My Irish-born grandfather was with the Australians at Gallipoli, after having served in the RN. I have his enlistment ticket which says he was volunteer #28 that day. I'm sitting here, watching the series on youtube, while wearing his old campaign hat, and imagining his experience as one of those poor bastards at Gallipoli, and later in France and Belgium. I'm very grateful to see a more in-depth treatment of his experiences than are available in the movies Gallipoli and The Light Horsemen. He very seldom spoke of his experiences during the war, except to say that he learned to respect the English, even if he did not like them, pretty high talk from a dyed-in-the-wool IRA man from Tipperary. The acting in this series is universally decent, the sets and scripting well done, and some sense of the squalor and filth is presented, much more than in most productions. Most Americans, unlike meself, often have a very US-centric attitude and very little knowledge of historical events, other cultures, or the true nature of combat, so I must apologize for negative comments from my fellow Americans. I would not hesitate to recommend the series to anyone, and I'd be happy to stand in for disgruntled Aussies and punch American complainers in the nose. PS, If any Aussie readers of this know who I might write to to obtain my grandfather's service record, I'd be very grateful. I am at lonergan2(at) yahoo (dot) com.
