Why gallipoli war

In response, the Allies decided to launch a naval expedition to seize the Dardanelles Straits, a narrow passage connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara in northwestern Turkey. If successful, capture of the straits would allow the Allies to link up with the Russians in the Black Sea, where they could work together to knock Turkey out of the war.

Spearheaded by the first lord of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill over the strong opposition of the First Sea Lord Admiral John Fisher, head of the British Navy , the naval attack on the Dardanelles began with a long-range bombardment by British and French battleships on February 19, Turkish forces abandoned their outer forts but met the approaching Allied minesweepers with heavy fire, stalling the advance.

Under tremendous pressure to renew the attack, Admiral Sackville Carden, the British naval commander in the region, suffered a nervous collapse and was replaced by Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck.

On March 18, 18 Allied battleships entered the straits; Turkish fire, including undetected mines, sank three of the ships and severely damaged three others. In the wake of the failed naval attack, preparations began for largescale troop landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the Turks boosted their defenses under the command of the German general Liman von Sanders, who began positioning Ottoman troops along the shore where he expected the landings would take place. On April 25, , the Allies launched their invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The latter site was later dubbed Anzac Cove, in honor of the Australian and New Zealand troops who fought so valiantly against determined Turkish defenders to establish the beachhead there.

After the initial landing, the Allies were able to make little progress from their initial landing sites, even as the Turks gathered more and more troops on the peninsula from both the Palestine and Caucasus fronts. In an attempt to break the stalemate, the Allies made another major troop landing on August 6 at Suvla Bay, combined with a northwards advance from Anzac Cove towards the heights at Sari Bair and a diversionary action at Helles.

The Anzac forces brought in engineers who had learned their trade in the gold mines of western Australia: They constructed zigzagging frontline corridors with steps leading up to firing recesses—some of which can still be seen today. Most of the fighting took place from deep inside these bunkers, but soldiers sometimes emerged in waves—only to be cut down by fixed machine guns.

The Allies had insufficient medical personnel in the field and few hospital ships, and thousands of injured were left for days in the sun, pleading for water until they perished. The Turkish soldiers fought with a tenacity that the British—ingrained with colonial attitudes of racial superiority—had never anticipated.

Carlyon wrote in his acclaimed study Gallipoli. The corpses piled up in the trenches and ravines, often remaining uncollected for weeks. Percival Fenwick, a medical officer from New Zealand, who participated in a joint burial with Turkish forces during a rare ceasefire that spring.

By August , after a three-month stalemate, the Allied commanders at Gallipoli were desperate to turn the tide. The attack started on a plateau called Lone Pine, where Australians launched a charge at Turkish positions yards away. They captured their objective but suffered more than 2, casualties. Australian engineer Sgt. Cyril Lawrence came upon a group of Australian injured, huddled inside a tunnel that they had just captured from the Turks.

Lying beside them was a man asleep. He had been wounded somewhere in the head, and as he breathed the blood just bubbled and frothed at his nose and mouth. At ordinary times these sights would have turned one sick but now they have not the slightest effect.

Three regiments from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade meanwhile advanced from north of Anzac Cove up a trail just to the west of a rugged outcropping called Table Top. Columns of Australian, British and Nepalese Gurkha troops followed them—taking different routes toward the foot summit of Chunuk Bair.

They moved through a confusing terrain of outcroppings, gorges and razorback ridges overgrown with brush. Cecil Allanson, commander of a 6th Gurkhas battalion. The Ottoman troops had just a single artillery platoon, 20 men, dug in atop the mountain, hardly enough to withstand an invading force of 20, But in difficult and unfamiliar territory, and enveloped by darkness, the Allied soldiers struggled to find their way.

One New Zealand regiment wandered up a ravine to a dead end, reversed course and ended up back where it started hours later. The assault got nowhere. At a. Allied howitzers at Anzac Cove unleashed a furious bombardment.

But the barrage ended seven minutes ahead of schedule, a fatal lapse that allowed the Turks to retake their positions before the Australian infantry charge. He was no fool, but his plans for Gallipoli were fatally overcomplicated. Taken as a whole, his schemes were utterly unrealistic. Everything had to go right, but his plans demanded incredible feats of heroism, raw troops would have to perform like veterans and incompetent subordinates lead like Napoleon.

Above all, his plans demanded that the Turks put up little resistance. When the landings failed he blamed everyone but himself. Fate willed it so. Faint hearts and feeble wills seemed for a while to succeed in making vain the sacrifices of Anzac, Helles and Suvla. Only the dead men stuck it out to the last. A steady professional, Liman husbanded his reserves until he knew what the British were doing before committing them to devastating effect.

He was fortunate indeed in one of his Turkish subordinates Colonel Mustafa Kemal. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can take our places. A good proportion of the Turkish soldiers had recent experience fighting in the Balkan wars of — But all of them came from a country where life was hard. They made tough, well-disciplined soldiers when fighting in defence of their homeland. Our officers and soldiers who with love for their motherland and religion and heroism protected the doors of their capital Constantinople against such a strong enemy, won the right to a status which we can be proud of.

By January the last British troops were withdrawn, and the venture abandoned. Map used at the landing The maps available to the commanders for the landing on 25 April were barely adequate.

This one was carried by Colonel Henry MacLaurin, who commanded the 1st Australian Brigade, and it bears his annotations. MacLaurin was an early casualty, killed by a sniper two days later.