Dominic Sandbrook

And I think the tens and tens of thousands of men who died at Gallipoli would be probably quite offended to be referred to as non-vital stakes.

Anyway, the landings were initially set for the 23rd of April, the day that Brooke died.

But they are postponed by two days because of bad weather.

Another bad omen, possibly?

We shall see.

The plan calls for two distractions to kind of confuse the Turks.

So the French will land at Kumkala in Asia.

They'll get off their ships.

Then they'll get back on again and come back the other side.

This is to trick the Turks.

What a wheeze.

And then a brilliant wheeze, actually.

The Royal Naval Division will pretend to land at a place called Bollea, which is in the north of the peninsula.

And actually, they get New Zealand's greatest war hero, Bernard Freyberg.

He swims ashore.

And lights flares on the beach to distract the defenders.

And then he swims back again.

And this is an incredible feat of New Zealand plot.

There's not as much New Zealand action in this story as there should be.

They're putting all their energy into rugby and not enough into boasting about their martial feats.