ANZAC Day - The Gallipoli Landings

Gallipoli Naval Assault

Allied proposals and discussions had been initiated in late 1914 for an assault on the Ottoman Empire, which had aligned itself with the Central Powers, to open trade routes through to the Black Sea and onto Russia. Initially the thought was to take Alexandretta, a city in the south of Turkey but this idea was abandoned in favour of a naval assault on the Dardanelles. And so it was that a force combined of ships (and submarines) from the Royal Navy, French Navy, the Imperial Russian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy attempted to force their way through the Ottoman defences of the Dardanelle Straits on the orders of Winston Churchill in November of 1914. Between November in 1914 and March of 1915 various naval attacks were thwarted by Ottoman defences, particularly the mines laid by German engineers in the straights, and eventually the naval plan was abandoned in favour of troop landings on the peninsula.

Gallipoli Land Assault

Gallipoli Beach Landings April 25th

After the ill-fated Naval campaign in the Dardanelles the decision was made to attempt landings on the northern shores of the Gallipoli peninsula - the plan was to overtake the Ottoman artillery batteries thus making it easier for the allied naval forces to advance through the Dardanelles and onto the Sea of Marmara and ultimately obtain their final objective and capture the city of Istanbul. The Gallipoli allied landings were originally scheduled for the 23rd of April but were postponed due to weather issues and instead took place on the 25th of April 1915. There were 5 beaches earmarked for landings named beaches Y, X, W, V and S. Allied communications appeared to have been poor, the senior military leadership was in question and the well prepared Ottoman defences all served to ensure the landings did not go to plan and with many casualties on both sides the conflict turned into a tactical stalemate. This was especially so at Ari Burnu and at what is now known as ANZAC Cove where little progress was made by the ANZACS and as enemy reinforcements arrived, the possibility of a swift victory at Gallipoli disappeared and the fighting at Cape Helles and the area uphill of Anzac Cove became a battle of wills utilising trench warfare, grenades and plenty of deadly sniper fire.

Gallipoli August Offensive

The original landings in April were deemed a failure and a new plan was drawn up by General Sir Ian Hamilton where the plan was to secure the Sari Bair Range and capture the high ground of Chunuk Bair. Both the allies and the Ottomans had been well reinforced at this stage and both believed they would be victorious through sheer will and weight of troops. On the 6th of August some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict occurred at the Battle of Lone Pine , which was instigated by the Australians as a diversionary attack with the objective of drawing the Ottomans away from the supposed main assaults being conducted by the New Zealanders, British and Indian troops around Sari Bair and Hill 971. On the 7th of August the New Zealand Infantry Brigade made it within 500 metres of the heights of Chunuk Bair but it wasn't until the following morning that they seized the summit. The Kiwis held Chunuk Bair for two days before being relieved but an Ottoman counterattack on the 10th of August pushed the Allies from the valuable position and it became clear that the Allies chance of victory was lost.

Gallipoli Allied Evacuation

The Ottoman successes in defending Gallipoli began to affect public opinion of the conflict in Britain especially with negative reports coming out of Turkey by various stationed reporters and war correspondents. As a result Sir Ian Hamilton was sacked as commander and possibility of evacuation was discussed. Sadly the procrastination led to a change of season and the weather turned harsh as heat gave way to gales, rain, floods, blizzards and freezing temperatures. Many men on both sides fell ill from dysentery and other disease and deaths occurred from trench collapses, drownings and even men freezing to death.

At Suvla Bay and at ANZAC Cove the decision was made to evacuate in late December and after the massive rainstorm of November 26th 1915 troop numbers had already been reduced in the area. Various ruses were put in place to fool the defending troops into believing that the allies were still maintaining position with the ingenious water dripping firing mechanism developed by William Scurry among them. At ANZAC Cove an hours silence on December 20th caused curiosity amongst Ottoman troops and they eventually left their defensive positions to inspect the allied trenches upon which the ANZACS opened fire forcing enemy retreat. A massive mine was detonated at The Nek which killed 70 Ottomans as a final deception and eventually the allied forces disembarked the area with the final troops evacuating on December 20th. Vast supplies and stores were left to the Ottomans as the Allies made haste with their quiet withdrawal. Not one Australian soldier was killed during the miraculous evacuation although experts have since offered a theory that perhaps the Ottomans just refused to shoot the invading enemy in the back.

In the south at Cape Helles the allied positions were held until the 9th of January with the last of the troops to withdraw were the Newfoundland Regiment, The Royal Marine Light Infantry and the Plymouth Battalion. The allied evacuation in the south were much more successful in taking supplies and equipment with them but sadly many hundreds of mules and horses were put to death along with more than 1500 vehicles that were destroyed so as to deny the Ottomans any spoils.