 |
Gallipoli |
| |
|
 |
The
Gallipoli campaign took place between
April and December 1915 in an effort to
take the Dardanelles from the Turkish
Ottoman Empire (an ally of Germany and
Austria) and thus force it out of the
war. Some 60,000 Australians and 18,000
New Zealanders were part of a larger
British force. Some 26,000 Australians
and 7,571 New Zealanders were wounded;
and 7,594 Australians and 2,431 NZs were
killed. In numerical terms Gallipoli was
a minor campaign but it took on
considerable national and personal
importance to the Australians and New
Zealanders who fought there.
|
|
|
The
Gallipoli Campaign was New Zealand's
introduction to the Great War. New
Zealanders fought on the Peninsula from
the day of the landings (April 25 1915)
until the evacuation of 20 December
1915. The 25th April is the New Zealand
equivalent of Armistice Day. It is
marked throughout the country with Dawn
Parades and other services. Shops are
closed in the morning. It is a very
important day to New Zealanders for a
variety of reasons that have changed and
transmuted over the years.
World War I
Turkey (Ottoman Empire than) came into
the war by the end of October 1914,
which had not yet recovered from its
wars of 1911 to 1913. Turkey's treasury
was empty. Its leader, a thirty-three
year-old military officer and national
hero, Enver Pasha, saw the war in Europe
as an opportunity for Turkey to take
back lands that had been absorbed by the
Russian Empire. Enver dreamed of
reinvigorating Turkey's empire. And
Enver feared that if Britain, France and
Russia won against Germany and
Austria-Hungary, they might deprive
Turkey of more of its empire. So he
decided to take Turkey into the war on
the side of Germany.
Ottoman Government ordered two
battleships to England just before the
war broke out and paid for them. But
close relationship between Turkey and
Germany scared the Allies and thus
Britain decided to not to deliver those
battleships which have already been
paid. This caused an uproar among the
Turks against Britain and their friends.
This would be a great opportunity for
Enver Pasha to use it against the
Allies. Turkey cooperated with two
German warships in the bombardment of
two Russian seaports: Odessa and
Nikolayev. Russia responded three days
later, on November 2, by declaring war
on Turkey. France declared against
Turkey on November 5, and so too did
Britain. And Britain found this an
opportune time to annex Cyprus and
Egypt, lands that had been nominally a
part of Turkey's empire while under
British authority.
Turkey closed the straits (Bosphorus and
Dardanelles) between the Mediterranean
and Black Seas, preventing Russia from
exporting her wheat or receiving
shipments of materials from her allies.
To protect its oil wells in the Middle
East, Britain moved a military force up
the Persian Gulf to Iraq, where it began
engaging Turkish forces. And in
December, Turkey began an assault into
Russia's Caucasus Mountains.
Frustration came with Turkey's failed
offensive against the Russians in the
Caucasus Mountains. In a five-day battle
ending January 3, the Russians smashed
Turkey's offensive, and of the 95,000
men that Turkey sent on the offensive
only 18,000 returned, about 50,000 of
them having frozen to death. The shocked
Turkish people wondered who to blame for
this disaster.
Gallipoli Campaign
Meanwhile Winston Churchill, responsible
of the navy at that time, planned an
offensive against Gallipoli to capture
Dardanelles, open a secure passage for
the navy on their way to Istanbul,
capital of the Ottoman Government.
Allies gathered their battleships in
front of Dardanelles Straight under the
command of Admiral De Robeck. The Allied
fleet chasing the German warships
blockaded the Dardanelles, began
bombarding the Turkish batteries at the
entrance to the Straits on 3rd November
1914. This bombardment continued
intermittently until 12th March 1915.
Naval Battle
On 17th March they sent some boats into
the straight and the military
intelligence reports said that there
were no sea-mines creating a risk for
their attack. But the same night a small
Turkish mine-layer Nusrat laid many
sea-mines into the Dardanelles.
On 18th March 1915, at the beginning of
the Dardanelles campaign, the commander
of the Allied fleet, Admiral de Robeck
divided the fleet into three sections.
The first section entered the straits at
10.30 am. and penetrated as far as the
row of mines. The Intepe batteries
started a heavy fire.
The Intepe, Erenkoy and Tengertepe
batteries intensified their fire and a
fierce bombardment continued for three
hours. In the afternoon Admiral de
Robeck withdrew his ships in the third
section and threw forward six warships
waiting in the rear. During the
withdrawal, one of the ships hit a mine
and sunk after a terrible explosion.
The naval battle continued in all its
intensity for seven hours. In the face
of the dogged resistance of the Turkish
Straits Defense, Admiral de Robeck
decided that nothing further could be
done that day. During this operation
three ships from the Allied Fleet had
been sunk and three badly damaged. It
was under these circumstances that
Admiral de Robeck, at 17.30 brought the
days' operation to a close with the
order, "All ships, general withdrawal.".
The Allied assault stalled, and the
British withdrew to Egypt to prepare for
another, bigger assault.
On 18th March eighteen battleships
entered the straits. The fleet included
Queen Elizabeth, Lord Nelson, Agamemnon,
Inflexible, Ocean, Irresistible, Prince
George and Majestic from Britain and the
Gaulois, Bouvet and Suffren from France.
At first they made good progress until
the Bouvet struck a mine, heeled over,
capsized and disappeared in a cloud of
smoke. Soon afterwards two more ships,
Irresistible and Ocean hit mines. Most
of the men in these two ships were
rescued but by the time the Allied fleet
retreated, over 700 men had been killed.
Overall, three ships had been sunk and
three more had been severely damaged.
Land Battles
In spite of all the efforts in the
Dardanelles from 19th February to 18th
March nothing had been gained by the
Allied Forces. Now, alongside the Naval
bombardments and amphibious operation
was under consideration in order to
capture the peninsula.
The Anzac Corps, the 29th British
Territorial Infantry Division, the 1st
Royal Naval Infantry Division, the 29th
Indian Infantry Brigade and the French
1st Infantry Division were to take part
in this action. These forces were to be
split into two groups, the first group
was to seize the Seddulbahir area and
open the Straits whilst the second was
to land in the Kabatepe region, seize
the Conkbayir area and obstruct the
Turkish Forces moving down from the
north.
The Commander of the Ottoman 5th Army
had evaluated the defense of the
Gallipoli peninsula as of secondary
importance. Thus out of six divisions he
allocated two divisions and one cavalry
brigade to the defense of the Gulf of
Saros, two divisions to the defense of
the area between Anafartalar and
Seddulbahir and the remaining two
divisions to the defense of the Asian
coast.
Of the two divisions deployed on the
Gallipoli peninsula one was the 19th
division which served as the Chief of
Command Reserve Force in Bigali. The
commander of this brigade was Mustafa
Kemal.
At the beginning of the 1st WW, Staff
Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal was
Military Attaché in Sofia. Preferring to
participate personally in the struggle
of his county against invading super
powers of the time, rather than watching
from the sidelines, he requested active
military duty from the Chief of Staff.
Upon his insistence, he was appointed to
the 19th Divisional Command founded in
Tekirdag on 1st February 1915.
In less than one month, Mustafa Kemal
had the division prepared for war. On
25th February, his division was at
Eceabat (across Çanakkale) and ready for
combat.
The Seddulbahir Battles
At dawn on the 25th April, the
Seddulbahir coast was seen to be
surrounded by several ships and landing
crafts.
At 5.30 am. a hellish fire was opened
from the allied warships. Bombardment
from the sea held the tip of the
peninsula under fire from three sides.
The 29th British Infantry Division
attempted to move into the land.
The defending forces broke the first
wave of the invading forces with
success. Then, with the reinforcements
which were later brought in, the
operation was extended on the land
without much success.
The 1st., 2nd., and 3rd Battles of Kirte
and Kerevizdere continued from 25th
April until the end of May when it
turned into chronic local clashes.
In June 1915 the battle again
intensified and after the bloody
Zigindere Battles which began on the
28th June continued for eight days.
Ariburnu Battles
The area chosen by the Anzac Corps as a
landing area was the coast to the north
of Kabatepe. However, the Anzacs had
landed in the steep, inaccessible area
of Ariburnu (later it was called as
Anzac Cove) due to their boats having
been carried by the strong current.
First landing group consisted of 1500
men with the same number again in a
following wave. The first target to be
captured after the landing was the
"Karacimen Bloc".
One of the battalions of the 27th
regiment of the 9th Turkish Division in
Ariburnu was guarding the coasts of the
area. One company of the battalion had
spread from the Ariburnu hills to
Agildere. This company consisted squads;
one on the Ariburnu hilltops, one in
Balikcidamlari and one other in reserve
on Haintepe.
The Anzac attack began at 4.30 on 25th
April. They landed at Ariburnu in the
form of a surprise attack. The defending
squad opened fire on the invading
forces, but the Anzacs advanced. The
Turkish company defending the coast
immediately reported the situation to 27
regimental Command to the west of
Eceabat.
While the Regimental Commander was
giving his report to the 9th Division,
at the same time he informed the 19th
Division. The 8th Company Commander
brought up reinforcements to counter the
first wave of attacks, however, the
heavy losses caused by the intense
cannon fire from the ships and the lack
of ammunition led him to retreat.
Although Staff Lieutenant-Colonel
Mustafa Kemal had sent reports to the
army and the Corps Command at Gallipoli,
he received no reply. Using his
initiative he attacked the Anzacs.
Reinforcing the 57th Regiment with a
hill-top cannon battery, he advanced
towards Ariburnu via Kocacimen. In a
critical moment Mustafa Kemal gave the
order for a company to rapidly reach the
area and for the forward battalion to
immediately enter the fray. With their
arrival, the Turkish forces attained the
initiative. The 57th Regiment completed
their battle preparations by noon and
moved southwards from Conkbayiri to the
Anzac forces. This strike could not
advance any further than Duztepe because
of the effective cannon fire from the
ships. He arrived at Korucakoy and
reported the situation to the Army
Headquarters. He met the commander of
the 3rd corps at Maltepe from whom he
received permission to deploy the entire
19th Division after explaining to him
the situation. He moved those forces
forward. Mustafa Kemal's decision, on
the night of 25-26th April was to take
the command of the 27th Regiment and to
attack the Anzacs with two regiments
from the south and two regiments from
the north and to drive them that night
at whatever cost into the sea. Same
night the attack was deployed. Since the
majority of the 27th Regiment which
arrived from Aleppo (Halep) was composed
of aged soldiers, the action on the
southern flank did not develop as hoped.
The 57th and 72nd Regiments forced the
Anzacs to retreat further south from the
Cesarettepe hill-top. The Anzacs were in
great difficulty to defend their
positions with this latest assault. The
allied commander decided to evacuate his
forces into Hamilton.
Due to the lack of necessary vehicles,
the evacuation move was suspended.
Dig-in and defend order was given
instead.
As time passed both sides were gradually
reinforced. The 16th Division was rushed
from Thrace and the 2nd Division from
Istanbul. Fierce Anzac assaults on
Ariburnu continued steadily and the
fighting went on until the end of May.
Finally, from the end of May onwards it
turned into a French warfare.
The clashes of Seddulbahir and Ariburnu
in June and July of 1915 were typical of
stationary warfare. The opposing forces
were extremely close to each other,
indeed as close as eight meters (25
feet) on certain locations.
The Anafartalar Battles
General Hamilton, unable to achieve any
success on the Seddulbahir and Ariburnu
fronts in the past five months decided
to open a third front in Anafartalar bay
in order to encircle and destroy the
Turkish Army from the rear. He assigned
this task to the 9th British Corps.
The aim was to immediately seize the
Conkbayiri and Kocacimen blocs, advance
from there and take control of the
Straits. During this landing limited
action was to be taken in order to keep
the Turkish forces in the Seddulbahir
and Ariburnu regions pinned down.
British Army Corps began landing on the
night of 6-7 August, to start the final
attack against the Turkish troops
approximately on the 9th of August. They
landed to the south of the Buyukkemikli
and Kucukkemikli headlands. Due to the
hot weather and exhaustion of the
British soldiers, 9th corps spend a day
on the beach front instead of moving to
the target hills immediately. During
this time two Ottoman divisions were
transferred to the front with Mustafa
Kemal as commander. One of these
divisions pushed the 9th corps into the
sea while the other one prevented the
Anzacs to reach to the battle front.
The 12th Division attacked the 9th Corps
front lines. The most critical point was
over for the Turks. The 9th Corps, under
the fire of the Turkish Forces, fell in
great numbers on the beaches and were
left totally ineffective. Even though
the 9th Corps, that was later
reinforced, attempted more flank attacks
from Ismailoglu Hill to Anafartalar and
from Mt. Karakol to Ece Harbor and Tekke
Hill, they could not succeed.
The pinning-down and encircling action
against the Northern Group was halted
but some sections did come within 25
meters of the crest-line. The 9th
Turkish Division, which had
counter-attacked for two days in order
to alleviate this dangerous situation
was not able to achieve a success. Then,
Liman Von Sanders, Commander of the 5th
Ottoman Army reinforced the 8th Division
with two regiments and put it under
Mustafa Kemal's orders.
Colonel Mustafa Kemal arrived at the
headquarters of the 8th Division, the
night of 9-10th August and ordered his
soldiers to attack using only bayonets
at dawn on the 10th of August. The
attack succeeded and even the British
Brigade Commander was among the dead.
Upon the seizure of the land that would
guarantee the security of the defense
line, the order to dig-in and defend was
given. The British operation that had
been carried out with strong attack
groups in high hopes on Ariburnu and the
landings at Anafartalar were paralyzed
and as in the other regions were brought
to a standstill.
Thus the allied forces clearly saw that
no possibility remained either of
breaking the Turkish defense in the
Dardanelles or of achieving any result
in the Gallipoli Campaign, above all of
achieving their ambition of taking
Istanbul. On 20th December 1915 they
ordered the evacuation of Ariburnu -
Anafartalar and on the 9th January 1916
Seddulbahir. Mustafa Kemal was stationed
at Edirne and Diyarbakir after the
Çanakkale wars and was promoted to the
rank of lieutenant general on 1 April
1916.
Over 33000 allied and 86000 Turkish
troops died in the eight month Gallipoli
campaign which achieved none of its
objectives. A British royal commission
later concluded that the operation had
been ill-conceived. Gallipoli cost 8700
Australian dead and 19000 wounded. Large
numbers of the dead have no known grave.
The story of Anzac has had an enduring
effect on the way Australians see
themselves.
Turkish nation who lost about 253.000
men at battle, had managed to emerge in
honor against the Allied forces.
Actually the fate at trenches changed
when Mustafa Kemal addressed his
soldiers with the words "I am not giving
you an order to attack, I am ordering
you to die!".
This was the biggest failure of
Churchill and of the Allies of course,
they underestimated the military skills
of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his brave
soldiers. Both sides suffered heavy loss
of lives.
Today Gallipoli (Gelibolu) peninsula is
a national park nearby Canakkale and
there are many war memorials and
cemeteries belonging to Turks,
Australians, New Zealanders, British and
French. Every 25th April war veterans
(few left today) from both sides and
their children meet here to commemorate
the Gallipoli Campaign. It is also
possible to dive at the shipwrecks along
the shores. Many tours also passes from
this area.
Some Words about the War
Kemal Ataturk; (Inscription on Gallipoli
Memorial put up by Turkey in 1934, also
on Ataturk Memorial at Tarakina Bay,
Wellington.)
"Those heroes who shed their blood and
lost their lives, you are now lying in
the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace. There is no
difference between the Johnnies and the
Mehmets to us where they lie side by
side in this country of ours. You, the
mothers who sent their sons from far
away countries wipe away your tears,
your sons are now lying in our bosom and
are in peace. After having lost their
lives on this land they become our sons
as well."
Russell Weir; (Tolerton, In the shadow
of war p. 202)
"We landed, I suppose, somewhere about
nine or half past nine in the morning.
On the Sunday morning, Sunday the 25th
of April. And through a mistake made by
the navy, we played into the Turk's
hands beautifully. Because you can
imagine a narrow strip of beach, nothing
but stones, no sand, and from that
narrow stretch of beach straight up were
high cliffs composed of clay and rock.
And the Turks had the machine guns and
the rifle fire and the full view of the
beach, and the only protection we could
get when we advanced was to get in close
to the cliff and hug it."
Alexander Aitken; (Aitken, Gallipoli to
the Somme p. 33-34)
"... I slid the rifle-sight to '450',
aimed and fired.[...] The Turk plunged
into the trench in a swirl of dust ...
This, of course, was what I was there
for, but it seemed no light matter, and
kept me awake for some time. I would
come to no conclusion except that
individual guilt in an act of this kind
is not absolved by collective duty nor
lessened when pooled in collective
responsibility. I further found that I
bore the Turk no trace of enmity - nor
for that matter did any of us; he was to
us "Johnny Turk" or "Joe Burke", almost
a fellow sufferer. We were not
indoctrinated against him, as we had
been against the Germans by propaganda,
the cartoons of Louis Raemakers, and
tales of atrocity. But I saw, still
further, that this Turk, at the moment
of shooting, had not even been a person;
he might have been big game. It was a
single step to the thought that certain
'colonial' campaigns, not infrequent in
our annals, might have been conducted in
almost this game-hunting spirit. Here I
balked; to become analytical might lead
to doubt of the cause for which we were
fighting; for this had been called, in
those early years, the 'war to end war'.
I was far from such doubt then, and
would have repudiated pacifism."
Major General Godley; (in a letter to
the NZ Minster of Interior, Ronald
Graham, July 1915, Boyack p. 59)
"I hear that Winston [Churchill] has
arrived, and suppose we shall see him
within the next few days. He certainly
is a plucky fellow, and I think he ought
to be given a V.C. and then taken out
and shot. I wonder what sort of
reception he will get if he comes among
the troops, whether they will cheer, or
shoot him. I think the former."
Dardanelles
Dardanelles is a 61km (28 mile) long and
from 3/4 to 4 miles (1.2 to 6.4
kilometers) wide strait between Europe
and Asiatic Turkey (Thrace and
Anatolia). This strategically important
strait is the Dardanelles. It leads from
the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and
then through the Bosphorus strait to the
Black Sea. Thus the Dardanelles is the
outer gateway to a great productive
area. The world's ships must pass
through here to reach the grain ports of
Ukraine and the oil ports of Romania and
the Caucasus region. The western side of
the strait is formed by the Gallipoli
peninsula. Major ports along its shores
are Gallipoli, Eceabat, and Canakkale;
and many famous castles like Kilitbahir
built in 1452 by the Ottoman sultan
Mehmet II, stand along its banks. Also
famous Turkish sailor and the first
Turkish marine cartographer Piri Reis
was born in Gelibolu.
The strait is rich with history and
legend. In ancient times it was called
the Hellespont, meaning "Helle's sea,"
in memory of Helle, a mythical Boetian
princess. She was drowned in its swift
waters after falling from the back of
the legendary ram with the golden
fleece. Across the Hellespont from the
eastern side, Leander swam nightly to
visit Hera, a priestess of Aphrodite. In
480 BC Persia's king Xerxes sent his
army across the strait on a bridge of
boats to invade Greece. In 334 BC
Alexander the Great similarly crossed
from Greece to invade Persia. The strait
takes its name from the old town of
Dardanus.
Ottomans first put their feet into
Gelibolu in 1354 under the reign of
Orhan Bey. But as its center and region,
Canakkale passed completely into Turks
in 1362 under the reign of Murat I. In
later years Turkish control was
supported by British diplomacy, which
sought to bar Russia from the
Mediterranean. But in World War I Turkey
was allied with Germany. The British,
wanting to get aid to Russia through the
Black Sea, tried to capture the
Gallipoli peninsula in 1915-16. They
were thrown back and the Dardanelles
remained unconquered.
After Turkey's defeat in 1917, the
Dardanelles became part of a neutral
zone of straits, which was under control
of the League of Nations. In 1923 the
Treaty of Lausanne returned the region
to Turkey. At first Turkey was denied
the right to fortify the straits, but in
1936 another treaty restored this right
and also permitted Turkey to close the
straits to belligerent ships in wartime.
Since Turkey was neutral until the
closing days of World War II, the
Dardanelles route to the Soviet Union
was closed to Great Britain and the
United States. With this sea route
barred, the Allies were forced to build
roads through Iran to get supplies to
the Soviets. The Soviet Union became
determined to gain partial control of
the Dardanelles after the war. Turkey
refused formal demands for a share in
the control in 1946 and again in 1947.
As the threat of Soviet aggression
increased during the Cold War, the
United States and Britain encouraged
Turkey to stand firm on sole control.
Today Dardanelles is full of shipwrecks
from Gallipoli Campaign which makes
divers to have a special interest on
this waters. There are also several
tours visiting this interesting area |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
