WAR infographic

    Background of the battle

 

January 2, 1915: an urgent help request from Grand Duke Nicholas

- In response, the Allies decided to launch a naval expedition to seize the Dardanelles Straits and to allow Russia to receive weapons and munitions

- Allied powers were in need of an alternative route to Russia because western front became deadlocked.

 

    The plan

 

- To open up the 61km long Dardanelles channel (a patch of water linking the Mediterranean up to Istanbul).

- to capture Constantinople

- to knock out Ottoman Turkey, Germany’s ally, out of the war.

- to link up with Russia.

- Altogether, 16 British, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, and French divisions took part in the campaign. 

 

     The Battle

 

FIRST PHASE: February-March 1915 - naval attacks by British and French ships on the Dardanelles Straits:

• First one was on February 19. It was the greatest naval firepower assemblage with 18 allies battleships. It began with a long-range bombardment. Turkish forces abandoned their forts but met the approaching allied minesweepers with heavy fire. Advance of allies was stopped.

• The second one was on March 18 – allies got huge damages on their ships - a joint British-French armada approached the straits in three lines abreast. Turkish fire sank three of the ships and badly damaged three more.

 

SECOND PHASE: April 25 - The ground attack: Allied soldiers (British, French, Australian and New Zealand Army corps) invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula

• Hamilton directed his first attack early in the morning

• Turks had been pushed back at mid morning

• Australians trudged toward the first range of hills

• It was a successful landing for Allies but wrong place for that.

• Anzacs (The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) found themselves at the foot of an extremely steep hill. They realized that an error had been made.

• Gun fire of Turks went on for all day long.

• At the end of April the number of dead and wounded on Turkish and Anzac sides ran into the tens of thousand    

 

THIRD PHASE: On the night of May 18, the Turks launched a massive 50,000-man assault under artillery fire against the Anzacs;

 

By early November, Kitchener commanded that the remaining 105,000 Allied troops should be evacuated.

The last troop departed on January 9, 1916.

The Turks had won a great victory, but they had paid very heavily for it.

It was initially meant to be a diversionary campaign, the Allies had deployed 410,000 British and Commonwealth troops and 79,000 French troops. At the end, it was one of the greatest battles in WW1.

 

     Epilogue

 

- Of the roughly 1 million British, French, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Canadian, African, Ottoman and German men who took part in the Gallipoli campaign, an estimated 110,000 died on the battlefield.

 

- 58,000 allied soldiers were lost (21,000 British, 8,000 Irish soldiers, 8000 Australinas and 2,500New Zealanders), and 97000 wounded alltogether

 

- 87,000 Ottoman Turkish troops died and over 165000 were wounded

 

- Churchill resigned from the government

 

- For Turkey, victory hero was Mustafa Kemal, a 33-year-old lieutenant colonel. As Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, he became the founding father of the Turkish republic in 1923.

 

   Main reasons why allie forces lost

 

 

- The Allies underestimated their enemies.

- They also made little effort to gather intelligence on the opposing Ottoman force.

- Neither General Hamilton nor regimental commanders had adequate maps of the landing beaches

- The Allies hoped to win with their navy alone. 

 

    Interesting facts

 

• the front lines never moved more than a few hundred metres from the beach in eight months of fighting, attacks, fresh landings and counter attacks.

• For the troops of the Anzac, it was to be their first battle.

• Mustafa Kemal’s the most famous citation, he told his men: “I don’t order you to attack; I order you to die.”

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