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Gallipoli Memories by Compton Mackenzie -- Analysis

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Compton Mackenzie Futility of war The way fear makes us behave – shut off the brain and concentrate on happy or banal but certainly not fearful things … War:  This is indicative of everyone's attitude towards WWI. Funny or compelling at first but serious really. Coping mechanisms:

Gallipoli Memories by Compton Mackenzie -- Summary

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Preface At the very beginning of WWI, Germany lost and so built a 500-mile long trench line from Belgium to Switzerland. Failed efforts on the part of the Allies to break the trench line led them to look for a way around to Germany through Gallipoli, Turkey. The Allies thought that the arrival of the battle fleet would scare the Turkish government into making peace. Some ships were sunk and so Allied troops attacked Gallipoli by land. The Turkish retaliated and it was bloody, and as a result, the Turkish front was stalemated, just like that in Europe. The Allies persisted with the attempt to defeat the Turks for months. The story On a day when renewing fighting was a possibility, the narrator leaves his tent gladly to work out some administrative business. The atmosphere was gloomy because there were many casualties in the last bout of fighting. The Brits, the French, and the Senegalese had blundered on the battlefield. He is on his way to headquarters to ask for the raise in pay and t...