The French

[ZackNZ]

Hi everyone - has anyone got any reference recommendations with respect to the French and their involvement in the Gallipoli campaign please?

Zack

[PDW]

Zack

Just to get you started you will find some useful French sources in the Brit official history- History of the Great War, the volume you want is Military Operations, Gallipoli ( vols 1 and 2) by Brigadier-General C. Aspinall-Oglander. Printed by the IWM in 1929 but a more recent and cheaper version can be got from Battery Press in Nashville USA.

Peter

[michaeldr]

Zac,

quote from Peter Hart

"the French had more troops on Gallipoli that the Australians. And they fought more battles, killed more Turks and had more casualties. They even had the most difficult military ground in the Kereves Dere sector, where the dreaded Ravin de la Mort is quite self-explanatory. Go there even now, and marvel at the sheer impossibility of the task that General Sir Ian Hamilton had given them; perhaps even ponder on this as real evidence of a perfidious Albion."

see his full article here http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/38/article.asp

To be fair, the Australians are not the only ones to overlook the French contribution. There seems to be very little at all written in English which does justice to the French contribution. I look forward to seeing replies from those better informed than myself and learning more here

In the meantime, if you read French, then there something here http://vinny03.club.fr/gg/carnet/bertrand2.htm

regards

Michael

[michaeldr]

To add to Peter's suggestion above

You might try to get a look at 'The Straights of War - Gallipoli Remembered'

published in 2000 by Sutton Publishing Ltd

ISBN 0-7509-2408-X

This is a collection of the lectures given annually at Holy Trinity Church, Eltham

and it includes a transcript of the one given in 1996 by Prof. Jean-Charles Jauffret titled

Gallipoli- A French Perspective - see pages 137-151

regards

Michael

[Malcolm]

Zac,

quote from Peter Hart

"the French had more troops on Gallipoli that the Australians. And they fought more battles, killed more Turks and had more casualties. They even had the most difficult military ground in the Kereves Dere sector, where the dreaded Ravin de la Mort is quite self-explanatory. Go there even now, and marvel at the sheer impossibility of the task that General Sir Ian Hamilton had given them; perhaps even ponder on this as real evidence of a perfidious Albion."

see his full article here http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/38/article.asp

To be fair, the Australians are not the only ones to overlook the French contribution. There seems to be very little at all written in English which does justice to the French contribution. I look forward to seeing replies from those better informed than myself and learning more here

In the meantime, if you read French, then there something here http://vinny03.club.fr/gg/carnet/bertrand2.htm

regards

Michael

In one respect correct in the total casualties at 8.8% French to 6.5% Australian for Gallipoli BUT per head the Australians had the higher percentage of soldiers killed per committed numbers.

Aye

Malcolm

[ZackNZ]

Many thanks Peter, Michael and Malcolm - I will follow up on your helpful directions. From where I am ('down under' NZ) one of the on going myths is that Gallipoli seems to be almost only an Australian campaign and of course such a view is complete nonsense!

Like Michael I look forward to seeing replies from anyone who knows more about the Gallipoli French contribution - a big story here it seems.

Zack

[Jonathan Saunders]

To be fair, the Australians are not the only ones to overlook the French contribution. There seems to be very little at all written in English which does justice to the French contribution.

It has been largely forgotten by the French as well - I expect partly because the French used a lot of their African troops for this campaign. There was a French equivilent or branch of the Gallipoli Association but they were never very active to the best of my knowledge.

[Bryn]

The first one here is a very good account of the French at Gallipoli, but I've never seen the second:

Vassal, J. 'Uncensored Letters From the Dardanelles, Written to his English Wife by a French Medical Officer of the Corps Expeditionnaire D'Orient', London, Heinemann, 1916.

Cassar, G. H. The French and the Dardanelles, Allen & Unwin, 1971.

quote from Peter Hart

"the French had more troops on Gallipoli that the Australians. And they fought more battles, killed more Turks and had more casualties."

Except that, as Jonathan has pointed out above, the French forces were largely drawn from their African colonies, just as Britain drew from Australia, New Zealand, India, Ceylon and Newfoundland, (as well as from Canada if you count medical services supporting the campaign).

So we should be comparing the numbers of, say, Senegalese with the number of Australians.

[bob lembke]

Several years ago I read a very useful French history of the French participation at Gallipoli, and I think it covered the entire campaign, not just the actions of the French. Unfortunately, it must have been before I got my reading organized, and I cannot find the index cards and note cards that I make for my readings nor mention of the info I gleaned from it in my time-line on the Gallipoli fighting, so I could not identify the book when I recently looked for it.

The book was a secondary source, and as I remember it was an official or semi-official publication. Regrettably, it was in French (should we be surprised?) and I think that I found it in the on-line catalog or shelves of my wife's library. (Eight million volumes) If I find it again I will post my findings; I am working on the topic again, mostly the ANZAC bridgehead. (My father fought there.)

Bob Lembke

[James A Pratt III]

There is a book I believe titled "Paths of Glory the French Army in WWI" which does have a little about Galipoli. See also Galipoli then and Now by ATB, and the Book Men of Galipoli. Both of which have some info on this subject.

[Paul Hederer]

The French Official History (surprise) covers their participation in the Gallipoli campaign. They have some wonderful maps in the set as well.

Paul