Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed: A Pictorial History of the Anzacs in the Aegean 1915-16

Lemnos was the advanced base for the Gallipoli campaign in 1915-16. its great harbour of Mudros Bay witnessed the arrival of the soldiers as they prepared for the landings on the 25th April. It was home to great rest camps and medical facilities and it was where they returned to after the evacuation of the Peninsula at the end of the campaign. Lemnos war cemeteries would be the final resting place for 148 Australians, among over 1,300 Allied soldiers buried there. Lemnos would see the first significant interaction between Hellenes and Australians in Greece. The soldiers and nurses would wander the island, visiting its villages, taverns and natural spring baths. They enjoyed the local food and visited the local churches. Most importantly, they captured the life of Lemnos and their time there in hundreds of photographs that would come to lie in archives across Australia, overseas and in private homes. This book tells of the distinctively Hellenic connection to Australia Gallipoli story through the reproduction of many of these photographs, many taken by soldiers and nurses themselves, and interpreting them with the words recorded in letters and diaries of these Australians who walked on Lemnos in 1915. Not only have many of these photographs never been published before, but this is the first time that such a comprehensive selection of photographs of Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign has been published together, a fitting tribute to the importance of Lemnos in Anzac history.--Dust jacket gate fold.