Gallipoli
Between the first landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915 and the evacuation which began eight months later in December, some 43,750 allied soldiers lost their lives. At least 85,000 Turkish soldiers died.
The casualty figures were small compared to the later catastrophic losses in France and Belgium but nonetheless devastating for families at home as the true extent of the losses began to emerge.
The Australians had been training in Egypt, where the name Anzac, for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, was adopted. Some 18 000 of them had sailed from Albany in the south of Western Australia on 1 November 1914 expecting to disembark in England. Canadian troops had already arrived in England and the British were unable to accommodate the Australians-and New Zealanders-who were instead re-directed to Egypt. There they received their unexpected orders to go to Gallipoli-their first battle orders-following the failure of British and French naval assaults on Turkey in the Dardanelles.
The preceding February a British fleet and a French naval squadron had bombarded Turkish forts along the Dardanelles in an unsuccessful effort to force a passage through the narrow straits to the Turkish capital of Constantinople. The naval attack was in response to a request from Britain's Russian allies who had lost a major battle to Germany in the east and were threatened by Turkish forces in the Caucasus. A successful campaign would reopen trade routes with Russia. Attacking Turkey was seen also as strategically important to preventing the Suez Canal from falling into enemy hands.
Following the failure of a second naval attack in March, British strategists decided to use the army to attack overland in an effort to neutralise the forts. Troops were to be disembarked at several points along the Gallipoli coastline and proceed across the peninsula in a series of frontal attacks on Turkish forces. The strategists failed to take into account Turkey's preparedness following the naval attacks which had exposed her vulnerability in the Dardanelles, and failed to allow for the nature of the terrain which left disembarking forces exposed to Turkish resistance.
Disease and illness exacerbated the military failure of Gallipoli. Disquiet over the wisdom of the campaign gathered momentum and in London on 7 December 1915, the British agreed on withdrawal. Just 12 days later, the British left Suvla and the Australians and New Zealanders left that piece of Gallipoli that became known as Anzac Cove within days of the landing, and later, just Anzac. British and French troops were withdrawn from Helles on 8 January. In contrast to the bitter campaign, the evacuation from the peninsula was skillfully executed.



