Armed only with rifles, bayonets and raw courage, the men of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade left the shelter of their rocky trenches to storm the Nek, a narrow stretch of ridge held by the Ottoman Turks. The first wave of attackers were cut down almost as soon as they stood up. Those that followed knew they were going to die. Yet they too charged without question, stumbling over the bodies of their fallen comrades before they also fell. The commander of the 10th Light Horse Regiment attempted to have the third wave cancelled, but he could not convince the Brigade Major. Using the letters and diaries of those who fought and died, John Hamilton takes the reader on a journey from the rush to recruit in August 1914 when war was declared, through the training camps to the unforgiving terrain of Gallipoli and the unbending Turkish defenders, and finally to that fateful morning and that fatal charge.

Originally published: Goodbye cobber, God bless you. Sydney : Pan MacMillan, 2004. Original title misspelled on title page verso. "First published as Goodbye cobber, God bless you, by Pan MacMillan, Australia Pty Ltd., 2004"--Title page verso.