Nipper knew what he was doing when he lied about his age. At only 16, he claimed to be 21, and is signed up as a soldier in the Australian Army in the First World War.

What Nipper and his mates, Lanky, Spud, Bluey and even life hardened Wallaby Joe don’t know is that they would spend months fighting for only a few metres of land in a military campaign doomed from the beginning.

With complete trust in their officers, they put up with the endless tinned bully beef, and army biscuits as stale and hard as the rocks around them. With no fruit, vegetables or even enough water, they buoyed each other’s spirits up with talk of home and encouraging banter. Nipper, obviously too young for the army had his older mates looking out for him, but as a group they share the parcels from home. These could be knitted socks, fruitcake, chocolate, or scarves and any letters received also helped them escape the trenches for a few moments while they read them.

Ceasefires were made the most of, Nipper enjoying a chat to the enemy who can speak English or a trade of food or cigarettes. The Allied Forces enemy are the Turks who defend their land with plenty of supplies, warm clothing, proper food and excellent marksmanship.

Nipper and his mates soon add the weather to their woes as winter sets in with snowstorms impossible to see through, frostbitten fingers and toes, and not enough warm clothing. The only bonus is slightly less rats living alongside them in the trenches.

When word of evacuation trickles down to Nipper and his mates they can’t believe it. So many had died holding the small strip of land they had taken from the Turks. So many in fact, that bodies were used as barricades around the trenches despite the smell and the rats who enjoyed them.

Leaving their dead friends behind will be hard, but leaving the hunger, frostbite, rat bites, lice, snow or melting waves of water that swept away even more of their mates, will be almost worth it.

With an incredible amount of research including listening to ex-soldier’s oral accounts, reading journals, stories, letters and all that has been collated about this fateful military campaign, Jackie French has brought an important piece of Anzac history to young readers. Leaving Gallipoli was an incredible feat with 150,000 men evacuated right under the enemy’s noses. (If only they didn’t go there in the first place.)

Many scenes in this story are based on first hand accounts, but the author stresses this is only one story. Thousands of stories will have been told among the many thousands who fought and about the many thousands who lost their lives. One thread of this story is of a 12 year old boy who had been in a Borstal in England. Told his criminal record would be wiped if he went with the army, Nipper meets him near the officer’s tents. Called one of “Churchill’s Boys” their records were in fact wiped, so few knew they were even there.

This is a brutal read, sharing the true horror of war and the trust in higher ranked officers, but ultimately the courage of the Anzac soldier whose bond with their regiment was as rock solid as the army biscuits they were given to eat.

A sobering but powerful read.

Author – Jackie French

Age – 11+

See more books by Jackie French here

(2023, Harper Collins Aust, War, Friendship, Courage, Action, Conflict, Historical, Horror, First World War, 1915, Gallipoli, ANZAC, Soldiers, Trust, Orders, Chunuk Bair, Lone Pine. Bodies, Bullets, Howitzer Guns, Trenches, Trench Warfare, Rats, Smell, Bully Beef, Army Biscuits, Officer Privileges)