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Panel 8: Evacuation

Williams Pier, North Beach, Gallipoli, December 1915

view of the beach north of Anzac Cove. In the foreground some men are standing on Williams' Pier at North Beach, and a crowd of others is nearby. Between the pier and a wharf is a K lighter, used to transport stores but only suitable for still water

I hope our poor pals who lie all around us sleep soundly, and do not stir in discontent as we go filing away from them forever.

New Zealand soldier at the evacuation of Gallipoli

After August, the British mounted no further major attacks at Gallipoli. The British Government grew alarmed at the failure to break through to the Dardanelles and there was mounting criticism of the whole venture. In November, when winter arrived, there were men who froze at their posts and over 16,000 troops suffering from frostbite and exposure had to be evacuated. Eventually it was decided that the campaign could not meet its objectives and the British and Dominion force on Gallipoli should withdraw. Many thought a withdrawal would result in heavy casualties. However, elaborate precautions were taken to deceive the Turks into thinking nothing unusual was happening.

Between 8 and 20 December 1915, 90,000 men were secretly embarked from Suvla and Anzac. On 8 and 9 January 1916 a similar evacuation was conducted at Helles. Only a handful of casualties were suffered in these well-executed operations.

Williams Pier, North Beach, Gallipoli, December 1915, with the Sphinx in the background. At this time the preparations for the evacuation of the Australian and New Zealand troops from Anzac were well under way. (Australian War Memorial C01621)

Why was this image chosen?

The photograph chosen for the 8th interactive panel: Williams Pier, North Beach taken December 1915

The photograph chosen for the 8th interactive panel: Williams Pier, North Beach taken December 1915. [AWM C01621]

From the point of view of the British Empire and Dominion forces on Gallipoli no operation there was so successfully carried out as the evacuation of 8 to 20 December 1915. For that reason alone it deserves a panel to itself. The panel text concentrates on the reasons for the withdrawal and the simple facts of how many were successfully taken off the peninsula without the Turks becoming aware what was happening.

The feeling of the soldiers about leaving Gallipoli is well summed up in the prefatory quotation from a New Zealand soldier. Basically, many of the men were greatly saddened by having to leave behind the graves of their dead comrades. Bean tells us their reaction to the news of the evacuation:

For days after the breaking of the news there were never absent from the cemeteries men by themselves, or in twos and threes, erecting new crosses or tenderly ‘tidying-up’ the grave of a friend. This was by far the deepest regret of the troops. ‘I hope,’ said one of them to [General] Birdwood on the final day [19 December], pointing to a little cemetery, ‘I hope they won’t hear us marching down the deres [gullys]'.

[Charles Bean, The Story of Anzac, Vol II, Sydney, 1924, p.882]