Young Lions of the Old Empire: The Anzacs and the Reporting of Gallipoli in War Illustrated Magazine

This essay examines the representation of the ANZACs within reporting of the controversial Gallipoli campaign in the First World War publication War Illustrated. This weekly magazine reported on the conduct of the global conflict in all its theatres, and provided coverage of the Gallipoli campaign from the beginning of naval operations in February 1915, through the bloody amphibious landings in April 1915, to the ignominious withdrawal of Allied troops in January 1916. As a popular and often propaganda-driven publication, War Illustrated included lavish coverage and depictions through the work of war artists, correspondents and photographers of what was labelled the ‘war in the Levant.’ Discussing this infamous episode in the context of the involvement of the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), the instigation of the operation by Winston Churchill, and the execution of the operation under British command, War Illustrated’s text and images reveal a range of enlightening and conflicting insights to contemporary attitudes towards Britain's imperial war, the Dominion's contribution, and cultural and political perceptions of the region in which the fighting took place. In addition to the varied forms of visual material (photography, maps and illustrations), the diverse commentators and reporters included in War Illustrated provide divergent and often conflicting voices, articulating complex and contradictory perspectives on the campaign. Examining the magazine's reporting allows the exploration and reinterpretation of the gaps and convergences between 1915 and the present in relation to these historic events, the inculcation of imperial discourses, and the creation and inculcation of the popular and national mythology surrounding this controversial campaign.