The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 still stirs strong emotions in Australia and New Zealand, and is recognised as a botched an ill thought out campaign that needlessly cost thousands of ANZAC lives. The World Service series “Witness” found an old recording – the date was not given – of an eye witness account from a New Zealand officer of the Gallipoli campaign, in which he lost a leg.

For me, the interest came not from an account of the campaign itself, with its “jam tin bombs” reflecting a lack of ammunition on both sides. Instead, it was the attitudes of the time which this old soldier reflects, such as the order not to bring the wounded back from the front, and a transfer system that allowed wounded men to drown when being lifted onto the hospital ships.

For me though most memorable are the statement “luckily for me, I got my leg blown orf” and “they said on board the hospital ship ‘you can have any drink you like’, so I said ‘I’ll have a bottle of champagne’”.

A tiny snapshot of an amazing man from a now lost world.