It's ANZAC day today, the 25th April. on this day in 1915 was the first ever large-scale amphibious assault, and it was a massacre. Many Australians only consider the Australian part of this operation, but troops from all over the British Empire and France fought.
Of the landings, the British suffered the most casualties - they attacked the fortified beaches, and with the lack of motorised, armoured landing craft the turkish machine guns and artillery took their toll. They also used light transports to take men straight to the beach, but the gangway's off these boats was only wide enough to allow men through in single file. The Royal Munster Fusiliers, who landed on the SS River Clyde (a converted collier which beached to land troops), suffered 179 casualties out of the first 200 to leave the boat.
The plan was drawn up, initialy, by Winston Churchill. Coincidentally, the same plan (slightly modified) was used in the D-Day landings, but with much greater success. Churchill asked for 150,000 troops from Kitchener, who refused at first but then granted the use of 75,000 men, half of what was asked for. The Turks had caught wind of the impending attack and stationed over 84,000 troops along the coast at the most likely landing sites.
At the end of the campaign, when the British evacuated Helles on the 9th January 1916, there were over 280,000 Allied Casualties, and 250,00 Turkish dead or wounded. it's hard for me to find an exact number at the moment. On the wikipedia page, it says 280,000 for the british and then further down only says 140,000. every other source i can find states above 200,000, but varies from 205,000 to 290,000 for british casualties. The number of turkish casuaulties fluxuates even more.
The retreat, however, is among one of the most succesful military withdrawals in history (if you can call a retreat sucesful), particularly among the ANZAC's. Games of Cricket were used to cover troop movements. In the weeks leading up to the withdrawal, they'd sit in the trenches completely silent, and when the Turkish came over to investigate, thinking the ANZAC's to be gone, they'd open fire. On the night of the withdrawal, rifles were set up along the entire trenchline with a pan attached to the trigger, with water dripping into it so that when the pan filled with water the rifle would fire. Some sources say that the ANZAC retreat was not noticed by the Turks until a day or two after, although personally i find that hard to beleive. It'd be hard not to notice that over 10,000 men had just up and left a place less than 100m away from you.... although with the Aussies playing silent buggers for the last week or two i'd have hated to be the guys sent over to find out.
A bit of trivia - the batmen of both sides, along one trenchline between ANZAC's and Turks, were allowed to hang their washing out on the barbed wire to dry without drawing fire. Aussies used to trade Beer and Cigarettes for Turkish sweets and dates by throwing them across no mans land.
After the campaign ended, a Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal supposedly said "We have avenged Troy". One of the British ships that took part, a Lord Nelson class Battleship, was named the HMS Agamemnon.
Of course, today we not only remember those who served in Gallipoli, but all those who served and those who are currently serving.
_________________ "When in deadly danger, When beset by doubt, Run in little circles, Wave your arms and shout."
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