Gallipoli Faction

[Guest]

By pure accident I stumbled on a piece of fiction woven into some factual events of the Dardanelles - "faction" for want of a better word. The book was "Frank Forester: A Story of the Dardanelles" by Herbert Strang. The book is available free via the Project Gutenberg here

The author was in fact two authors - George Herbert Ely and Charles James L'Estrange who worked for the OUP and specialised in the Boys Own genre of writing. Their books predate the similar Bulldog Drummond series by Mc Neile and (later) Fairlie by some years. More details on the authors and their works are here. The Frank Forester book has all the typical ingredients designed to reinforce British or 'English' stereotypes and their stereotypical views of the world in 1915. Forester's speaks fluent Turkish and starts as an oriental carpet dealer based in Constantinople with his arch rival and oriental carpet dealer, the improbably named Hermann Wonckhaus. The book is illustated by Cyrus Cuneo who specialised in hero-romantic propaganda paintings during the first part of the Great War (he died in 1916). Some of his work can be seen here and here and the "Midst Shot and Shell we made the narrow Beach landing at Gallipoli" which depicts the ANZAC landings here. Cyrus Cueo was the father of the more famous artist Terence Cuneo. Cyrus also illustrated a number of other books by Herbert Strang such as "The Air Patrol" here published in 1913.

The reason the book caught my eye is that "Frank Forester" was printed (sic) in 1915 and seemingly published either during the Gallipoli campaign or at least shortly afterwards. Part of the story is tightly woven into events at ANZAC where Forester manages to find himself behind enemy lines. It also describes the Helles landings. I suspect books like this helped plant some of the mythology in the minds of the British and Australian public. I would be interested in hearing of any other contemporary 'faction' on Gallipoli. MG

[Bryn]

Martin,

I know of a few 'faction' books regarding Gallipoli; one of them is: Bridges, Thomas Charles. On Land and Sea at the Dardanelles, London, Collins, 1923. (available through Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11513).

Another, more specifically concerned with the Anzac area is: Craven, 'Digger' & Blackledge, William James. Peninsula of Death, (London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., c.1937).

An extract from this book also appeared as: Craven, 'Digger' & Blackledge W. J. : 'I Had To Shoot My Friends; Insane Carnage on a Gallipoli Farm,' in I Was There (Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London, 1935[?] p509).

'Digger' Craven has been described both as a New Zealand Private and an Australian Trooper.

Another, 'At Grips With the Turk' by Frederick Sadleir Brereton (Blackie & Son, London, 1916) is available from the George Washington University at: http://gwdspace.wrlc.org:8180/xmlui/handle/38989/c01g1jx7h

Two books by Edward Raymond; Tell England. A Study in a Generation, London, Cassell, 1924 (made into the movie 'Tell England'), and The Quiet Shore, London, Cassell, 1973.

Edited to include cover of 'At Grips With The Turk.'

[Tunesmith]

'The Fight For Constantinople, A Story of the Gallipoli Peninsula', by another prolific writer of boy's fiction, Percy F Westerman, was published in 1915.

[MaureenE]

"Legion of Lost Souls" by Captain W J Blackledge. “A vivid firsthand story of the tragic and Terrible Campaign at Gallipoli-The Peninsula of Death” From the deeply engraved memory of Digger Craven, Australian Trooper" Appeared in issues of the weekly magazine Liberty v13 n42 [1936-10-17] onwards.

Part 1, part 2 not available online; Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Likely to be the text, or an abridged version, of Peninsula of Death, as told to W. J. Blackledge by Digger Craven. London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1937, which is accordingly also classified as fiction, although elsewhere classified as bibliography.^[20] 

^[20] Page 56, item 164 The Dardanelles Campaign, 1915: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography by Fred R van Hartesvelt Google Books

 

For more about the author W J Blackledge (and there is no evidence he was a Captain) see the topic

 Fiction/faction/fact? The Legion of Marching Madmen/ W J Blackledge: Online

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/270727-fictionfactionfact-the-legion-of-marching-madmen-w-j-blackledge-online/?tab=comments#comment-2749841

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

Edit: At Grips With the Turk by Frederick Sadleir Brereton (Blackie & Son, London, 1916) mentioned in post 2  above, is now available on Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/39020025219968-atgripswiththet/page/n6

Edited 17 March , 2019 by Maureene