Military Review English Edition January-February 2017 | Page 140

Great War, and Stephen Chambers, a military historian
and author whose focus has been the Gallipoli Campaign.
In Gallipoli, they use their tremendous knowledge and
expertise to bring to light the story of the Gallipoli
Campaign as seen through the eyes of the participants of
both sides. Source material for this well-researched book
includes published and unpublished memoirs, diaries,
magazines, museum
materials, other
Gallipoli books, and
a large amount of
archived material.
Well written
and logical, Gallipoli
is relatively free of
difficult military
language and detail,
and it does not
require a detailed
understanding of
the campaign or
World War I to
understand the events relayed by the authors. This book
is for World War I enthusiasts, novice and scholar alike,
as well as military professionals interested in the impacts
of strategic and operational decisions on the men and
women who will execute them.
The book’s structure is an intricate weave of firsthand accounts connected by the author’s narratives
in a chronological event sequence. Along with the
first-hand accounts, generally from company-grade
officers and enlisted soldiers, is a tremendous number
of photographs that lend great support to the reader’s
understanding of the participants. If a picture paints a
thousand words, as used in Gallipoli they provide the
reader the opportunity to view the great panorama on
which this campaign unfolds.
While the introduction and first chapter, “Forcing
the Straits,” provide an effective strategic and operational setting, the focus of this book is tactical. The title,
Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers’ Words and
Photographs, identifies the focus as man at war. There are
many published strategic and operational analyses of this
campaign. Gallipoli puts a human face on the execution of
the strategic and operational decisions.
The book’s organization tries to provide balance
between the Turkish and the Allied views, but I felt, if it
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were available, more Turkish input would be needed for
telling the whole story. The difficulties of the soldier in
war are not limited to one side. It is one thing to study
the campaign through plans, orders, and grand sweeping
movements on the battlefield. It is quite another to attempt to see that same campaign through the eyes of the
participants. From the Turkish view, the campaign ended
with their honor intact but at a cost of nearly three times
as many deaths as their adversaries.
If you are interested in examining how the tactical
execution of strategic guidance could go terribly wrong,
then the Gallipoli Campaign is one for your research.

Lt. Col. Terrance M. Portman, U.S. Marine
Corps, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

FORGOTTEN HEROES OF
WORLD WAR II

Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers—
Land, Sea, and Air
Thomas E. Simmons, Taylor Trade,
New York, 2014, 326 pages

F

orgotten Heroes of World War II provides the
reader with fourteen graphic, personal, emotional, and compelling accounts of the ordinary
American soldier, sailor, airman, and marine as each did
his job surviving the unimaginable horrors of World War
II. Highlighting significant battles in every theater of the
war, the book collectively tells the story of the ordinary
American man who volunteered to fight for his country and who was thrust into an environment where he
witnessed the devastation of war, up close and personal.
As soldiers are reluctant to talk about their service in war,
the author does an excellent job gaining the confidence of
these everyday military heroes as shown with his skillful
narration of their stories. In each personal account, the
reader is transformed to that air, land, or sea battlefield.
Each experience is graphically described, and readers can
almost feel as if they were there.
The book is well written, well organized, and interesting to read. It is recommended for undergraduate
or graduate studies in leadership, ethics, and history.
Although not exclusively for military readers, it provides
many examples of ethical dilemmas in war appropriate
for military professional development, at any level. Be
January-February 2017  MILITARY REVIEW