THE MIDDLE EAST FRONT
THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN: FEBRUARY 1915 – JANUARY 1916
Acknowledgements
Small map: khl.com Big Map: britishempire.co.uk British Submarine B11: en.wikipedia.org Landings: military,wikia.org Anzac: nzhistory.govt.nz SS River Clyde: (detail) The Gallipoli Association. Painting by British artist Charles Dixon Sari Bair: painting by British artist Terence Cuneo. Suvla Bay: lookandlearn.com by English artist Andrew Howat Mustafa Kemal: by Austria-
In October 1914, as we have seen, Turkey’s entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers opened up the Caucasian Front and the atrocities that went with it. In the West – where the Western Front remained in deadlock – it was seen as an opportunity for the Allies to attack Turkey via the Dardanelles Straits and get things moving. If nothing else, this would assist the Russians by diverting Turkish troops from the Caucasus campaign and, in addition, by opening up a much needed supply route via the Black Sea. At best, an Allied naval task force alone could obliterate coastal defences, reach the Sea of Marmara via the Dardanelles, and bombard Constantinople into submission. Marines could then occupy the capital until larger ground forces could be brought up via the Gallipoli peninsula. And if this were to be achieved, then there could be two further benefits. Turkey would no longer be a threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal, and Bulgaria and Greece (former Ottoman possessions) would be likely to enter the war on the side of the Allies.
It was to prove a very optimistic assessment, as we shall see. As it so happened, the Straits, known as the Dardanelles, were well defended with minefields – particularly the area known as The Narrows further north – and they were overlooked by gun emplacements on the peninsula itself. In reality, the naval bombardment failed to silence the shore guns, and Allied ships failed to clear a water way through narrow straits. The operation was forced to call upon the support of ground forces. This gave a clear, advanced warning of a land invasion, so the element of surprise – so vital in an amphibious operation – was totally lost. The Turks would certainly have learnt of Allied troop movements, but not necessarily the location of an attack. Now they knew. There was a period of two months between the bombardment and the landings, and this gave the Turks plenty of time to draft reinforcements onto the peninsula. When the Allied troops did land on the beaches – the first major amphibious operation in modern warfare – they were faced with a well entrenched opposition and suffered heavy losses as a result. They likewise had to take ground cover and any hope of mobility was certainly lost. In addition, the ability of the Turks as a fighting force had been under estimated, especially when facing a disparate body of troops, the majorty of which had never experienced this type of warfare.
THE CAMPAIGN began on the 19th February, but was hampered by bad weather. When it resumed, however, on the 25th the Allied naval bombardment destroyed the outer shore defences at the entrance to the Dardanelles, and mine sweepers cleared the entrance to the straits. On the 4th March three squadrons of British and French ships then began moving through the forty mile long waterway to reach the Sea of Marmara. It was estimated that the fleet would be bombarding the Turkish capital within fourteen days. It was not to be. On reaching The Narrows, just a mile wide (see map), the minesweepers, moving in advance, became an easy target for the Ottoman shore batteries, and they were forced to retire. The battle fleet was then confronted with a vast area of floating mines – some of them recently laid – and an intense volley of fire from shore batteries either side of the strait. Some of these were destroyed or damaged by naval gunfire, but losses to the Allied task force proved too heavy. Three battleships were lost, together with a number of cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers and submarines – a total of 18 vessels, about a third of the task force. On the 18th March, given the return of bad weather, the attempt to reach Constantinople by sea power alone was abandoned. It was agreed that a land invasion was required to open the way for the safe passage of a naval task force.
Incidentally, the important part played by submarines – British, French and Australian – in this opening phase of the campaign is not always appreciated. A few were lost, some simply running aground, but a number succeeded in making the hazardous journey through the Straits, avoiding the minefields to reach the Sea of Marmara and attack Turkish shipping – particularly troop carriers taking men and equipment to the Gallipoli peninsula. One, for example, the British B11 (illustrated), took close on five hours to pass under five rows of minefields, and was rewarded by sinking the Turkish battleship the Mesûdiye.
General Sir Ian Hamilton, a man with battle experience in his early days, was appointed to plan and carry out this invasion. His Mediterranean Expeditionary Force – some 75,000 in total – consisted of the British 29th Division, the Royal Naval Division, the French Oriental Expeditionary Corps, the 29th Indian Brigade, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and the Newfoundland Regiment. The vast majority had no experience of an amphibious operation, and some had seen no action at all. And despite the nature of the campaign, Hamilton lacked the specialised landing craft required and the type of weaponry best suited to the demands and conditions he was about to face. Indeed, underlying this whole campaign was the need for haste, together with a strong tendency to underestimate both the fighting ability of the Turkish soldier (trained by the Germans in many instances) and the strength of the Ottoman defences themselves.
Thexfirst landing was made on the 25th April. The 29th Division landed on five beaches at Cape Helles, the tip of the peninsula. Its aim was to capture Krithia and then the higher ground around Achi Baba before pushing north to attack the forts overlooking the Dardanelles. The two beaches which took the brunt of the attack and suffered by far the heaviest casualties were Beaches V and W. Here the British and French were faced with well-
The Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) – 17,000 strong – was scheduled to land at Gaba Tepe on the Aegean coast (Beach Z), but because of extra strong currents or navigational error, was put down at Ari Burnu, about a mile to the north. As a result, once off a narrow beach the landing parties were faced with rugged terrain that rose steeply to a commanding ridge. Because it was an unlikely location for a landing, opposition was relatively light, but casualties were taken, and it was some four hours before a sizeable force had scrambled to the top and reached open ground.
The aim of this particular landing was to take control of the heights of the Sari Bair by seizing Chunuk Bair, Hill Q and Mal Tepe (see map above), and then push on to the Dardanelles, thereby cutting off the southern half of the peninsula and preventing it from receiving reinforcements. But having crested the ridge, the troops were faced with a wild, rugged landscape, crossed by deep ravines and covered in scrub. The going was heavy and time consuming. A small number, including Gurkhas from the 6th Rifles, managed to reach Chunk Bair and Gun Ridge – from which they could see the Dardanelles – but it was a glimpse too far. Following fierce fighting at Lone Pine and The Nek, they and the major party were soon swept back towards the bridgehead by a large and very determined Ottoman force. The Turkish commander Colonel Mustafa Kemal, fully aware of the danger this landing could pose to the defence of the peninsula, personally led the counter-
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At this stage the brigade’s commandant, General Sir William Birdwood, considered the possibility of evacuation but no boats were readily available for such an operation. It was at this point that Hamilton made his famous, uncompromising order: “You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig until you are safe.” In fact, there was no alternative. Like the landings in the south, it was to be trench warfare with its heat, lack of water, the stench of unburied bodies, and a raft of deadly diseases. But it was the only means to maintain a footing. None of the Allies’ objectives had been achieved, and the Ottomans commanded all the high ground above the landing areas. It was to be tactical stalemate, though the Turks did make constant attacks – at a heavy cost – to seize the beachheads. And this dismal assessment was reinforced on the 8th May, when a New Zealand brigade was ferried south to Helles to take part in a second attempt to take the village of Krithia (now Alchiteppe). It was savegely attacked, failed to achieve its objective, and suffered 800 casualties. It was in this operation, however, that the Gurkhas stormed and took a well defended 300ft bluff on what had been Y Beach. Such was the courage shown, that the bluff was officially named “Gurkha Bluff”, and the day of its capture (13th May) is celebrated to this day (see pic above).
Justxprior to the first landings on the 25th April, two diversionary raids were made. The French landed at Kum Kale on the Asian shore, and the British further north at Bulair. But the attached German officer Otto Liman von Sanders, commander of the Turkish Fifth Army at that time – and the man responsible for the defence of Gallipoli – would not be fooled. He kept his force of 84,000 on the peninsula, convinced that this was the Allies’ target. He was criticised concerning the deployment of his divisions, but it must be said that when the landings were launched his troops were quickly on the spot and in good numbers. The German military – which had been training Turkish troops for some years – played a small but significant part in the Gallipoli campaign. Some 500 officers and men were involved, some manning the gun emplacements overlooking the Dardanelles, and a variety of German equipment was supplied.
In August, having been reinforced by twelve divisions, Hamilton attempted to break the deadlock, and went on the offensive on both fronts. In the south, however, a third attempt to take the village of Kritiak, capture Achi Baba, and advance northwards, met with failure, and a landing at Suvla Bay in the north (see large map above), aimed at supporting the Anzac beach-
Forxthe Allies, there was no way forward. In October, Hamilton was recalled to London, effectively ending his military career, and his successor, General Sir Charles Monro, in accordance with the British government’s decision, recommended the evacuation of all Allied forces from the Gallipoli peninsula. It was to be an ignoble ending to a disastrous campaign. In the many battles fought during the campaign the men of both sides showed an enormous amount of courage and determination. On the Allied side, two battles were particularly outstanding in that respect. Near Cape Heles on the first day of the landings, six Lancashire Fusiliers were awarded the Victoria Cross, and in August, at the Battle of Lone Pine, Anzac Cove, seven Australians received this high military honour for courage shown on the battlefield.
Incidentally, itxwas in 1856, just before the end of the Crimean War, that Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for conspicuous courage in the presence of the enemy. Originally the bronze medal was cast from Russian guns captured after the fall of Sevastopol. Made in the shape of a Maltese cross and with a crimson ribbon, it depicts a lion on a crown and bears the words “For Valour”. Only some 1,400 crosses have been awarded since it was instituted. ……
…… It wasxon the 12th August that a British naval officer, Flight Commander Charles Edmunds, flying a seaplane over the Sea of Marmora, became the first ever pilot to attack and sink a ship (a Turkish vessel), using an air-
For thexsterling part he played in the Gallipoli campaign, the Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal (1881-
Incidentally, RupertxBrooke (1887-
...... Mentionxmust be made of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, an Australian private in the medical corps. Day and night, regardless of the danger to himself, he employed a donkey to bring the wounded down from the front line to the medical centre on Anzac beach. He was commended for his excellent work, but was killed in May 1915. In 1987 the Australian sculptor Peter Corlett produced a tribute to him (illustrated) and it stands today outside the War Memorial in Canberra.
As we shall see, the evacuation of the Allied troops, in contrast to the invasion itself, was achieved with remarkable efficiency and success. It was started on 15th December, and, as far as the Anzac and Suvla Bay bridgeheads were concerned, was completed within five nights. The last men were taken off the Helles beaches by early January.
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed:
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. ……
