Dominic Sandbrook

So he hasn't even seen an Ottoman defender.

He hasn't set foot on the soil of Asia.

He hasn't even got to the Gallipoli Peninsula.

He's dead before he's set off.

And, you know, this report in the newspapers, the Asquith family knew him very well.

They were devastated by this.

Churchill knew him, was devastated, wrote a absolutely sort of tear-stained, syrupy obituary for him, I think, in the Times article.

And you might say this is quite a bad omen that this bloke who was going to lead the kind of attack on Troy.

Yeah.

There's a slight sign at this point.

I think that Churchill is beginning to wobble himself.

Lloyd George said he was looking worried and looking ill.

The former Tory Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, asked Churchill, how's it going to go, this business at Gallipoli?

You know, you must be absolutely, I bet you can't wait.

And Churchill then said, I think there's nothing for it but to go through with the business.

No one can count with certainty on the issue of a battle, which suggests that he is beginning to wobble.

And then he says, but we have the chances in our favour and we play for vital gains with non-vital stakes.

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.