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The Gaffe at Gallipoli

By the beginning of 1915, fighting on the Western Front had come to a stalemate. Both sides faced each other from a line of opposing trenches: the battle developed into a bloody gridlock.

Winston Churchill, First Lord of the admiralty, conceived of a plan to get around the impasse. He focused on Gallipoli (not many Americans could have found it on a map) located on the northwest coast of Turkey between the Gulf of Samos and the Dardanelles. The Dardanelles is a narrow strait approximately 38 miles long and 0.75 to 3.7 miles wide. For over a thousand years, the ancient city of Troy has controlled the channels entrance.

Churchill’s plan was to open a sea passage through the Dardanelles to the Black Sea in order to support the Russians and force Germany to continue fighting on the Eastern Front. The strategy was also to eliminate Turkey--who had joined the Central Powers in November 1914--from the war and possibly gain the support of Greece and Bulgaria.

While senior allied naval commanders expressed their concern over how fast Churchill wanted to proceed, he eventually got the approval of the War Council. Not long after the war began, Churchill wrote a friend, “The price to be paid in taking Gallipoli would no doubt be heavy, but there would be no more war with Turkey. A good army of 50,000 and sea-power—that is the end of the Turkish menace.”

Allied Naval Attack

Admiral Sackville Carden was in command of the large British fleet that included 12 battleships, three battle cruisers, three light cruisers, 16 destroyers, six submarines, four seaplanes, 12 minesweepers, and other various attendant vessels. French Admiral Emile Guepratte commanded the much smaller squadron of four battleships and its supporting craft.

On the morning of February 19, 1915, the combined fleets moved through the narrow Dardanelles strait bombarding the outer fortresses on the Gallipoli peninsula. The naval strategists had underestimated the difficulty of forcing their way through the narrows, which were heavily protected by mines and well-placed Turkish batteries. While the two fleets did some damage, the Turkish defensive forces fared well causing the attack to come to a halt: it was not a good opening attack by the Allies. The weather then turned bad and there was no action for the next four days. Meanwhile the British and Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops were on standby in Egypt.

About a week later on February 25, the fleet renewed their bombardment. While they managed to take over some of the outer forts on the peninsula, the Turkish forces halted the attack again. On March 18, a final attempt to get through the Dardanelles also failed. The fleet ran into a heavily mined narrow strait, which resulted in the loss of four major battleships. At this point, the British commanders realized that a land assault was necessary in order to be successful. By March 23, Churchill had resigned and it appeared that his political career was over. No doubt Churchill had blundered, but then, there was the Second World War.

Landings on the Peninsula

Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, appointed Ian Hamilton to command the expeditionary force during the Gallipoli Campaign. It was clear the battle would be won or lost on land. Hamilton’s force was composed of Australian, New Zealand, British, French and Indian soldiers. According to Anne Bostanci, India contributed almost 1.5 million troops to support Britain’s war effort. The Indian Expeditionary Force fought at Gallipoli on the Western Front and also in several other countries; sadly, India has never received appropriate credit for their loyalty to the Allies.

The initial land operation, which began on April 25, took place at two different locations: Cape Helles at the southern tip of the peninsula and further up the Aegean coast at Ari Burnu (later renamed Anzac Cove). While several of the landing sites at Helles were secured, the landing at Sedd-el-Bahr was a disaster. As the troops moved in on rowboats and cutters they were met by heavy machine gun fire. Many of the troops were killed before they even got ashore.

While the landing at Anza Cove went unopposed, the troops were faced with a hilly terrain and steep cliffs, and the beachhead quickly became congested. The troops managed to fight their way inland, but were hit by Turkish fire and eventually were driven back to the beach. At both landing sites, the ANZAC troops were able to establish and hold beachheads but they suffered heavy casualties.

From the latter part of April to early June, the Allies then proceeded with three separate attacks to strike north toward Krithia. Fierce Turkish resistance repulsed all three attacks and they ended in failure. Meanwhile, First Sea Lord John Fisher also had resigned over the failures at Gallipoli. In early June, Churchill was presenting the case for a renewed offensive, saying, “Across the ridges of the Gallipoli peninsula lie some of the shortest paths to a triumphant peace.”

The Allies were greatly concerned about how badly the landings were going so far. Lord Kitchener decided to send additional troops to the peninsula knowing that the commanders of Allied forces on the Western Front were opposed to doing so. Meanwhile the Turks were also moving reserve troops forward to bolster their defense.

The next development of the battle started on August 6 with the landings at Suvla Bay, which was not heavily fortified. It was a major offensive with General Sir Frederick Stopford commanding 63,000 troops. The ultimate goal of the three–pronged attack was to join up with the troops at Anzac cove and then make a bold strike across the peninsula. The ANZAC troops, however, were unable to break out from their congested cove at the beach.

Initially General Stopford was able to move inland without too much opposition, but before too long he found his situation bogged down similar to the conditions that prevailed at Anza and Helles. While the Allies were able to establish three beachheads—Helles, Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay—the Turks held the high ground. The Allies were under constant fire and were unable to make any progress.

By August 10, the British attempt to break the deadlock at Gallipoli was stymied, and opponents to the Gallipoli campaign in London were becoming were adamant and convincing. Five days later, Hamilton dismissed Stopford. By this time the Allied casualties were much higher than expected and the campaign was at a stalemate. While Hamilton requested more reinforcements, demands for troops in other sectors of the war was also a pressing issue.

On October 11, Hamilton received word of a proposal to evacuate the peninsula. He replied in anger that it would likely result in approximately 50% casualties. That figure was unacceptable to London and Sir Charles Monro replaced Hamilton. When Monro visited the area, he recommended an immediate evacuation. At first Kitchener did not approve, but after visiting the peninsula he agreed to the evacuation. Nevertheless, some British admirals were still advocating another naval attack on Gallipoli.

The evacuation, brilliantly handled by Monro was finally carried out under extreme weather conditions from December 10-20. The Allies successfully evacuated 105,000 troops and 300 guns from Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay, with an additional 35,000 men from Helles from late December-January 9. The evacuation proved to be the Allies biggest success, official figure show that there were only three casualties. The British, who are very good at deception, took pain-staking measures to deceive the 100,000 Turkish troops who were watching what was going on was not a withdrawal. Churchill, not unexpectedly, did not view Monro’s achievement favorably and wrote, “ He came, he saw, he capitulated.”

Author Keith Jeffery wrote:

Among the soldiers at Sulva was Captain C. R. Attlee of the 6^th Battalion, south Lancashire regiment, who in 1945 was to head the first Labour majority government in Britain. Attlee’s job was to hold the line until the remainder of the withdrawal has successfully been accomplished.

There was one unexpected, long-term effect of the withdrawal from Gallipoli, when the recollection of its success raised spirits in the early summer of 1940. Less than three weeks after Clement Attlee, as leader of the Labour Party, had been brought into Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition government, Hitler’s Blitzkrieg drove the British Expeditionary Force back to the Channel, where the evacuation from Dunkirk began on May 27. (Jeffery 2016)

[In about 11 days, 338,226 Allied troops were saved at Dunkirk.]

Approximately 480,000 troops had been involved in the Gallipoli campaign including 50,000 Australians, 9,000 New Zealanders and 4,500 soldiers of the British-run Indian Army. The total British casualties came to approximately 205,000; the French lost an estimated 47,000 men and Turkey sustained approximately 250,000 casualties. The campaign, however, led to the foundation of modern Turkey. (Duffy 2009)