The Gallipoli Campaign

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The Gallipoli Campaign

The Battle of Gallipoli took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey (Ottoman Empire) from April of 1915 to December of 1915. The fight was a joint British and French operation that was started to capture the Dardenelles, which would then secure a sea route to supply Russia, who was losing badly on the Eastern Front. The allies also hoped to capture Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The British were aided by two of their former colonies as some 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders were part of a larger British force. In the battle 7,500 Australians were killed, while another 26,000 Australians were wounded. 2,400 New Zealanders were killed while another 7,500 were wounded. In numerical terms the Gallipoli Campaign was a minor battle but it took on considerable national and personal importance to the many Australians and New Zealanders who aided the British war effort by fighting in Gallipoli.

The Ottoman Empire entered into the Great War at the end of October 1914. The Ottomans still had not yet recovered from their revolutionary wars of 1911 through 1913. At this point, the Ottoman treasury was empty. The Ottoman leader was a thirty-three year-old military officer and national hero named Enver Pasha. Pasha saw the war in Europe as an opportunity for the Ottomans to take back lands that had been lost during Balkan independence movements and land that had been absorbed by the Russian Empire. Pasha dreamed of reinvigorating the Ottoman Empire. Pasha feared that if Britain, France and Russia won against Germany and Austria-Hungary, they might deprive the Ottomans of more of their empire. So Pasha decided to take the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers, Germany & Austria-Hungary.

In 1915, the Ottomans closed the strait of Dardanelles between the Mediterranean and Black Seas, preventing Russia from exporting wheat or receiving shipments of weapons and materials from its allies.

Meanwhile Winston Churchill, who was the First Admiral in charge of the British Navy planned a military offensive against the Ottomans at Gallipoli to capture Dardanelles, which would open a secure passage for the Russians & British Navy. Eventually Churchill also wanted to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Government, which would take the Ottomans out of the war.

On April 25th, the two former British colonies formed ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and launched an attack with the British Navy on the Gallipolli peninsula. However, the Ottoman troops under the command of Colonel Mustafa Kemel had dug a series of trenches (similar to the Western Front in Europe) in order to defeat the allied advance. Several German officers also assisted the Ottomans.

Despite some early allied victories, the tide turned in favor of the Central Powers. Thus the allied forces clearly saw that no possibility remained either of breaking the Ottoman defense in the Dardanelles or of achieving any result in the Gallipoli Campaign, above all of achieving their ambition of taking Istanbul. Over 33,000 allied and 86,000 Ottoman (Turkish) troops died in the eight-month Gallipoli Campaign, which achieved none of its objectives. A British royal commission later concluded that the operation had been ill conceived. Large numbers of the dead have no known grave. The biggest failure of Churchill and the Allies was the fact that they underestimated the military skills of Mustafa Kemel and his brave soldiers.

Questions: Please answer on the back.

1. What were the main two objectives of the allies at the start of the Gallipoli Campaign?
2. What were the reasons that the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers during the war?
3. What action in 1915 caused the British Admiralty to begin a military offensive?
4. What was ANZAC and what was the number of casualties for at least one of Britain’s colonies?
5. What were the reasons that the Allies did not achieve their objectives in Gallipoli (be specific)?