From Gallipoli with Love: A Letter from the Trenches by Neil Doherty

Subtitled, 'A letter from the trenches,' this book of 24 pages in a picture book format is a real letter from an Australian soldier at Gallipoli, found in a box of treasures years later. The letter is presented so that younger readers can access the letter, absorbing some of the background of soldiers risking their lives on this Turkish peninsula. While reading the letter, they will more understand the man who wrote it, his motives and feelings about the whole campaign.

Private Lobwein enlisted in 1914 and was sent to Gallipoli as one in the 5th battalion. He had changed his name from the German, Lobwein to Levine. He fought for a month and then wore a letter to his sister in Queensland. He died three days later. The letter was discovered in an old wooden chest in the family home. 

His brief account of his time in Gallipoli gives a personal view of the men’s lives under fire, the privations and narrow escapes.

Doherty has added the background to the letter by adding maps, drawings of the trenches, the men waiting, their leg wear and drawings of the sister, Mary reading his letter.

The whole gives a more personal look at what the war in Gallipoli was like for very ordinary men who had enlisted as privates. Younger readers will be able to see the campaign from a personal level, reminding them of why we celebrate Anzac Day.

Themes: Anzac Day, World War 1, Letters, Trench warfare.

Fran Knight