Australia in Arms

Introduction by Paul Ham

The whole Allied front was barely four miles, swept by a terrible inferno of shells. The air was filled with the white woolly clouds that the Anzac men—old soldiers now—knew meant a hail of lead.

Published soon after the evacuation from Gallipoli, Australia in Arms is a vital early account of the Dardanelles campaign. The young journalist Philip Schuler, later killed in battle, witnessed ‘the whole of the August offensive from…trenches at Lone Pine’. He saw the valour of the Anzacs, and recognised too the strength of their Turkish opponents. Vivid and incisive, his book is one of the great achievements of Australian military writing.