The Truth About Kitchener. To Which is Appended a Letter From General Von Ludendorff.

GERMAINS, Victor Wallace [Winston S. Churchill].

$4,800.00

Item Number: 138052

London: John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd, 1925.

First edition of Germains’ defense of Kitchener’s role in the First World War, from the library of Winston S. Churchill. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front pastedown, “Rt Hon. Winston Churchill. from the Author V. W. Germains 23/2/27.” Germains’ defense of Lord Kitchener contains a critical analysis of the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, in which he criticizes Churchill, stating, “Much of the ill-natured criticism passed upon the War Office in connection with the failure to relieve Antwerp would seem to be due to the spectacular manner in which Mr. Winston Churchill chose to interpret his instructions report on the situation in Antwerp. That the first Lord of the Admiralty, sent to report to his colleagues upon a difficult and trying situation, should so far forget what was due to himself and to his high office as to become so absorbed in what was after all a local issue, if undoubtedly a very important local issue, as to telegraph to the Prime Minister offering to take formal military charge of the British forces in Antwerp in tendering the resignation of his own office of chief of the Admiralty, was an utterly absurd and ridiculous procedure, arguing a lack of dignity and of sense of proportion on the part of this minister” (page 158). Churchill has created a bracket in pencil marking this paragraph in the book and has also done so on several other pages of this section in which Germains continues to criticize his actions. Churchill was interested in the Middle Eastern theatre and wanted to relieve Turkish pressure on the Russians in the Caucasus by staging attacks against Turkey in the Dardanelles. He hoped that, if successful, the British could even seize Constantinople. Approval was given and, in March 1915, an Anglo-French task force attempted a naval bombardment of Turkish defenses in the Dardanelles. In April, the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), began its assault at Gallipoli. Both campaigns failed and Churchill was held by many MPs, particularly Conservatives, to be personally responsible. In May, Asquith agreed under parliamentary pressure to form an all-party coalition government, but the Conservatives’ one condition of entry was that Churchill must be removed from the Admiralty. Churchill pleaded his case with both Asquith and Conservative leader Bonar Law, but had to accept demotion and became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In very good condition. An exceptional association.

The attempt by the Allied fleet to force a passage through the Dardanelles in February 1915 failed and was followed by an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915. In January 1916, after eight months' fighting, with approximately 250,000 casualties on each side, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force withdrawn. It was a costly campaign for the Entente powers and the Ottoman Empire as well as for the sponsors of the expedition, especially the First Lord of the Admiralty (1911–1915), Winston Churchill. The campaign was considered a great Ottoman victory. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire retreated. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, as founder and president.