Notes From the Transcriber

The small cove where the ANZAC's landed and established their beachhead during the Gallipoli Campaign became known as ANZAC Cove, or simply as ANZAC.
Many of Frank Westbrooks poems are signed off with a date and the simple location of ANZAC. I have reproduced these as in the original after each poem, where found.

The Gallipoli campaign of April-December 1915 stands as one of the most incompetently managed military operations of WW1. In many cases the landing forces were without maps and knew little of the terrain. The Turkish forces were well dug in and covering the landing grounds with machine guns. The initial concept of taking Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war soon evaporated and Allied troops were withdrawn in December and early January. Casualties on both side were appalling (approximately 140,000 Allied and 250,000 Turkish)

This was the first major campaign for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) and is widely regarded as the anvil which molded and established their independant National Identities.

More information on the Gallipoli campaign, ANZAC day and ANZAC cove can be found at the following Wikipedia pages.
Anzac Cove
Battle of Gallipoli
ANZAC Day


Please Note: The index is now in the correct order as found in the book, however if you read the poems as a sequential blog I have yet to try and sort them out. All poems have now been transcribed as of 4th March 2008, 92 years after they were written by Frank Westbrook.