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Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign, by Edward J. Erickson
Barnsley, So. York: Pen & Sword/ New York: Casemate, 2010. Pp. xvi, 271. Illus., maps, tables, appends., notes, biblio., index. $39.95. ISBN: 1844159671.
In Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign Prof. Erickson (USMC University), continues his impressive work on the Ottoman Army found in such works as A Military History of the Ottomans and Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913.
By carefully exploiting Turkish documents, Erickson looks at the Ottoman Army on the eve of the war, the plans and preparations for the defense of the Straits, available resources, personnel, and even staff procedures. He then reconstructs the operations in great detail from the Turkish perspective. In this fashion Erickson demonstrates that the Turkish success, usually attributed to British ineptitude (of which there was much), German advisors (of whom there were some), and Mustafa Kemal (who was brilliant, but was not alone), was due in large measure to the Ottoman Army’s reforms in the aftermath of the disastrous Balkan War of 1911-1913.
An excellent read for those interested in the Great War, amphibious operations, or the reform of military institutions.
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Reviewer: A. A. Nofi, Review Editor
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