Dominic Sandbrook

Who are they going to bring over?

So the man who was chosen to command the operation is one of Churchill's closest friends in the army.

He's a guy called Sir Ian Hamilton.

Sir Ian Hamilton is often given a very bad press in books about Gallipoli.

You know, you mentioned lions led by donkeys.

I mean, he's definitely not a donkey.

If you were being very critical of him, you'd say he was a bit of a dilettante.

And in fact, that's the criticism that people make.

He fought in both Boer Wars, decorated.

He's a novelist.

He's a poet.

He is regarded as, you know, the most cerebral, the most intellectual of the British Army's senior officers.

He's got a kind of quite a wry, sardonic sense of humor.

I like his line after the war.

He said, there is nothing certain about war, except that one side won't win.

And I think that suggests that he's not absurdly over-optimistic.

Hamilton, however, has been dealt a very rough hand.

He is being asked, as a reminder, he is being asked to carry out the first ever landing by sea on enemy territory facing modern technology.

He's been given a month to plan it.

So this is not D-Day, you know, months and months in the planning.