a roll call of Anzac troops on the beach near Gaba Tepe after the first landing at Gallipoli in 1915.
Memoirs Of An Anzac
by John Charles Barrie (Scribe $40)
From the subtitle, "A first-hand account by an AIF officer in the First World War", I feared a dry, overly military tome. Wrong. It is an easy read, combining details of the action with an account of the personal side of the soldier's life both in the trenches and out and a fair amount of humour thrown in.
Barrie, who had joined the Australian Army in 1909 against his mother's wishes, was one of the first to apply for an officer's role in 1914. In October that year he left on the HMS Benalla troopship, bound for Aden in Egypt in a contingent of 28 Australian and 10 New Zealand ships.
Barrie tends to keep his tone light, sometimes skimming over the more gruesome details of conditions ("I saw some sights [in Cairo] which astonished and disgusted me and which ... I cannot set down here") and of battles, but does not hide his dislike of hypocrisy - such as the brigade commander who forbade smoking among the troops, while puffing away himself all day - and ire towards the politicians back home who were deciding the fate of those on the front in Europe - and later of their treatment of returned servicemen.
But all is not serious, he recounts the larking around of the men off duty and enjoyment of seeing sights such as the pyramids, and of pranks played on each other.
In March 1915 Barrie joined the Clan Macgillivray ship to head to Lemnos, where they spent three weeks making practice landings on the beach - in clear view of the Turks - in preparation for the real deal at Gallipoli on April 25. He was wounded in the left shoulder and right leg during the landing that day. En route to England he successfully persuaded the ship's doctor not to amputate his leg. A bullet lodged in his liver, however, would remain there for the rest of his life.
While recuperating in Manchester Barrie and colleagues were looked after by local businessmen, who were impressed how Australians would come so far to fight for England. Writes Barrie: "We tried to point out to them the intense pride we felt in belonging to the British Empire, and how in fighting for it, we were fighting for ourselves."
Barrie's determination to return to the war saw him go to extraordinary lengths to be deemed "fit for service". He was initially disappointed to be appointed as an instructor in machine gunnery, but it was better than being sent back to Australia. He eventually ran away to France, risking arrest as a deserter. Luckily, once there, the commanding officer was more impressed with how he had made his escape than the disobedience.
In the trenches at Pozieres, 34km from Amiens, he recounts a heavy attack by the Germans ("Let us pass over it as quickly as possible. It was too terrible to dwell on, or to describe in detail"). Later, in the Somme, they were "waist-deep in slush, and No Man's Land was a sea of sticky mud, in which men sank to the tops of their thigh boots".
In May 1917, at Noreuil, 21km from Arras, Barrie was again wounded, this time his right hand and left leg. Action was, this time, over for Barrie - although once again he was able to successfully battle with the medical staff to avoid amputation.
He was sent back to convalesce in Australia - ostensibly for eight months, but by then the war was over. Barrie's memoirs, written in the 1930s, were kept by his family and finally shared by his granddaughter, Judy Osborne. Throughout the book are footnotes by historian Ross McMullin, adding to detail (sometimes correcting Barrie), right down to the colour of soldiers' eyes and hair.
While an Australian tale - albeit with the occasional acknowledgment of New Zealand's involvement - this is a good way to learn about World War I without feeling bogged down in a history text.
A Gallipoli Soldier's Secret
by Buket Uzuner (Antares Publishing $34.99)
Books on the battle for Gallipoli are rife but are usually non-fiction and with very much an Anzac slant. This novel, while based closely on the events of the April 1915 invasion, shines a light on the other side - showing the Anzacs not only as soldiers fighting for "king and country" but showing their Turkish counterparts as defending their homes.
Translated from the 2001 novel by Turkish writer Buket Uzuner, A Gallipoli Soldier's Secret tells the story of New Zealander Victoria Taylor, visiting a village near the battle site in search of news of her great-grandfather, Alistair Taylor - who she believes did not die in the war.
When news spills into the local community that Victoria - an offensive foreigner - has come to insult the memory of their local hero, Ghazi Sergeant Alican Taylar, she causes an uproar, yet his own daughter, Auntie Beyaz, takes her in. In a series of twists and turns, the parallel stories of the Private from Wellington and that of Lieutenant Ali Osman Bey of Istanbul are unfurled, and tie in with the Ghazi's family secrets. At the heart of the tale is whether one man could be a hero on both sides in the same war. We are made aware of the strength of nationalism on both sides.
The famous quote on the memorial at Anzac Cove, by Ataturk, "After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well", is integral to the story - timely for next weekend's anniversary. Uzuner brings us a mixture of history, romance and mystery in an intriguing and compelling page-turner.
Great Anzac Stories
by Graham Seal (Allen & Unwin $36.99)
This collection of news stories and recollections from those who were part of the action in World War I is very much Australian-focused, having been compiled by university professor of folklore Graham Seal.
It is divided into six sections: Foundations of Anzac, Heroes of Anzac, The Home Front, Laughter, Legends of Anzac and Memories. This one is for the serious war history fan, though it can prove an interesting volume to dip into if you can get past the introduction, which clearly defines Anzac: "One little word had come to resonate many things Australians consider to be profoundly symbolic of their identity." - SB
Anzac Girls
by Peter Rees (Allen & Unwin $36.99)
This immensely readable and fascinating book - originally called The Other Anzacs - was the inspiration for the recent television series of the same name - a story that is just starting to be told properly.
For its heroines, some of them country girls who had never visited a big city - and middle class city girls who had led fairly sheltered, Edwardian lives - sailing out of Sydney and Melbourne to go halfway across the world was, at first, the biggest adventure of their lives.
And on arrival in the Middle East, war still seemed a distant threat. There were still dinners to attend, soldiers to meet and flirt with, trips to the pyramids and the Sphinx.
Early on, the main problem the medical services had to attend to was venereal disease, caught by the many troops who frequented the "Wozzer", the notorious red-light district.
But soon some were called to assist on troop ships sailing to the Dardanelles and Gallipoli, witnessing the horror of that campaign from close quarters, and all of them back in the hospitals in Cairo and Alexandria - and later in France and Belgium, dealing with dreadful injuries and the advent of what came to be known as shell shock. The nurses worked long shifts, sometimes 24 or 36 hours - and their wages were less than those of a male orderly.
One of the most tragic stories recounted is that of the Marquette, carrying troops and mules to Salonika as well as a "stationary hospital" staffed mostly by nurses from the South Island, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Aegean.
Ten New Zealand nurses perished, some were saved after spending hours in the water in their long skirts and petticoats, but all the nurses aboard were remarked on for their calm and bravery by the NZ Surgeon-General.
Rees' book tells the story of women, who gave their innocence, and in many cases their lives, for a cause they believed in. Told in large part in their own words, taken from diaries and letters, it is a record of their bravery and selflessness.
Driven to help the young men - their young men - in foreign fields, the nurses saved patients from burning tents and continued to help their charges under heavy bombardment. They gave solace and friendship to the wounded and wrote "last letters" home for the dying.
Those who returned were sobered by their experiences. Many had lost good friends and colleagues; some had found love and marriage. Some stayed in nursing; for some it was the last thing they wanted. Sadly, none were rewarded with the financial help afforded to returned soldiers. - IM
To Love A Sunburnt Country
by Jackie French (Angus & Robertson $24.99)
A fantastic fictional account of World War II in the Pacific is the latest in Jackie French's wonderful Matilda series. To Love A Sunburnt Country takes readers from the vast arid expanses of Australia to the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia. Young Nancy Clancy, feisty granddaughter of the Overflow hero, is in Malaya, helping her sister-in-law with a new baby. Her plantation manager brother has joined up and with Japanese forces drawing close, the women are forced to flee to Singapore. However, their evacuation ship is attacked and they are marooned on an island, then captured by Japanese soldiers and held in a small women's POW camp.
The deprivations are horrific - French pulls no punches when describing the squalor and brutality - but combined with the ingenuity of young Nancy and the hopes and heartaches of those at home, this makes for a terrific read and though it's aimed at young adults, will satisfy all ages. - IM
Listen To The Moon
by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins $24.99)
For younger readers who may have heard only about Gallipoli and the Anzac involvement in World War I, Michael Morpurgo has again come to the fore with a moving tale, beginning in May 1915, in the Scilly Isles.
Simultaneously it becomes a combination of history and geography lesson for Kiwi readers - it is unfortunate that the book does not include a map. Alfie and his father find a girl sheltering in a ruined house (another historic item for readers to research) on the island of St Helens. She can say only one word, "Lucy". Alfie's family take her in and what follows is an intriguing development as we piece together who she really is and how she got there.
Morpurgo ties reality and fiction skilfully with a variety of historical elements piecing together a complicated transatlantic tale of wartime tragedy. Rather than concentrating on the trench warfare on which so many war stories are focused, this relates the effect on civilians when the ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. There are other references to the war and its effect on the local community, such as local lad Jack Brody who returns brain damaged from the trenches and minus a leg - and the anti-German paranoia that springs up as the mystery of Lucy deepens. - SB
1915: Wounds Of War
by Diana Menefy (Scholastic $19)
This is the second of Scholastic's Kiwis At War series of books tracking each year of the Great War. We follow cousins Mel and Harriet, who sign up as nurses and find themselves in Egypt and Gallipoli, experiencing the war both in field hospitals and ships in Anzac Cove.
Through a mixture of narrative and letters home or to their family and friends in other parts of the war, we get a realistic description of conditions and events - if somewhat cleaned up for the target younger audience. Myths held by the naive New Zealanders are debunked, such as Mel's discovery, on the hospital ship Maheno, how wrong was the belief that hospital ships were immune from danger and would not be fired on. Harriet, in turn, has her letter to her brother Frank, an orderly at the Anzac Cove hospital, returned to her, coldly marked: "Killed, Return to Sender."
The tale closes with both back in the Middle East and attending the first Anzac memorial service in Cairo, on April 25, 1916. - SB
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.