Key takeaways
- The Gallipoli campaign began as a naval plan to force the Dardanelles and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war, then became a costly land campaign after the ships failed.
- Allied troops landed on 25 April 1915 but were quickly pinned down, and the front lines barely moved through eight months of trench warfare.
- The August offensives, including Lone Pine, the Nek and Chunuk Bair, were the last major attempt to break the deadlock and ended in failure.
- The campaign helped forge national identity in Australia and New Zealand and launched the reputation of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.
Why the campaign was fought
By early 1915 the First World War on the Western Front had frozen into a deadlock of trenches stretching across France and Belgium. Looking for a way to break the stalemate, Allied strategists turned their attention to the Ottoman Empire, which had entered the war on the side of Germany. The idea was to force a passage through the Dardanelles, the narrow strait guarding the sea route to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople.
Success promised great rewards: it would open a supply line to Russia, threaten the Ottoman capital directly, and perhaps knock the Empire out of the war altogether. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was a leading champion of the plan, which began as a purely naval operation.
The reasoning was sound on paper, but the execution would expose how badly the Allies had underestimated both the terrain and the determination of the Ottoman defenders.
The landings of 25 April 1915
On the morning of 25 April 1915 Allied troops went ashore at several points on the peninsula. British and French divisions landed at Cape Helles in the south, while the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps came ashore further north at what became known as ANZAC Cove, landing slightly off course beneath steep cliffs.
Everywhere the attackers met fierce resistance. At Helles some beaches turned into killing grounds within minutes, and at ANZAC the troops struggled up broken ridges into Ottoman fire. It was here that Mustafa Kemal, then a relatively unknown colonel, rushed his reserves forward and reportedly told his men that he was not ordering them to attack but to die, buying time for reinforcements.
By nightfall the Allies clung to narrow footholds but had failed to seize the high ground. The chance for a swift breakthrough was already slipping away, and both sides began to dig in.
Stalemate and the August offensives
Through the late spring and summer of 1915 the campaign settled into the same grinding trench warfare the planners had hoped to avoid. The opposing lines lay desperately close together, disease spread in the heat, and repeated attacks by both sides gained little but added to the casualties.
In August the Allies launched their last great effort to break the deadlock. A new landing at Suvla Bay was meant to support a push from ANZAC to seize the Sari Bair heights. The fighting that followed produced some of the campaign's most famous and tragic episodes: the costly Australian assault at Lone Pine, the doomed Light Horse charge at the Nek, and the brief New Zealand capture of Chunuk Bair before they were thrown back.
When the August offensive failed, it became clear that the campaign could not be won. The lines had barely moved in eight months, and attention in London turned to how to get the troops out.
The evacuation
In a grim irony, the evacuation became the campaign's one unqualified success. Through December 1915 and into January 1916 the Allies withdrew their forces from the peninsula in a carefully staged deception, thinning out the trenches and using tricks such as self-firing rifles to convince the Ottomans that the lines were still held.
The result was remarkable: tens of thousands of men were withdrawn with almost no casualties, a feat of planning that stood in stark contrast to the bloodshed of the preceding months. By 9 January 1916 the last troops had gone, and the Gallipoli campaign was over.
It had cost both sides dearly. Total casualties ran into the hundreds of thousands, including roughly eighty-seven thousand Ottoman dead and tens of thousands of Allied dead, among them thousands of Australians and New Zealanders.
The legacy of Gallipoli
Although it ended in Allied withdrawal, the Gallipoli campaign left a legacy out of all proportion to its military outcome. For Australia and New Zealand, the courage and sacrifice of their soldiers in their first major action as nations became a founding national story, commemorated every year on ANZAC Day.
For Turkey, the successful defence of the peninsula was a defining victory and a source of enduring pride. It also launched the career of Mustafa Kemal, who went on to found the Turkish Republic as Ataturk. His later words honouring the fallen of all nations, inscribed at ANZAC Cove, have made Gallipoli a rare place of reconciliation between former enemies.
Today the peninsula is a place of pilgrimage and remembrance, drawing visitors from around the world who come to walk the quiet hillsides, read the headstones and reflect on a campaign whose meaning still resonates more than a century later.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the Gallipoli campaign happen?
The Allies wanted to force the Dardanelles strait to open a sea route to Russia and threaten the Ottoman capital, hoping to break the stalemate on the Western Front and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. When the naval attack failed, it became a land campaign.
Who won the Battle of Gallipoli?
The Ottoman Empire successfully defended the peninsula, forcing the Allies to evacuate by January 1916. It is regarded as an Ottoman and Turkish victory, though it came at an enormous cost in lives to both sides.
How long did the Gallipoli campaign last?
The land campaign lasted about eight months, from the landings on 25 April 1915 to the final Allied evacuation completed on 9 January 1916. The naval attacks began earlier, in February and March 1915.
Why is Gallipoli so important to Australia and New Zealand?
Gallipoli was the first major action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces as new nations. The courage and sacrifice of the ANZACs became a founding national story, commemorated every year on ANZAC Day, 25 April.
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