My take on the media (movies/books) coverage of Australia and New Zealand involvement in WWI focuses heavily on the Gallipoli campaign. This is a Canadian writing this, so maybe those living in Australia and New Zealand have better coverage. What is their full involvement in WWI? Yes Gallipoli, but New Guinea, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia and on the Western Front.
There are always some sort of Gallipoli book in the book stores. I've seen an amazing Gallipoli wargame terrain layout online video from the Salute 2011 convention. Various Gallipoli movies are out there. What about Egypt and Palestine? I contend that Gallipoli has some sort of mystique, but in reality was an amphibious landing, stalemate and pull out. To me, ended up the same warfare as the Western Front. The post Gallipoli ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) in Egypt and Palestine is more interesting.
So back to the interest in the Australia and New Zealand in Mediterranean WWI lately. Here are some recent things I have come across.
Link to description of project
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| Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, with the Perry Brothers working on Gallipoli Diorama (c. March 2015). Blog link |
The movie The Water Diviner has Gallipoli in it.
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| I guess I fall in this category as well. These are my 10mm Turkish infantry. | Artillery still to come. |
I for one find Gallipoli, Palestine, the Arab revolt and even East Africa more interesting than what we were taught in schools in England. From teachers point of view if it did not happen in western Europe it is not worth mentioning. So I for one am delighted to see more focus on the wider world in this period. So thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteIn school I had no idea there was other areas in conflict beyond Eastern and Western Front. I enjoy learning about the lesser known conflicts and areas.
DeleteI just picked up "Gallipoli, Command Under Fire" by Edward Erickson at Barnes and Noble. It looks to be a really interesting operational level study of the campaign.
ReplyDeleteBrent, you'll have to let me know how the book reads.
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