MOST people recuperating from a triple heart bypass might be tempted to take life a little easier, but for a retired GP in Minehead, the enforced 'R&R' gave him the perfect opportunity to finally put his father's incredible war diaries into print.

Dr John Godrich spent his recovery period painstakingly researching the trials and tribulations of the men sent to fight the Turks in Gallipoli in what was to become a failed attempt to secure a sea route to Russia during World War One.

His father Victor Godrich saw action as a member of the Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars and recorded his experiences in detail in a diary which is now held in the archive at the Worcester City Museum.

Dr Godrich has spent the last two years editing his father's war diary, putting together a collection of 90 historical photographs and 50 never before seen watercolours for the book, Mountains of Moab.

The 240 pages follow the story of the cavalryman, fighting the Turks from Cairo to Damascus and on to Gallipoli.

Along with many of his fellow countrymen from the shires of England, Victor had joined the local yeomanry, the mounted units of the Territorial Army.

He was shipped with his horse to Egypt in April 1915 and soon posted to the Suvla Bay landing at Gallipoli.

He survived the horrors of the conflict but was ironically then struck down by typhoid fever and sent to a military hospital in Malvern to recuperate.

Recovered, he was again sent to the Middle East in time for the last ever British cavalry charge - on the Turkish guns at Huj - and then took part in the three battles for Gaza.

After the liberation of Jerusalem, he wintered in the Moabite Mountains of Judea before being demobilised at Damascus in August 1918 and returning home to England.

His diary charts the individual and wider battles facing the troops and reveals in grim detail the horrors faced by his countrymen.

"We had many rough times afterwards on the desert and in the hills of Palestine, but they were not to be compared with Gallipoli.

"I shall always remember the hopeless dawns, the thirst, hunger, filth, heat, stench and the sunken cheeks and staring eyes of men dying," he wrote.

And in reflective mood at Gallipoli he mused: "War is a glorious pastime in books when you have the whole scheme laid out, the strategy explained and a map with a red line showing 'our position' marked.

"But to the poor beggars 'doing it' there is nothing but misery.

"One is just a 'unit'. Your job is to do your turn on the parapet then get down and sleep (if you can), then you have to start digging or go for a mile or two under fire to fetch water, rations or ammunitions."

But if the cavalrymen suffered, so too did their horses, and in his preface, Dr Godrich writes: "When you read this book, think always of the horses.

"They were shipped by the thousands to take part in the campaign, a cavalry regiment had up to 400 in action at full strength.

"At the end of the war some officers managed to ship their beloved hunters back to England but the majority were sold to dealers then used by Arab merchants with carts, becoming abused, emaciated and diseased."

Mountains of Moab costs £20 and is available directly from Dr Godrich by emailing [email protected]">[email protected], Exmoor Printers of Tregonwell Road, Minehead or Brendon Books and Waterstones in Taunton.

More details are also available on the website http://www.mountainsofmoab.co.uk">www.mountainsofmoab.co.uk.

Some 50 per cent of the profits from the sale of the Mountains of Moab will go to the Worcestershire Yeomanry Museum Trust.