Gallipoli Campaign 1915

Main battles involving Australians:

• Landing at Anzac Cove 25 April 1915
• Early battles and the Third Turkish Attack on Anzac Cove 19 May 1915
• Landing at Suvla Bay 6 to 15 August 1915
• Battle of Sari Bair (August Offensive) 6 to 21 August 1915
• Battle of Lone Pine 6 to 10 August 1915
• Charge at the Nek 7 August 1915

Nations involved in the campaign

Sources differ in their definition of a casualty of the Gallipoli Campaign. This leads to the publication of many different statistics. Some refer to the dead, wounded and captured. Others include non-battle casualties, such as illness. Most casualty statistics, particularly Turkish, are estimates only. Many sources do not identify the authority of their figures. The following estimates are from 5 sources.

Sources: Harvey Broadbent, Gallipoli: The Fatal Shore; CEW Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918; Robin Prior, Gallipoli: The End of the Myth; Christopher Pugsley, The Anzac Experience; Australian War Memorial Encyclopedia.

Background to the campaign

By early 1915, the Allies were in a deadlock with Germany on the Western Front. And the early successes of the Russian Army were being reversed on the Eastern Front.

The First Lord of the British Admiralty in 1915 was Winston Churchill. He wanted to strike at the Central Powers. He proposed attacking on a new front in south-eastern Europe to:

• capture the narrow strait of the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Boğazı)
• get Allied ships near Constantinople (now Istanbul) to bring the city under fire
• open Russia's shipping route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea
• free Russian merchant ships blockaded by Ottoman forces.

The Dardanelles Strategy began with the Allies attempting to force their way through the strait using only naval power. Early bombardments of the Turkish coastal forts failed. On 18 March 1915, 3 Allied battleships hit Turkish sea mines and sank, and 3 others took heavy damage.

Senior Allied officers concluded the Allies would only succeed with amphibious landings on the Gallipoli peninsula. Unless ground troops landed to capture the coastal forts, the goals of the initial strategy would remain out of reach.

Preparations in Egypt

By late 1914, Australian and New Zealand troops had landed in Egypt. Soon after, the British high command decided a ground assault was necessary on Gallipoli.

In March 1915, General Sir Ian Hamilton[Britannica] went to Egypt to take command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF). The MEF was a force of more than 70,000 men. It comprised British, French, British Indian, Australian, Newfoundland and New Zealand army units. There was also a division from Britain's Royal Navy (RN).

While training in Egypt, the Australians and New Zealanders combined into one corps, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).

British Indian Army Officer, Lieutenant-General William Birdwood, took command of ANZAC. The men attached to ANZAC were soon known as ‘the Anzacs'.

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Allied plans

The MEF's mission was to seize the Gallipoli peninsula. This would clear the way for the RN to bring the Turkish capital of Constantinople under fire. And hopefully force an Ottoman surrender.

Led by General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, the British 29th Division was to land at Cape Helles. The goal of the 29th Division was to push inland and capture a piece of high ground called Achi Baba (Alçıtepe). The Anzacs would land further north at Gaba Tepe. The invasion was planned for dawn on 23 April 1915 but suffered a 2-day delay due to poor weather.

The French troops would stage a fake landing on the Asian shore of the Dardanelles near Kum Kale (Kumkale) as a diversion. Then they would re-embark to support the British at Cape Helles.

The British forces planned to advance at a rapid pace and take the high plateau of Kilid Bahr (Kilitbahir) plateau. Meanwhile, the Anzacs would gain the Sari Bair (Sarı Bayır) range and advance on a strategic position. The position was a hill called Mal Tepe (Maltepe) overlooking the road which led from the east to the south of the peninsula. The position was essential for the Ottomans to move in their reinforcements.

The Allies' plan was for a quick victory. Few people thought that it would result in a long campaign. The British high command held low opinions of the Ottomans' fighting ability. This was due to a perceived decline of the Ottoman Empire's power over the preceding 100 years.

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Preparations at Lemnos

In the month before the invasion, MEF units gathered on the Greek island of Lemnos, 100 km south-west of Gallipoli. Here, at Mudros Harbour, was the main base camp for the campaign. It soon became an area for large, tented hospitals. These included the No 1 Australian Stationary Hospital and the 3rd Australian General Hospital (3AGH).

By this time, the Anzacs and their officers were aware of their destination. Certain officers were more enthusiastic about landing practise:

... Lieutenant Green [12th Battalion, Tasmania and Western Australia] was detached for duty. No one exactly knew what his duty was, but he could always be seen careering around the harbour in a motor or steam launch, or towing lighters or barges from jetty to troopship ... the ease with which he substituted nautical orders for military words of command gained him the nickname ... 'The Admiral'.

On the afternoon of 24 April 1915, the Anzacs boarded transports, destroyers and battleships for a short overnight voyage. The more reflective of them were aware that this would be a significant event for Australia.

Lieutenant Alan Henderson of the 7th Battalion was a 20-year-old accountant from Hawthorn, Victoria. A few days later he confided in a letter to home, which would have arrived after he was killed in action:

It is going to be Australia's chance and she makes a tradition out of this that she must always look back on. God grant it will be a great one. The importance of this alone seems stupendous to Australia.

Lieutenant-Commander Ralph Wilkinson commanded the British destroyer HMS Ribble. As they headed for Gallipoli that night, Wilkinson admired the soldiers of the 12th Battalion on board his ship. He described them as ‘the cream of the men of Australia'. Wilkinson had a close conversation with one of the men:

I well remember a very fine Australian officer ... he spoke to me of his wife and his children, showing me snapshots of them. He asked me, ‘Was I right to volunteer and come?' – I trust my answer helped to reassure him.

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Summary of the campaign

The Gallipoli Campaign was the land-based element of a broader strategy to defeat the Ottoman Empire.

A British–French fleet had made several attempts to breach Ottoman defences in the Dardanelles. The fleet suffered a decisive defeat on 18 March 1915.

The Allies realised that naval forces alone were unlikely to force a surrender. They hoped that the infantry would destroy the shore-based defences. An Allied victory would:

• allow Allied naval ships to pass through the Dardanelles to attack Constantinople
• knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

Success depended on a quick victory, but this did not occur.

Early on the morning of 25 April 1915, Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Türkiye.

The British Army landed at Cape Helles. The Anzacs landed north of Gaba Tepe (Kabatepe) headland, on a beach later called ‘Anzac Cove'. (We call this the Anzac landing.) French troops landed in a feint at Kum Kale on the Dardanelles' Asian shore before moving to the Helles sector on Gallipoli.

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Strong Turkish resistance led to lengthy trench warfare through the harsh scrubby slopes and valleys. Fighting during the landings and early battles resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. The unhygienic conditions for soldiers at Gallipoli caused serious illnesses. As the campaign moved into summer, more men were evacuated because of illness than wounds sustained during the conflict.

From the start of the campaign, the Turkish men clung to the high ground with fierce determination. The Allies could not advance against the higher-positioned Turkish soldiers. The Turkish, in turn, could not force the Allies back into the sea.

In August 1915, a reinforced Allied force of 11 divisions tried to break the deadlock.

The August Offensive began with an assault on Suvla Bay and diversionary attacks at Cape Helles and the Anzac front. These actions tried to draw Ottoman reserves away from the main Allied attack on the Sari Bair range, north of the Anzac lines.

At Lone Pine, the Anzacs were successful after days of intense trench fighting. Of the 9 Victoria Crosses awarded to Australian soldiers on Gallipoli, 7 were for actions at Lone Pine.

At the Nek, the 8th and 10th Light Horse regiments were cut down as they tried to cross no-man's-land and seize the Ottoman trenches.

Soon afterwards, the New Zealanders launched an assault against the hills around Chunuk Bair, north of Anzac Cove. The Wellington Regiment did manage to take control of Chunuk Bair on 8 August. British reinforcements were unable to hold the position in the face of a forceful Turkish counterattack two days later. Ultimately, both this attack and the British landing at Suvla Bay failed.

The battle returned to a stalemate.

Finally, senior British commanders decided to evacuate. First Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay in December 1915. Then Cape Helles in January 1916.

The Gallipoli Campaign was a failure for the Allies. But the campaign did help to draw Ottoman troops away from the Caucasus front. On this front, running from the Black Sea to Persia, Russian and Ottoman soldiers engaged in bitter fighting.

The battles fought on Gallipoli also established the great military reputation of the original Anzacs.

Landings at Gallipoli map