While 2721 New Zealanders were killed at Gallipoli and 4752 wounded, Australia suffered 8709 dead and 19,441 wounded.
Even these figures pale in comparison with Britain, 21,255 fatalities and 52,230 wounded, or Turkey, 86,692 and 164,617.
France, with 9829 and 17,175, is usually overlooked.
As neighbours with histories with much in common, New Zealanders and Australians shared many experiences and perceptions of Gallipoli.
Yet much of what Fitzsimons writes in this massive (824-page) history of the Australian involvement will be strange to New Zealand readers.
Most of our soldiers seemed to accept they were fighting for King and Empire, and presumed they were to be led by trained officers from ''the Mother Country''.
Australia's experience of convict settlement made it leery of such automatic acceptance.
The performance of many of these British officers left a lot to be desired.
The colonial legacy in Australia of the so-called ''arrogant pom'' was reinforced and lingers.
Like New Zealanders, Australians learned what they knew of Gallipoli from contemporary newspaper reports.
They read of astounding feats of bravery, of thrilling heroism.
Then Australia received the first draft chapters of the Gallipoli landings from a British staff officer turned historian - Colonel Cecil Aspinall-Oglander.
The very name was like a red rag to a bull in caste-conscious Australia.
Counter to the stories of courage, he wrote that there had been outright cowardice: ''For many the breaking point had been passed, and numbers of unwounded men were filtering back to the beach [in an] endless stream ... The gullies at the rear were choked with stragglers and men who had lost their way.''
He maintained, after a relatively easy landing, ''confusion amongst the Australian forces prevented a co-ordinated attack'' which could scarcely have failed ''to win the day''.
There was outrage and calls to remove this stain on the nation's honour, which it was, but it was not forgotten.
This is the best general account of Australia's record at Gallipoli so far.
• Oliver Riddell is a retired journalist in Wellington.
