Gallipoli Book Review: The Lost Boys of ANZAC by Peter Stanley

The Gallipoli campaign, for better or worse, was the first defining moment in Australia’s history. Federation had occurred only 14 years before, and our country was still searching for it’s place on the world stage. Then, along came the Great War, and Australia was thrust into the unenviable position of trying to force a backdoor into Germany by way of Turkey and the Dardanelles. It was not, as we all know, even remotely successful. Or, to put it far less kindly, a poorly-planned stuff-up from the start.

Of course, every angle of the campaign has been dissected over the century since those first ANZACs stormed ashore on the Gallipoli Peninsula before dawn on April 25, 1915 – and I have read many of them, as you will see over the next few months, borne of a fascination about the campaign that has shaped our country ever since – but one area that’s barely been touched, at least not in great and fine detail, is the fate of the first few men ashore just after 4.00am on the first day.

Some of the greatest gains of the entire campaign were made in those early hours, but due to the ragged nature of the Australian advance – not helped by the fact that they were landed on the wrong beach – these gains were not able to be reinforced by fresh men, and a lot of soldiers who had ventured far into Turkish territory were killed and never seen again, taking their stories with them. Noted historian Peter Stanley is on the case, and this is the end result.

The Lost Boys of ANZAC is the definitive effort to capture the lives of these men, and there is plenty of information contained within these pages, a lot of it lifted from letters, diaries and more official communiques. It begins with the Lost Boys in the days and weeks prior to the declaration of war in Europe, through enlistment and training in Australia, then Egypt, final preparations for the Gallipoli campaign, the part they played on that fateful morning, and, interestingly, the impact on their families back on the home front.

Focusing on just a few of the main players and barely identifying others around them, makes this a more personal tale, and it’s a tragic one, because, sadly, you know how it’s going to end. I loved the way it examines life in Australia during those pre-war years and weeks. But it’s nonetheless a hard read, because of the inevitable. 

There was so much bluster and youth crushed and twisted that first morning at Gallipoli, and these so-called Lost Boys were perhaps the best illustration of this. These men made great strides into Turkish land, and died for their efforts, in most cases alone and cut off from their friends, descended upon by the enemy who, unlike the invading Australians, had both reinforcements and artillery available.

What I found most interesting about this book was how it extended beyond the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula to explain how each of these men’s families learned that their loved one had died. In some cases, this took weeks, for a flow of information from the battlefield was tightly controlled by the British – including a lot of censored mail coming from men fighting on Gallipoli – a fact which was said to have frustrated Prime Minister William Hughes no end. The wait for those at home must have been interminable, every day filled with dread.

Aside from perhaps highlighting the courage of the men who fought at Lone Pine, The Nek defended Quinn’s Post or the success of the eventual evacuation – ironically, the best thing that the campaign accomplished – there is obviously little to write positively about this campaign, a defeat in every way imaginable, and with great loss of life, but The Lost Boys of ANZAC stuck with me for a long time, for it was a particularly tragic tale of so much young life wasted so needlessly by British generals who did not care about casualties.

The first men to die for Australia are sometimes forgotten in amongst the countless thousands who perished later in the Gallipoli campaign or else in the Middle East and Western Front, but Peter Stanley has done remarkable work bringing the lives, short as they so tragically were, to some prominence.

The Lost Boys of ANZAC is a tremendous to the first handful of men who paid the ultimate price in the service of our country.