The exponents of vivid narrative, modestly
disclaiming expert knowledge, have been painfully liable to break off just
short of what one wanted most to know. They told us how things happened,
or, at any rate, how it seemed they happened, but the reason why of things
they had to leave to others. In this book we really do get at the why, and
even more the why not, of the magnificent failure. Of actual incident and
human interest General CALLWELL'S account, which in a sense is only
supplementary to the others, adds little to our previous knowledge. The
only point of the sort I picked up is his notice of the characteristic
reluctance shown by Anzacs to report themselves as sick when urged to do so
with a view to the gradual removal of troops without withdrawal of entire
units. It is hardly necessary to add that the author is an old literary
hand, with a pleasantly clear and luminous style of his own, though one is
free to admit he splits his infinitives almost as much as Sir IAN HAMILTON
split his forces, and with less justification.
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