Gallipoli by Victor Rudenno
Yale University Press, £25
SUCH was the importance of the assault on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915 that military leaders on both sides felt it could determine the outcome of the Great War. That Allied forces ultimately failed in the first combined naval and land forces invasion still absorbs military planners. It was studied particularly carefully ahead of D-Day; the lessons of Gallipoli put to good effect on the beaches of Normandy.
Much has been written about the Anglo-French-Anzac attack on the Turkish stronghold. Yet little of significance has focused on the role of the seafarers. Victor Rudenno’s meticulously detailed account of the surface and submarine operations sets that right. His is a major contribution to our understanding of the role of the naval operations and, in particular, the way submarines made a major contribution by harrying supply lines.
Rudenno draws on ships’ logbooks, technical information and personal accounts of participants to produce an absorbing read and an invaluable record. His accounts of the naval artillery support and submarine sorties are firmly set in the context of the unfolding calamity and its place in the strategic theatre of war in the Balkans and the Middle East.
His account links the land battles and naval operations: we can follow the whole story as it developed and Rudenno’s sharp eye for detail means the chronology is strictly stuck to. That makes for a fascinating history which will appeal to the general as well as the military or academic reader. For sure there’s considerable detail on the weaponry used but then this is a military story and enthusiasts just love detailed technical descriptions of weapons.
Equally, and impressively, the personal accounts and anecdotes, the tales of heroism, derring-do and chivalry shine through. The story, for example, of Lieutenant D’Oyly-Hughes, whose one-man invasion of the Turkish coastline before seemingly endless swims to rejoin his submarine, impressed with its bravery and futility. It seems to sum up the whole story. He was decorated for his gallantry along with the submarine commanders who ingeniously forced their way through traps, nets, mines and snares to run riot among the Turkish military and merchant fleets in the hinterland of the land battles.
The tragedy was that in spite of individual heroism it seems, from contemporary Turkish accounts, and their German on-the-ground commanders, that the submarine campaign made but a relatively small dent in the overall supply chain. As such the success of the attack from the sea may be judged to have been a diverting sideshow but little else. That’s an interpretation but Rudenno draws further on the German commentary to say it was a damn close run thing, if I may mix clichés, battles and nations.
Rudenno has produced an entertaining, well-informed and readable history of one of the most important battles of the First World War.
Andrew Dodgshon
