Martin Curtis

The Daisy Patch (song)

The Gallipoli campaign in 1915 was one of the most futile and callous military exercises ever embarked upon, and achieved nothing except the deaths of thousands of very brave men who were obeying orders from commanders whose military strategy was decades out of date.

The total indifference of Godley and the British High Command in their attitudes towards the lower ranks, and their fatalistic acceptance of the idea of "natural wastage" of a certain number of soldiers a day was nothing short of criminal.

 One of the most horrific massacres was to take place on the "Daisy Patch" - a totally exposed area of open ground covered in spring daisies which was completely dominated by fortified Turkish machine-gun posts. Despite protests from the Kiwi officers like Moore and Malone, the British commanders insisted on daylight attacks again and again across this notorious place. The New Zealand Infantry Brigade was all but annihilated.

It was almost impossible to condense the story of the Anzac's eight months of hell into a short song, but it was something I felt almost compelled to try and do every since I first read, and then re-read, the history of the campaign. This song is the result and is dedicated to the memory of the 10,000 New Zealanders who were sent there, and the 2,700 who never came back.

The song was first released in 1990 on the album The Daisy Patch and has since been re-released on Live at Greendale and Below the High Country.

The Daisy Patch can be listened to here (MP3 format)

It also features on the Otago my Home DVD - the full excerpt of this can be viewed below, or from Martin's YouTube channel