THE HISTORY OF THE GALIPOLI CAMPAIGN,
MARCH 1915-JANUARY 1916

The Gallipoli campaign was conceived by members of the War Council of the British Cabinet as a strategy for breaking the trench warfare deadlock on the western front. In August 1914 German troops had invaded France and neutral Belgium and dug in along a line of trench defences for 760 kilometres from the Swiss border to the English Channel. Allied attempts to expel them by frontal assault had failed with heavy losses.

The original idea of a naval attack upon the Turkish defences of the Dardanelles arose in January 1915 after an appeal from Russia to its allies, Britain and France, for assistance against Turkish attacks in the Caucasus. First Lord of the Admiralty; Winston Churchill, searching for alternative theatres of operations and a more aggressive role for the British Navy, proposed a naval 'demonstration' using obsolescent battleships to force the straits of the Dardanelles and subdue Constantinople (present day Istanbul).

The straits of the Dardanelles are a strategically vital waterway linking the Mediterranean, through the Bosphorus at Constantinople, to the Black Sea ports of the great rivers of heartland Russia and eastern Europe. The Gallipoli Peninsula forms a natural gateway protecting the straits and their access to Constantinople.

Churchill's plan was based on the premise that Turkey would quickly surrender once British warsiups stood off Constantinople. Turkey's defeat would present many strategic rewards at little risk: it would assure the security of the Suez Canal; the capture of the Dardanelles would open a warm-water supply route to Russia; and a British victory would draw the unaligned Balkan nations into supporting an Allied advance against the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary; on a new southern front.

Despite some reservations about the plan and the imprecise nature of the objectives, the naval assault began on 19 February. Within a month it had failed utterly. The fleet was unable to overcome the Turkish defensive rninefields and concealed artillery batteries which protected the straits. One third of the Allied warships were sunk or disabled on a single day, 18 March.
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