The Horrors of War

The first port of call after we left Istanbul was Canakkale (Kepez).  This is the port closest to Gallipoli.  I had booked a shore excursion to visit it.  While I had certainly heard of the place and that it was related to the war, I didn’t know much about it.  The following is from the British War Museum site. 

The peninsula is located in the European part of Turkey with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.  The Gallipoli campaign took place in WWI in the Middle Eastern Theatre.  The battle was fought between 1915 and 1916 by the Entente powers against the Ottoman Empire.  The intent of the battle was to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles and capture Istanbul and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war.

On April 25, 1915, the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed around Ari Burnu on the western side of the peninsula with a loss of 5,000 casualties.  The landing site became known as ANZAC cove.  Allied success in the campaign could have weakened the Central Powers, allowed Britain and France to support Russia, and helped to secure British strength in the Middle East.  But success depended on Ottoman Turkish opposition quickly crumbling.

General Sir Ian Hamilton decided to make two landings, placing the British 29^th Division at Cape Helles and the ANZACs north of Gaba Tepe in an area later dubbed ANZAC Cove.  Both landings were quickly contained by the determined Ottoman troops and neither the British nor the ANCACs were able to advance.  Trench warfare quickly took hold, mirroring the fighting at the Western Front.  Casualties in both locations mounted heavily and in the summer heat conditions rapidly deteriorated.  Sickness was rampant, food became inedible and there were vast swarms of black corpse flies.  In August, a new assault was launched north of Anzac Cove with a fresh landing at Suvla Bay but it failed.  Finally, in December, it was decided to evacuate – first ANZAC and Suvla followed by Helles in 1916. 

Gallipoli has become a defining moment in the history of both Australia and New Zealand (much like Vimy Ridge was for Canada).  For the Ottomans, it was a brief respite in the decline of their empire.  However, through the emergence of Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk) as one of the campaign’s leading figures, it also led to the foundation of modern Turkey.

The Gallipoli campaign was a costly failure for the Allies, with an estimated 27,000 French and 115,000 British and Dominion troops (Great Britain and Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Newfoundland) killed or wounded. Over half these casualties (73,485) were British and Irish troops.

The campaign was considered a great Ottoman victory. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire retreated. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, as founder and president.

It was quite an emotional visit and it included seeing ANZAC cove, several military cemeteries, and a museum.  While we didn’t visit the memorial to the Newfoundlanders here,  I remembered from my visit to Newfoundland in 2021 that it is part of the Caribou Trail honouring Newfoundland troops that fought in various battles in France, Belgium and Turkey.  The sight of red poppies blooming on the side of the banks of ANZAC cove was particularly poignant.