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No Better Death by John Crawford Book Summary

Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. Malone, commanding officer of the Wellington Battalion of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli, is best known for his capture and heroic defence of Chunuk Bair on 8 August 1915. A gifted leader of men, he planned the action with his characteristic good sense and attention to detail. Chunuk Bair was held for two days before being lost in the last of a series of furious counter-attacks. By then William Malone was dead, and New Zealand had lost one of its finest officers.

It emerged later that Malone had left behind a detailed diary and a large number of letters to family members and friends. Always shrewd and observant, Malone charts almost daily the events in the year leading up to Chunuk Bair: his preparation for war, the training camps, the voyage to Egypt, landing at Gallipoli, and life on the peninsula during the eventful few months from April to August 1915. Renowned for his imposition of tight discipline, Malone was nevertheless a caring and thoughtful leader of his men, always concerned for their welfare. He also loved his family, and in particular his second wife Ida. His letters to her are among the most moving in this book, and his tender concern for their young family back home shines through. The story of his older sons, three of whom also served in the Great War, forms part of the narrative too, a family story which continues right up to 2012, when Malone’s great-great-grandson was killed on active service in Afghanistan.

John Crawford is the New Zealand Defence Force Historian and has written on many aspects of the history of the New Zealand Armed Forces and defence policy. In 2007 he edited, with Ian McGibbon, Exisle’s monumental book, New Zealand’s Great War, and in 2008 he edited The Devil’s Own War: The First World War Diary of Brigadier-General Herbert Hart. He has also written To Fight for the Empire: An Illustrated History of New Zealand and the South African War, 1899-1902, and is currently writing a volume for the forthcoming First World War Centenary History series. He lives in Wellington.

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