Month: May 2024

The Battle Of Gallipoli took place in the Gallipoli Peninsula where the Ottoman Empire ruled that area back then. The Battle Of Gallipoli was also one of the ANZAC’s bloodiest days during The Great War which resulted in them losing at least 11,r79 men and with the Allies losses, that adds up to 250,000 men. The Gallipoli campaign resulted in a victory for the Ottoman Empire but they also lost an estimate of 250,000 men which is identical to the Allied losses.

The Campaign started in three locations across Gallipoli which is Gallipoli, The Gallipoli Peninsula & Dardanelles Strait. At dawn on 25 April 1915, Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey. The Gallipoli campaign was the land-based element of a strategy intended to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war but everything didn’t go as planned.

The campaign started in February 19th 1915 when British Admiralty Winston Churchill pushed for a naval attack on the Dardanelles bombarded with British and French battleship’s. It then resumed on the 25th because of bad weather conditions. Also the Ottoman’s had placed mines in the water and many of the mine sweepers failed to detect them and those ships went KABOOM! The British also sent Royal Marines to sabotage the Ottoman Artillery.

On March the 18th Allied battleships entered the straits. Fire from the Ottoman and undetected mines sent three of the battleship sinking into the ground and three more damaged. The naval assault could not finish due to the Ottoman’s guns needing to be silenced and the minefields also which made it impossible to do at the same time. After the failed naval attack, a full scale ambitious beach invasion would happen on Gallipoli and the peninsula of Gallipoli to.

General Ian Hamilton was commander and had assembled 77 ships and 75’000 men but however, he lacked specialist land crafts. Under his command was A.N.Z.A.C, British Forces and French Troops. The landing started on the 25th of April on Cape Helles where the ally suffered heavy casualties while establishing the beachheads on Cape Helles and A.N.Z.A.C Cove on the Aegean Coast. The A.N.Z.A.C had landed a little north of the landing site that was intended of Gaba Tepe at a cove instead.

The Gaba Tepe landing would be known as the A.N.Z.A.C Cove landing, in honour of the Australian and New Zealand troops who fought valiantly against the determined Ottoman defenders. After the landing the Allies could not progress as trench warfare progressed very fast just it had done on theWestern Front. The summer heat, and the dysentery epidemic was unbearable  and swarms of flies hung around the corpses.

Hamilton ordered an attack on Suvla Bay involving 63’000 Allied troops. They were to link up with the A.N.Z.A.C at A.N.Z.A.C Cove and break the stalemate. But indecision would meant that the Ottoman would reinforce that position, and on August the 10th an attack, led by Mustafa Kemal, recaptured Suvla Bay. Allied casualties increased as the stalemate continued.

Reinforcements were lacking, it was time for evacuation. The order was given on the 7th of December, with the last troops to leave Suvla Bay and A.N.Z.A.C Cove before dawn, on the 20th of December 1915. The last troops left Cape Helles on January the 9th, 1916 and the evacuation was a success with no casualties. The Gallipoli Campaign was a disaster with the Allied 250’000 casualties. While the Ottoman suffered an estimate of 250,000 casualties.

To this day, A.N.Z.A.C day is a day to remember the soldiers who we lost during this war. A.N.Z.A.C day is a day remembered in New Zealand, Australia. It is also a day remembered in Turkey to remember the last victory for the Ottoman Empire before it’s collapse.