13. "THE GREAT WAR" (WORLD WAR ONE)

1915

Because of the murderous stalemate facing the British in their war against the Germans, the head of the British navy, Winston Churchill, came up with a plan to strengthen Russia’s fighting capacity on the Eastern Front (helping to relieve German pressure on the Western Front) by opening up a direct line of supply to Russia from the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles.  That would of course require taking out Turkey.  But Churchill was convinced that with a surprise attack launched directly at Constantinople (March 1915), the Turks would be neutralized and the way then cleared for this supply line to be opened up.  But the key to the strategy was speed.  And things just did not go Churchill’s way from the very start. The Turks had mined the waters and these needed to be cleared before the small fleet of British and French ships could head on to Constantinople.  The Turkish shoreline forts were quickly reduced ... but clearing the mines proved to be more time consuming than anticipated.  As days passed British and French ships were sunk.  The Turks seemed able to maintain a steady attack on the invading fleet, though it also seemed that the Turks might be running out of ammunition. However the word was out that German relief ships were heading toward the battle ... and the local commanders convinced British headquarters that with bad weather and huge naval losses the effort had failed and the fleet needed to pull back. The plan now shifted to the idea of landing shore parties to march overland toward Constantinople, destroying Turkish positions as they went, and allowing the fleet to try again to open the Dardanelles to allied shipping. The new plan included bringing Australian and New Zealand soldiers up from the British command in Egypt to join the attack.  Days went by as the commanders worked out the details of the plan, not realizing that the Turks – who were not the weak-willed Ottomans as the British and French had supposed – were also readying themselves to resist exactly the plan they by now had guessed that the British and French were working on.  When finally at the end of April everything seemed ready, the Allied troops went ashore, only to discover that the Turks, under the command of Mustafa Kemal (the "hero of Gallipoli" and future Turkish leader), were well entrenched in the heights above the beaches and – armed with massive firepower – were eagerly awaiting them.    The Allies thus found themselves largely stranded along the Gallipoli shores unable to make any serious progress against the Turks.  More troops were brought in ... on both sides.  Gradually the Gallipoli Front was taking on the character of the Western front as both sides dug in deeply ... neither side able to advance against the other, yet neither side willing to give up their positions either. Now the Gallipoli campaign would drag on and on.  With Bulgaria’s entry into the war on Germany’s side (September), supplies could now be brought directly from Germany to Turkey, ending all possibilities of the British simply wearing down the Turks to the point of surrender.  When winter then came on (soldiers were dying in great numbers from disease and exposure) the decision was finally made to abandon the effort.  In December the Allies pulled their troops out of Gallipoli, leaving behind only a memory that would never be forgotten by the parties involved ... on both sides of the engagement.