Description

Title: Game to the Last – The 11th Australian Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli

Author: Hurst, James

Condition: Mint

Edition: 2nd Edition

Publication Date: 20011

ISBN: 0195553314

Cover: Hard Cover with Dust Jacket – 267 pages

Comments: The detailed history of the 11th Battalion AIF at Gallipoli in 1915.

The narrative follows the battalion members as they leave their homes and lives in Western Australia, embark for overseas service, experience the excitement and boredom of arid and exotic Egypt, and undergo their baptism of fire in the first wave of the Australian and New Zealand landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Game To the Last casts its net wide to find and tell these men’s stories and is the culmination of many years’research. Author James Hurst has visited the men’s training grounds and battlefields, homes and graves. Many previously unpublished personal accounts provide the heart of the narrative, while extensive research provides context and colour.

This is a story about sons, brothers, husbands who became soldiers in a bloody war on foreign soil. Their experiences are documented and retold with admiration and respect, and remind the reader of the human face of war.

‘If you only read one military book in your life, this should be the one.’ The Listening Post

‘… an excellent insight into that essential part of our military history: well researched and written,finely detailed and impressively presented.’ The Canberra Times

‘superb … a sometimes humorous, often tragic, but always compelling account …’ The West Australian

The 11th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. It was the first battalion recruited in Western Australia, and with the 9th, 10th and 12th Battalions it formed the 3rd Brigade.

The battalion was raised within weeks of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked for overseas after just two weeks of preliminary training. It arrived in Egypt to continue its training in early December. The 3rd Brigade was the covering force for the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915 and so was the first ashore at around 4:30 am. Ten days after the landing, a company from the 11th Battalion mounted the AIF’s first raid of the war against Turkish positions at Gaba Tepe. Subsequently, the battalion was heavily involved in defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead. In August, it made preparatory attacks at the southern end of the ANZAC position before the battle of Lone Pine. The 11th Battalion continued to serve at ANZAC until the evacuation in December.

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the 11th Battalion returned to Egypt. It was split to help form the 51st Battalion, and then bought up to strength with reinforcements.