A soldier’s war: Gallipoli - Campaign in brief

Preparation
The landing
Digging in
August Offensive
Evacuation

From December 1914, large convoys of Australian troops began departing from the Western Australian town of Albany. They were bound for Egypt and four months of training. In early April 1915, they were moved to the Greek island of Lemnos, only eighty kilometres from Gallipoli.

At dusk on 24 April the amphibious invasion began. Troop ships transported the men to within a few hundred metres of their landing site. Around 4 am on the 25^th, the first battalions quietly boarded rowing boats and made their way to shore as they had practised at Lemnos. Many in the covering force commented on the unbearable tension.

This source gives an indication of the mood of the soldiers:

We are all looking forward to showing the world what we are made of and I, for one, have not the slightest fear of what there probably is in store for me … but I have impressed upon my mind our return to Australia, covered with glory and this vision I can’t get away from. Source: Mulholland D found in Gammage B, The Broken Years, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2010, p.56

Anzac troops photographed at the Great Pyramid — Anzacs at the Great Pyramid

Crack! Swish! Ping! At last we breathe a sigh of relief, the suspense is over! Some get ashore safely, some are hit slightly, others are drowned in only a couple of feet of water because in the excitement no one notices their plight … One fellow remains in the boat after all the others have disembarked … A sailor touches him on the arm, and the soldier falls forward on to the bottom of the boat, dead. Source: Turnley W found in Gammage B, The Broken Years, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2010, p.62

The Australians had two objectives for the first day of the campaign. The first was to reach the top of the Sari Bair Range which towered over Anzac Cove and was like climbing a cliff in many places. They were then to push on to a hill called Mal Tepe from where they could see the Dardanelles and the Turkish positions to the south of the peninsula. On the map below, the objectives are shown by the red lines and the actual position by the dotted green line.

Newspaper headlines of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli. They read, 'Australasians glorious entry into war. Historic charge. Brilliant feat at Gaba Tepe. — How the Sydney Morning Herald reported the landing, 8 May, 1915

Map showing the area in which Australian soldiers fought in the first day of the Gallipoli campaign. The 'objective' line indicate the objectives of the first day while the broken line shows how far they actually progressed which was well short. — Day 1 Objective

Clamouring up the steep hills and cliffs, some Australians fought their way more than two kilometres inland before being pushed back. For the soldiers it was a warm welcome to twentieth century warfare. ‘We ran into a real live Hell, shrapnel, bullets, machine guns all over the place,’ wrote Private Donald Anderson. Medical officer Alexander Meikle was even grimmer when he commented, ‘None of us, even in [our] wildest dreams, ever anticipated that warfare as it is carried out at present is so horribly terrible. War means just one thing — HELL.’ The statistics backed them up — by the end of the first day, around 750 Australians had been killed.

The first week of the campaign saw an endless number of Anzac attacks and Turkish counter-attacks. Fighting was almost constant and most soldiers were unable to get any real sleep until four or five days after landing. As a growing number of supplies came in to the beach, the Anzacs were ordered to dig in and hold their positions. Already routines were being formed. Private Michael Kirwan wrote home on 10 May saying, ‘Still alive and kicking and having a fairly good time, although they keep you busy dodging lumps of lead Living in dugouts here and beginning to think I am a rabbit.’

At the same time Turkish Commander Mustafa Kemal was demanding of his soldiers, ‘I don’t order you to fight, I order you to die.’ It was going to be a long campaign.

Dugouts cut into the side of Gallipoli's hills. — Gallipoli dugouts

Map of trenches and tunnels around Anzac Cove — Trenches and tunnels map

In little time Anzac Cove was a bustling settlement of thousands of soldiers. Raids, at times heavy and deadly, continued throughout May and June but by July the intensity of the campaign’s first weeks had subsided. Indeed many commented about the boredom and the monotony of day-to-day life on the peninsula. For eight hours on 24 May, a truce was established while troops from both sides buried their dead. Most of the fighting that did take place was in the heights so the area around the beach was relatively safe albeit with the constant danger of Turkish artillery and snipers from above.

A view from above Anzac Cove and its surrounds would have revealed a maze of trenches and tunnels. These lines on the map were so well established they were given names like ‘Seaview Terrace’, ‘Martin Place’ and ‘Cemetery Lane’. Soldiers dug out makeshift ‘homes’ from the sides of the steep hills, which they tried to make as comfortable as possible. The dugouts included their blankets and waterproof sheets for sleep, their limited possessions and maybe a few postcards from home.

By early August the campaign had stagnated. Following weeks of little activity and widespread cases of dysentery and diarrhoea, the August Offensive was to be the last great attempt to break through the Turkish lines and reach the Dardanelles.

The plan involved a three-pronged attack using Australian, New Zealand and British forces. After brief Anzac successes at Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair, the offensive failed.

Australian soldiers take a Turkish trench in a diorama of the Battle of Lone Pine. — Lone Pine diorama

Graphic showing section of Gallipoli Peninsula around Anzac Cove. The map shows key battlefields and geographic points as well as the Turkish and Anzac trenches which had changed from April to August. — The August position

On 13 November, Lord Kitchener, Commander in Chief of the British Army paid a visit to the Gallipoli Peninsula. General Ian Hamilton, Commander of the Gallipoli campaign was stood down following the August failures. After reviewing the Allied and Turkish positions, and considering the approaching winter storms, the decision was made to abandon the campaign.

Over a number of days, all Allied troops were evacuated without a single death. Their departure was accompanied by a series of decoys and diversionary tactics, designed to hide their intentions from the Turks. The last boats left the peninsula on the night of 19 December.

After eight months of fighting, the Anzacs never advanced further than they did on the first day of the campaign.

Demonstrate your knowledge of the Gallipoli campaign by completing this timeline activity. Text version (.pdf 43kB)

A view of the beach north of Anzac Cove. In the foreground some men are standing on Williams' Pier at North Beach, and a crowd of others is nearby. Between the pier and a wharf is a K lighter, used to transport stores. There are some tents and many dugouts on the slopes rising behind the beach. Dominating the scene at left is the rock formation called The Sphinx. — Leaving Gallipoli