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Australia's Role in WW 1

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Gallipoli - From an Australian Point of View Blood and Fire: The defeat of the Allied forces at Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula takes its name from a small seaside town that the Turks call Galibolu. In Greek it means Nice Town. Few meanings could be more inappropriate; in 1915 almost a million men fought over Gallipoli, and over 100 000 of them died, of whom nearly 8000 were Australians. In early 1915 the war in Europe was stalemated and the Allies began to look for a new front from which to carry the war to Germany, If Turkey could be knocked out of the war Germany would suffer a grievous loss of prestige, as well as lose a valuable ally: German pressure on Russia would be reduced, the Balkan states would fall in behind the Allies, and the Turkish threat to the Suez Canal would be eliminated. The broad plan af attack; enthusiastically supported by the British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, was simple; breach the Dardanelles; the waterway to the Black Sea, and seize the Turkish capital of Constantinople. Actual execution of the attack was marred by poor planning from the outset. The British first attempted to force the Dardanelles during late February and March 1915 with a British and French naval force. Three battleships were lost on 18 March to Turkish mines; and the British withdrew. This naval attempt, uncoordinated with any land action, only served to warn the Turks that a land attack was likely and gave them valuable time to prepare their defences. Enver Pasha, the Turkish leader, appointed his senior German advisor, General Liman von Sanders, to take command of the Turkish forces at Gallipoli. He had 84 000 men. The Allied invasion force of 75 000 men was commanded by General Sir Ian Hamilton, who was fearless and popular with the troops, He was also, as it turned out insufficiently ruthless with subordinates and unaware of the need for speed. THE ATTACK The Gallipoli campaign can be divided into four main phases; the initial Allied landings, a Turkish counter offensive, an Allied offensive, and the Allied withdrawal. The landings began shortly after four-thirty in the morning of 25 April 1915. The first Anzacs splashed ashore at Ari Burnu point, north of Gabe Tepe on the European side of the Gallipoli Peninsula. British and French troops were landed at Cape Helles at the tip of the peninsula to secure the entrance to the Dardanelles Straits. The Anzacs were meant to cross the peninsula and take Maidos, but had the misfortune to be opposed by Mustafa Kemel, one of the Turkish army's most able commanders, and in later years leader of Republican Turkey. His swift reaction contained the Anzac attack, which came close to capturing Chunk Bair, the key geographical feature of the area. Maidos, little mare than 10 kilometres from Gabe Tepe, was never entered by an Australian. Ari Burnu,soon known as Anzac Cove, was never much larger than 200 hectares in area throughout the campaign. At Cape Helles the landings were marked with heavy Allied losses. Incredibly, the British troops halted for tea instead of moving on to take the vital village of Krithia. As with Maidos no Allied soldiers ever set foot in Krithia. At the end of the first day both sides had suffered heavy casualties and neither side had any clear idea of its position. Commanders were seriously worried about the morale af their men. Some Australian officers recommended withdrawal but Hamilton refused. The next day the expected Turkish attack did not materialise as the Turks concentrated on Cape Helles. Although fierce fighting took place in the next few days the terrain was too rugged for the Anzacs to make any headway. By 28 April the situation had stabilised in the Turks favour. Yet both sides had come tantalisingly close to success, but remained unaware of the other's weakness. THE CAMPAIGN The nature of the Gallipoli campaign was dictated by the terrain, the tactics, and the courage of the troops. The terrain, a sour mix of ridges and gullies, rock and scrub made defence easy and attack murderous. The tactics followed on both sides cared little for casualties and relied more on human flesh than brains in getting past machine guns and barbed wire. At the battle of the Nek, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade was all but destroyed in a futile attack (depicted in the recent Australian film Gallipoli), which left 235 lighthorsemen dead in an area a little larger than a tennis court. The generals, with few exceptions, attempted to fight a modern war based an l9th century ideas and methods. All too often the solution to a problem was to throw men at it, regardless of the cost. The Nek was also a direct result of the soldiers' courage, which only served to increase the casualties on both sides. The fighting on Gallipoli can best be described by a single word -- ferocity. The Turks were defending their homeland and the Anzacs, pride of a young nation, had something to prove; only 70 Australians were captured during the campaign. On 19-20 May the Turks launched an offensive designed to destroy Anzac Cove. In places the opposing trench lines were little more than 25 metres apart. On a map at least, it did not seem too far push the invader into the sea. The attack lasted for eight hours and was marked by vicious hand-to-hand fighting in places where the Turks broke into the Anzac trenches. In a counterattack to recapture a trench Lance-Corporal Albert Jacka won Australia's first Victoria Cross of the war. Elsewhere the attack developed into a sickening slaughter of the Turks. Nearly a millian rounds of ammunition were fired by the Anzacs and Turkish casualties amounted to 10 000 dead and wounded. Three days later a ceasefire was arranged to bury the thousands of bloated, rotting corpses in the gullies. In between such violence the soldiers of both sides battled the elements. Living conditions were rough, although the Turks, who held the heights, had a slightly easier time of it. The sun daily baked the landscape while millions of flies plagued the men and gat into everything, including men's mouths as they ate. The daily rations were poor on both sides. Fresh food was rare and dysentery and diarrhoea were common, especially among the Allies, who were short of drinking water. Casualties from sickness soon exceeded those from combat. The Allied offensive began on 6 August. The Anzacs, their numbers increased to 37 000 for the attack, attempted a frontal assault while the British landed at Suvla Bay further up the peninsula. A spirited Turkish defence and slothful British command turned the landing into a fiasco while the Anzac attack suffered heavy casualties. In the assault on Lone Pine Lance-Corporal Leonard Keysor won the Victoria Cross for 50 hours of almost non-stop combat, in which he smothered and fielded an endless shower of Turkish grenades. These were black spherical iron bombs with a fuse sputtering out of them; just like the bombs depicted in cartoons about anarchists. The Anzacs, short of grenades, made their own from jam tins filled with explosive and bits of metal. They were almost as lethal to the thrower as to the enemy. Kemel counterattacked on 9 August. Four days of battle produced a loss for the Allies of between 12 000 and 13 000 dead and wounded, and almost 19 000 for the Turks. WITHDRAWAL The August battles had exhausted both sides and there were no more large offensives; instead the campaign degenerated into boredom broken by sniping and short, vicious fights for stretches of trench. At Cape Helles and Suvla Bay the Allied forces outnumbered the Turkish defenders; at Anzac Cove 47 000 Turks faced 25 000 Australians and New Zealanders. The Turks had won and the Allies, after much discussion, made the decision to withdraw. Coincidentally, the campaign had destroyed Hamilton's career and almost destroyed Churchill's. Colonel C.B.B. White, Chief of Staff of the Australian 1st Division, produced a brilliant plan that relied on stealth; the enemy was to be fooled to the last minute in thinking that the Allies were settling in for a winter campaign. The deception began several weeks before the evacuation, with detailed instructions issued to ensure an appearance of `normality' to the last moment. In the final stages cricket matches were still played on the beach as `loitering' squads wandered about smoking and chatting. At night socks were pulled over boots to hide the sound of marching feet, and rifles were carried at the slope; a line of shouldered rifles might have been seen over the top of a trench. Soldiers continued firing rifles and throwing grenades, and special devices attached to rifles ensured that fire was kept up till the last moment. The enemy never realised what was going on and 134 700 men were removed in total secrecy through late December 1915 to early January 1916. The conduct of the Gallipoli campaign was marked by poor coordination of the naval and land attempts to force the Dardanelles, underestimation of the fighting qualities of the Turkish soldier, . inability on both sides to comprehend the new style of warfare, and some outright bungling. Gallipoli was just another campaign to the British and French who participated, but to Australians the brave fighting of the Anzacs united the nation and was vital proof of the independence and ability of a country not yet two decades old. Since then the Anzacs and Gallipoli have become legend. On December 17, 1997 The people of Australia bade farewell to Ted Matthews, the last surviving member of the Gallipoli landing force. Thanks goes to Scott Brown for researching and sending this information on the battle of Gallipoli to The Canadian Great War Homepage. Please visit Scott's genealogy homepage at http://www.powerup.com.au/~fsbrown/family/index.html

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