Category Archives: Gallipoli

A Soldier’s letter from the Great War trenches

From the Meekatharra Miner, Saturday 22 September 1917. . ‘Extract from letter received by Mrs. J. E. Coombes from her son, Private Russell Wheeler, No. 413, 44th Battalion.’ (Of course, the letter home doesn’t tell the full horror of the trenches) ‘I take this opportunity to tell you about the “Big Push.” that I haveContinue reading “A Soldier’s letter from the Great War trenches”

A Different Anzac Story

Before the Anzac landing at Gallipoli in Turkey, then part of the Ottoman Empire and allied to Germany, Britain wanted to force a way through the Dardanelles, the narrow strait connecting the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and attack the Turkish capital, Istanbul. In March 1915 a large Allied fleet failed to achieveContinue reading “A Different Anzac Story”