The Gallipoli Campaign

The Gallipoli Campaign

The year was 1915. Russia was having a hard time getting supplies from Britain and the United States. The northern route was blocked off by German Submarines so that route was impossible. The only route left was south through the Dardanelles Straight. The only problem was the newcomer to the war, the Ottoman Empire, was in control of that area. The Ottoman Empire had been in decline for years so they would be able to be taken care of easily. The Allies were in for a surprise there. The Campaign at Gallipoli was a complete mess and in the end nothing had changed.

By early 1915 the Western Front had settled into a stalemate and The Allies desperately needed a new front. The solution was to attack Gallipoli. The British navy sent around 16 battle ships to shell the area around the Straight. Almost all of the fleet was damaged and 3 of the ships were destroyed by sea mines placed by the Ottomans. It was then clear that a land force was needed to destroy the artillery so that the Allies could remove the mines.

The Allies had made a team of infantry called the ANZAC which consisted of Australian, New Zealand, and British forces. The planned invasion was set for April 25, 1915. The ANZAC were set to arrive on a beach just north of Gaba Tepe but landed a couple miles north instead. The battles soon turned into a Stalemate that lasted until August.

The second wave of infantry was set to land at the tip of the peninsula, called the Helles. This attack is comparable to D-Day and is sometimes called the first D-Day. The Turks had set up defenses around the beach and caused heavy causalities in the Allied ranks. The British had landed in open boats and could be easily picked off by the Turkish machine guns. Out of the first 200 soldiers to disembark, only 21 men actually made it onto the beach.

The Turks launched an assault at Anzac on May 19. There were 42,000 Turks that attacked the remaining 10,000 ANZAC group, but the attack poorly planned. Without much artillery and ammunition, the Turks relied on surprise and the amount of people for success but their plans were detected and the ANZAC group was ready. When it was over the Turks had lost about 10,000 men. In comparison, the ANZAC casualties were a mere 160 dead and 468 wounded. The