Skip to Main Content

Our Friend the Enemy

A detailed account of ANZAC from both sides of the wire

Published by Big Sky Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Our Friend the Enemy is the first detailed history of the Gallipoli campaign at Anzac since Charles Bean’s Official History. Viewed from both sides of the wire and described in first-hand accounts. Australian Captain Herbert Layh recounted that as they approached the beach on 25 April that, once we were behind cover the Turks turned their .. [fire] on us, and gave us a lively 10 minutes. A poor chap next to me was hit three times. He begged me to shoot him, but luckily for him a fourth bullet got him and put him out of his pain. Later that day, Sergeant Charles Saunders, a New Zealand engineer, described his first taste of battle, The Turks were entrenched some 50-100 yards from the edge of the face of the gully and their machine guns swept the edges. Line after line of our men went up, some lines didn’t take two paces over the crest when down they went to a man and on came another line. Gunner Recep Trudal of the Turkish 27th Regiment wrote of the fierce Turkish counter-attack on 19 May designed to push the Anzac’s back into the sea, It started at morning prayer call time, and then it went on and on, never stopped. You know there was no break for eating or anything … Attack was our command. That was what the Pasha said. Once he says “Attack”, you attack, and you either die or you survive.

About The Author

David W. Cameron completed his PhD in 1995 and was subsequently awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Australian National University, followed by an ARC QEII Fellowship at the University of Sydney. He has published a number of books on Australian military history and science and over sixty research papers in internationally peer reviewed journals. David's passion for recording the overarching history of Gallipoli has resulted in six books on the subject. He is also internationally known as an expert on primate and human evolution and has a degree in both archaeology and palaeoanthropology. David was born in 1961 in Darlinghurst and grew up in Bondi before moving to Campbelltown in the early 1970’s when it was still a ‘town’. He graduated with 1st Class Honours from the University of Sydney (Prehistory) in 1989 and with a PhD from the Australian National University (Palaeoanthropology) in 1995. He was formerly an Australian Research Council QEII Fellow at the Department of Anatomy & Histology at the University of Sydney. He has conducted numerous international archaeological and paleoanthropological excavations in Europe, Middle East and Asia. David is married with three children (and two dogs).

Product Details

  • Publisher: Big Sky Publishing (October 1, 2014)
  • Length: 576 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781922132758

Browse Related Books

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images