Field Of Bones

During August and September 1915 almost three thousand young volunteer Irish soldiers died on the killing fields of Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean. A division of Kitchener's Army, at Suvla Bay they fell to gunshot-wounds and shellfire, while thirst, sunstroke and dysentery reduced their chances of survival. Hundreds were burned alive in raging bush-fires. In post-war Ireland political revolution led to the removal of Gallipoli from memory. One popular ballad told the volunteers, 'you fought for the wrong country; you died for the wrong cause, when the greatest war was at home'. Here, in heart-breaking detail, built from letters, diaries and archival sources, is the story of the 10th Irish Division, many of whom still lie today in Suvla Bay's deserted field of bones.