9.1.1916 - End of the Battle of Gallipoli

The Ottoman Empire fought alongside the Central Powers against Tsarist Russia in the Caucasus, where Russian troops were numerically weaker and poorly supplied. Russia therefore asked Great Britain for help in this area on 2 January 1915. If successful, this operation could have directly threatened Istanbul and opened a new Allied supply route to the Black Sea for the Russian front.

The First Naval Battle of the Dardanelles began on 19 February 1915 with the shelling of Turkish forts located at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait. However, the Allies failed to destroy any of the forts despite heavy shelling, and several Allied ships were severely damaged.

On 18 March 1915, another purely naval attack followed, with 16 Allied battleships entering the strait with the task of shelling the forts of Hamidia, Rumeli Mecidia and Namazia until their complete destruction. Around the banks of the strait, however, were stationed Turkish batteries, which immediately opened fire on the Allied ships.

The Allies succeeded in shelling two of the forts but the fire of the Turkish batteries and guns from the other forts was accurate and after damaging several ships the Allied fleet gives way. Unfortunately, the retreat route led through a recently created Turkish minefield.

When the French ship Bouvet ran into a mine, she capsized and sank. As the commanders of the other ships succumbed to the mistaken impression that the cause was a hit on an ammunition depot by someof one of the fortress guns, the other Allied ships continued their originally intended turn further into the minefield.

Many British and French ships were sunk, the fighting did not cease e.g. Irresistible or Ocean and many others were badly damaged, the famous Inflexible and Gaulois suffering great damage. It was these losses that led Commanders Churchill, Fisher and Kitchener to decide that the coastal forts needed to be destroyed by a combined naval operation with a land armada landing.

Approximately 128,000 men were initially available for the operation and 80,000 for the landing itself. The army consisted of a British naval division, an Australian-New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), the British 29th Infantry Division, a French Expeditionary Corps and one Russian Army Corps. General Hamilton was responsible for the successful landing The date of the invasion was set for 5am on 22 April, but was moved to the morning of 25 April due to a storm. The Turks prepared for the landing and armed themselves together with the Germans. The defense of the peninsula was directed by German General Liman von Sanders.

On 25 April, shelling of the Turkish fortress of Kum Kale began early in the morning. At 7 a.m., the 1st French Infantry Division began its attack. The fighting at Kum Kale lasted all day and all night. After Hamilton's recognition that the fort was already captured, the surplus forces were redeployed, which the Turks took advantage of and recaptured the fort.

25 Apr 1915 - 29th British Infantry Division - Morto Bay - huge casualties, but eventually the British manage to capture Fort Ertogrul.

24 - 25 April 1915 - Australian-New Zealand Army Corps ANZAC - landed in the area of Cape Gaba Tepe, where the 19. Turkish division under Mustafa Kemal - fighting and trench warfare for 8 months

27 April 1915 - 1st French Division landed on V Beach between Cape Helles and Sedd el Bahr Fortress, the same division that had earlier landed at Kam Kale. It came under heavy artillery shell fire from Kum Kale Fortress, which the Turks retook. Their only support is the cruiser Henri IV. On 1 May, however, it is damaged and withdraws from the battle.

After the May fighting, both sides were completely exhausted. Hamilton suffered huge losses (about 14,000 men) and minimal gains. von Sanders withdrew all available troops to the peninsula. From May to August there was a phase of trench warfare where neither side made any major attack.

The Allies planned a new offensive for August, with a surprise attack by General F. W. Stopford's IX British Corps in Suva Bay, where the Turks were not prepared for an attack. It was possible from there to break through to the Australian positions, advance inland and cut off the Turkish forces in the south of the peninsula.

On the night of 5/6 August the English landed. Von Sanders was caught off guard and did not know if he had enough time to move the troops. But the Allies were wrong because of General Stopford. Although the only resistance in the area was 1,800 German field gendarmes with 20 field guns under Major Willmer, who ...the majority of the British stayed on the beach and rested. Stopford failed as a commander. On the night of 8-9 August, Turkish divisions under Kemal arrived in the area. On the morning of 9 August the British launched an attack, but the Turkish lines held out.

The Turks subsequently withdrew all available troops to the Gallipoli Peninsula. The same trench warfare as in France broke out on the peninsula. The front moved only a few yards at the cost of heavy casualties. The whole operation was in ruins. But the fighting continued until the beginning of the next year.

In October 1915, Hamilton was replaced by General Monroe, who decided to evacuate the troops. The Battle of Gallipoli was a failure for which Secretary of War Kitchener and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill were responsible. The evacuation of the largest number of troops and equipment in history was scheduled for 19-20 December, but the last fighting in the Dardanelles Strait area took place on 7 January 1916. The long Battle of Gallipoli was concluded on 9 January 1916, when the Turks arrived on the already evacuated beach.

The agreement lost 252,000 troops (British 205,000, French 47,000) and a considerable amount of equipment, namely six line ships and seven submarines.

The consequence of the whole battle was the swing of Bulgaria to the side of the Central Powers and the temporary political downfall of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill.

Jindrich Krejci - PilotK
Detectors Pilot