book has long been eagerly awaited and, as Lord Mountbatten wrote in a personal letter to the author recently, 'no one is more fitted to write the final story of Gallipoli.'"