It is 24 April 1915, and the 1st Division is about to meet its first test of combat as, aboard British transports, it steams through the night towards Gallipoli. In the early hours of tomorrow, Sunday 25 April, the Australian Division will be launched at the entrenched Turks guarding the beaches of the rugged peninsula. For its very first battle the British planners have given it the most difficult operation imaginable. World War II experience will demonstrate that months are usually required to plan a major amphibious operation and that they should be undertaken only by highly trained troops with the full panoply of specialist equipment. Bridges has had thirty-six days to plan, he has no special equipment and the preparation of his untried division has hardly been exceptional. Despite this, tomorrow will establish its reputation, for good or ill.

The division's campaign began a few weeks back on 2 April when it received orders to depart Egypt, and it will not conclude until 8 January 1916 when it reassembles back in the desert. Its campaign lasts 282 days, with the majority of that time being spent on the peninsula (239 days) and only short periods at the beginning and end in Egypt (amounting to fourteen days), on the islands adjacent to the peninsula (six days) and at sea (twenty-three days). Activities include some administration (thirty-three days, mostly spent in transit) and training (six days, all before the landings), although the bulk of the time is committed to operations ashore (243 days). Although these commence with the now-legendary dawn landing and are well known for the severity of the fighting for the beachhead, Krithia and Lone Pine, these periods of major offensive activity last barely four weeks out of a nine-month campaign. The actual number of days the division attacks its Turkish foes amounts to just five. Of the rest of its time, six days are spent reorganising and conducting battle procedure, with the remaining 232 days spent on the defensive: holding the line (218 days), conducting reliefs in place with other formations (five days) and engaged in the withdrawal that terminates the disastrous campaign (nine days).