Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Stirring read worthy of a tepid shower

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Stirring read worthy of a tepid shower

    Stirring read worthy of a tepid shower

    Canberra Times - Australasia
    Jan 15, 2005


    A ROOM in the miserable Kum Hotel on Gallipoli in mid-winter seems a
    fitting place to have written this review of Fred and Elizabeth
    Brenchley's biography of T.W.White. A pioneering Australian airman,
    captured in Mesopotamia, Tom White spent three years as a prisoner of
    the Turks before escaping. He endured much worse than the Kum's tepid
    showers and monotonous breakfasts. As White recounted in Guests of the
    Unspeakable, his vivid memoir of harsh captivity and daring escape,
    being a prisoner of the Turks involved discomfort, danger and, for
    many, death. The Brenchleys' book reminds us of how terrible it was to
    be a prisoner of the Turks: almost as bad as being captured by the
    Japanese. Nearly one in three of the 268 Australians captured by the
    Ottomans died in captivity: only two out of the nine air mechanics of
    the Australian ''Half Flight'' captured at Kut survived. And these
    prisoners got help from friendly neutral diplomats: imagine if they
    had not.

    White's Flight is a stirring read. White was one of several intrepid
    officers who planned and executed escapes from Turkish captivity, only
    three successfully. His escape entailed months of feigning illness to
    secure a transfer from the notorious Afion camp in Anatolia to a
    hospital in Constantinople, from where he found a ship sailing for
    Odessa. There he saw the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution before
    reaching British troops in Bulgaria.

    The Brenchleys tell an extraordinary story of cruelty and indifference
    on the Ottoman side (including the great Armenian genocide which began
    about April 25, 1915) and the unwavering optimism and courage of young
    men who took on and outwitted the regime's goons. White's ability to
    survive on the streets of Constantinople, amid the intrigues and
    uncertainties of the final months of the Ottoman Empire, was an
    astounding piece of effrontery.

    The Brenchleys essentially paraphrase White's own memoir, adding
    little of interest except sentimental family and political
    history. Soon after his liberation, White married Vera Deakin, who ran
    the Australian Red Cross's formidable London operation, one that did
    so much to save the lives of prisoners of war in the Great War. It is
    a great pity the Brenchleys contented them- selves with presenting
    such a superficial picture of this determined woman, especially given
    the abundant sources available.

    White is one of those people whose main claim to our attention is an
    escapade in his youth. As a federal politician from the 1930s, he was
    notable only as an adversary of Menzies. Though admired for
    championing various causes, his trenchant opposition ensured that he
    was more often seen as a critic than as a creator. The Brenchleys are
    sloppy over details - the Australian Flying Corps is referred to
    variously as the RFC, the RAF and even the RAAF - and they don't
    explain why the Turks were regarded as ''unspeakable''. But they give
    a fair picture of the spirited prisoners who refused to give in to
    cruel and corrupt captivity.

    Peter Stanley is principal historian of the Australian War
    Memorial. His book, Quinn's Post, Anzac, Gallipoli, will be published
    in April.
Working...
X