Gallipoli << guh LIHP uh lee >> campaign was a clash between Allied and Turkish forces during World War I (1914-1918). The campaign took place on Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula (now also called Gelibolu Peninsula). At the time of the war, Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire, a German ally. The Allies invaded the peninsula on April 25, 1915. The Gallipoli landing was at that time the largest military landing in history. However, the Allies ultimately failed to advance against Turkish defenses. The last Allied troops withdrew in January 1916. Allied forces included soldiers from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, India, and elsewhere. A number of German troops aided the Turkish effort.
In Turkey, the campaign is considered one of the nation’s greatest victories. It is remembered there as the Battle of Çanakkale, after a nearby coastal town. The campaign was a disaster for the Allies, and it became a symbol of the futility of the war.
Background.
In the first months of World War I, brutal trench warfare on the Western Front killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The Western Front stretched across Belgium and northeastern France. The carnage—and lack of success—led Allied leaders to look for other ways to defeat Germany. Winston Churchill, serving as the British first lord of the Admiralty, believed the Allies could cripple Germany by defeating the Ottoman Empire.
The Gallipoli Peninsula stands on the Aegean Sea at the entrance to a strait known as the Dardanelles. The Dardanelles is part of the waterway connecting the Aegean and the Black Sea. The waterway leads to Istanbul, which was at that time called Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. After World War I began in 1914, the Ottoman Empire closed the Dardanelles. The closure blocked access to Russia, which was an ally to France and the United Kingdom.
Churchill’s plan called for Allied warships to open the strait and capture Constantinople. Success would remove the Ottoman Empire from the war, weaken Germany, and strengthen Russia. It might also convince nearby states—Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and Romania—to join the Allied cause. Allied leaders expected a quick victory.
In February 1915, British and French warships entered the Dardanelles, but Turkish shore defenses and sea mines repelled the assault. In March, another attempt to open the strait also failed, with the loss of several warships. The Allies then hastily assembled an invasion force to secure the shores of the strait.
An initial landing force of 75,000 Allied troops gathered in Egypt and on nearby Greek islands. The force consisted mainly of British soldiers and troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). Several thousand French troops also joined the invasion force, along with a number of soldiers from India.
The Turks, having been forewarned by the naval attacks, were ready for the Allied invasion. They set up extensive trenches, gun positions, and other defensive works on the ridges overlooking Gallipoli’s beaches. About 84,000 troops awaited the assault. Allied leaders underestimated the Turks’ defenses, as well as the difficulty of the peninsula’s terrain.
The battle.
The Allied invasion force reached Gallipoli on the morning of April 25, 1915. British troops landed at Cape Helles, the southern tip of the peninsula. French troops launched a diversionary attack—an attack intended to draw attention away—across the strait. The French troops then joined the British at Helles on April 27. ANZAC forces landed farther up the Aegean coast at Gaba Tepe—an area that became known as Anzac Cove.
The invading troops encountered heavy enemy fire. Numerous soldiers were wounded or killed as the Allies established narrow beachheads (footholds). The Turks also suffered heavy casualties (people wounded, captured, or killed), but they contained the Allied forces on the beaches.
Over the next few months, repeated Allied attacks crumbled against the Turkish defenses. Massive Turkish counterattacks also failed. In May, a temporary truce allowed both sides to recover and bury dead soldiers. Each side brought in thousands of reinforcements. By the end of July, combined casualties topped 100,000, but the battle lines were little changed. On August 6, a new Allied landing took place at Suvla Bay, north of Gaba Tepe. The new landing and additional attacks met with little or no success.
Conditions on Gallipoli were miserable. In the confined battle areas, troops were rarely safe from enemy fire. Flies swarmed the dead on the battlefields. Soldiers suffered from dysentery (an intestinal disease), intense heat, and blistering sun. Later in the campaign, soldiers endured freezing temperatures and flash floods.
Gallipoli quieted in the autumn of 1915. Allied troops were diverted to Greece to meet the threat of Bulgarian troops who were now fighting on the side of Germany. The Allies eventually decided to abandon Gallipoli. In December, about 83,000 troops were removed from Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay. The last troops at Cape Helles pulled out on Jan. 9, 1916.
Aftermath.
During the course of the Gallipoli campaign, some 500,000 Allied troops saw action. Turkish numbers also reached 500,000. Turkey suffered more than 250,000 casualties, including 87,000 dead. Allied casualties were about the same, with more than 40,000 killed.
The Gallipoli campaign nearly ruined the career of Winston Churchill. He was forced to resign from the Admiralty, but he returned to prominence as minister of munitions in July 1917. Churchill later served as prime minister of the United Kingdom during and after World War II (1939-1945).
The Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal became a national hero as a result of the campaign. His inspiring leadership was key to the Turkish defense. Kemal later helped found the Republic of Turkey and served as the nation’s first president.
In Australia and New Zealand, April 25, the date of the Allied landing, is remembered as Anzac Day. It is a patriotic holiday to honor Australians and New Zealanders who served in their country’s armed forces. In Turkey, March 18, the day the Turks repelled the last Allied naval assault, is remembered as Martyrs’ Day. It is also a patriotic holiday to honor the campaign and its fallen soldiers.
