The story of the highly controversial First World War campaign that nearly destroyed Churchill's reputation for good and of his decades-long battle to set the record straight--a battle which ultimately helped clear the way for Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister in Britain's "darkest hour."

In ancient times, the series of waterways now known as the Turkish Straits, comprising the Dardanelles (or Hellespont), Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus, formed both a divide and a bridge between Europe and Asia. Its western and eastern entrances were guarded, at different times, by two of the most fabled cities of all time: respectively Troy (in Asia) and Byzantion (or Byzantium, on the European coast). The narrow crossing points at the Hellespont and Bosporus were strategically important invasion routes while the waters themselves were vital routes of travel and commerce, particularly the supply of grain from the hinterland of the Black Sea to the Greek cities. This made them sought after prizes and sources of friction between successive empires, Persians, Macedonians and Romans among them, and ensured they were associated with some of the great names of history, from Odysseus to Xerxes, Alexander to Constantine the Great. John D Grainger relates the fascinating history of this pivotal region from the Trojan War to Byzantion’s refounding as the new capital of the Roman Empire. Renamed Constantinople it dominated the straits for a thousand years.

Published during the Great War, this book by Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett (1881-1931), a British war correspondent during the First World War, covers the preparations for the assault on Gallipoli, the naval Battle of the Dardanelles, the landings at ANZAC and Cape Helles and the battles for Krithia, Achi Baba and the heights of ANZAC from March to July 1915. Through his reporting of the Battle of Gallipoli, Ashmead-Bartlett was instrumental in the birth of the Anzac legend, which still dominates military history in Australia and New Zealand. Outspoken in his criticism of the conduct of the campaign, he was instrumental in bringing about the dismissal of the British commander-in-chief, Sir Ian Hamilton—an event that led to the evacuation of British forces from the Gallipoli peninsula.