If you have heard of Gallipoli but never quite understood what happened, this guide is for you. It explains the campaign in plain language, without assuming any background knowledge.
By the end you will know who fought, where, why it mattered and how it became such an important part of Australian and New Zealand identity.
What was Gallipoli, in one paragraph?
Gallipoli was a First World War campaign in 1915 in which Allied forces tried to invade the Gallipoli Peninsula in what is now Turkey. The goal was to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a sea route to Russia.
The invasion failed, the two sides dug into trenches for months, and the Allies eventually withdrew.
Who was involved?
On one side were Allied forces including Australian and New Zealand troops (the ANZACs), along with British, Irish, French and Indian units. On the other were the Ottoman defenders.
The Ottoman defence is closely associated with the commander Mustafa Kemal, who later became Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Why does Gallipoli still matter?
For Australia and New Zealand, the campaign became a powerful national story of courage and sacrifice, marked every year on ANZAC Day, 25 April.
For Turkey, it is remembered as a defining defensive victory. Today the peninsula is a shared place of remembrance for all these nations.
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