''The Desert Column: Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine'' is a book by

Ion Idriess Ion Llewellyn Idriess (20 September 18896 June 1979) was a prolific and influential Australian author. He wrote more than 50 books over 43 years between 1927 and 1969 – an average of one book every 10 months, and twice published three books i ...

based on a diary he kept of his service during World War I."Ion Idriess and the legend of the Light Horse", ''Australian War Memorial''
/ref>

Background

Idriess kept a diary from the time he arrived on

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

on 18 May 1915 until March 1918. He participated in the Gallipoli Campaign where he was wounded, then later fought in the

Sinai and Palestine Campaign The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revol ...

including the Battle of Beersheeba. When Idriess returned from the war he put his diaries with his sister in Grafton. In 1929, when he was diagnosed with cancer, he gave up his wandering to concentrate on his writing. He retrieved his diaries, which were acclaimed by some observers as Australia's equivalent to ''

All Quiet on the Western Front ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' () is a semi-autobiographical novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma during the war as well as the detachme ...

''. (He later also claimed his sister sent the diaries to Angus and Robertson for publication without his knowledge.) They were published in 1932 with Sir Harry Chauvel writing the introduction.Simon Miller, "The Desert Column : the WW1 diaries of Ion Idriess", 04 Aug 2014
/ref> The Desert Column was one of his very early works. Sir Henry Georges Fauvel, a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force noted in the foreword that it was the only book of the campaign that to his knowledge was ‘viewed entirely from the private soldier’s point of view’. Idriess' original diaries are kept in the research collection of the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...

Reception

It went into a second edition within a week of publication.

References

External links

''Desert Column''
at Ion Idriess Fan Page
Complete copy of book
at New Zealand Military Rifles 1932 non-fiction books English-language non-fiction books Personal accounts of World War I War diaries Books by Ion Idriess Australian memoirs Angus & Robertson books {{WWI-book-stub