By the evening of 25 April, 16,000 men had been landed. But the Anzac force held less than one third of the ground it had sought and was being pressed by the Turks all along its 2 kilometre perimeter. Australian casualties had been heavy with over 2,000 killed and wounded.

None of the assaulting forces managed to secure their initial objectives on the first day. At both landing sites, they fell back into hastily dug defensive positions and within days became stalled in the very form of static siege warfare that the Gallipoli campaign had been intended to circumvent.

A stalemate set in at Anzac with the opposing front lines closely interlocked. By 1 May, 27,000 Australian troops had been landed at Anzac but they still did not have the numbers, heavy artillery or tactical means to end the deadlock. Exposed to continual enemy fire, the Anzacs clung to their tenuous beachhead, unable to either break out of the Turkish encirclement or safely break off the engagement.