Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Gallipoli The First Day

Hi guys, I know we are all about history here. So here is a site that is part of the history of Australia. There may well have been some Wirrilians involved who knows. Anyway the site commemorates the 25 Apr 1915(ANZAC Day) when many thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers were sent to the slaughter by Winston Churchill and his cohorts. It was the first time that the ANZACS had fought in a major battle. The day is known as ANZAC day here and is a public holiday. I worked on the site and it is a joy to behold. Please have a look, you will not regret it. http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/gallipoli/

Gallipoli was ww1 bud and Churchill was not in power then it was H. H. Asquith until 7 December 1916 and then David Lloyd George.

I do agree with you though that thousands were sent to slaughter.

Sorry to Dava During the war he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli caused his departure from government. Courtesy of Wikipedia and I am sure people would realise that 1915 was WW1

Mate,I am on the site you put up.It is superb.An excellent depiction of the battle in 3d form.Superb mate.

They have some video interview with some of the survivors(in about 1985)There are no survivors left. So no WW1 vets marching tomorrow.

Damn shame mate.Are you going to the service tmw?If so get some pics and post them up bud.

From The Independent, 25th May 2002

Australia salutes last of the Gallipoli survivors

In the trenches of Gallipoli, Alec Campbell became a man and Australia a nation.

Yesterday the nation mourned the passing of Mr Campbell, the last survivor of that bloody campaign and Australia's final link with the defining chapter in its history.

Mr Campbell, who was given a state funeral yesterday, lied about his age to enlist and was only 16 when he went to Gallipoli, in Turkey, in 1915. He was two years older than newly independent Australia, which was fumbling to carve an identity after cutting the colonial ties with Britain in 1901.

Gallipoli was a disaster, a nine-month battle of attrition that ended in Allied retreat and cost a total of 300,000 lives. But Australian soldiers, fighting under their own flag for the first time in the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac), distinguished themselves by their courage and – as legend has it – forged the spirit of the young nation.

Mr Campbell, who had nine children and died last week aged 103, was Australia's last Gallipoli veteran – and, it is believed, the last of the one million men who fought on the Allied and Turkish sides. His funeral was an occasion to recall the Australians who did not return home and to reflect on an era that he came to embody.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, who cut short a trip to China to attend the service at St David's Cathedral in the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, evoked the Anzac spirit in a eulogy. "Within this one man's journey, we can chart the story of Australia itself," Mr Howard told the congregation, which included military officers, dignitaries and diplomats, state premiers and 100 members of Mr Campbell's family.

"Within this one life are illustrated the living values that transformed Australia from the hopeful young Federation of Alec's childhood to one of the great developed nations of the modern era."

To begin with,
On 19th February, 1915, the British attacked the Turkish forts at the Dardanelles. The assault started with a long range bombardment followed by heavy fire at closer range. As a result of the bombardment the outer forts were abandoned by the Turks. The minesweepers were brought forward and managed to penetrate six miles inside the straits and clear the area of mines.

Further advance up into the straits was now impossible. The Turkish forts were too far away to be silenced by the Allied ships. The minesweepers were sent forward to clear the next section but they were forced to retreat when they came under heavy fire from the Turkish batteries.

Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, became impatient about the slow progress that Admiral Sackville Carden was making and demanded to know when the third stage of the plan was to begin. Admiral Carden found the strain of making this decision extremely stressful and began to have difficulty sleeping. On 15th March, Carden's doctor reported that the commander was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Carden was sent home and replaced by Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck, who immediately ordered the Allied fleet to advance up the Dardanelles Straits.

On 18th March eighteen battleships entered the straits. The fleet included Queen Elizabeth, Lord Nelson, Agamemmon, Inflexible, Ocean, Irresistible, Prince George and Majestic from Britain and the Gaulois, Bouvet and Suffren from France. At first they made good progress until the Bouvet struck a mine, heeled over, capsized and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Soon afterwards two more ships, Irresistible and Ocean hit mines. Most of the men in these two ships were rescued but by the time the Allied fleet retreated, over 700 men had been killed. Overall, three ships had been sunk and three more had been severely damaged.

Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck now informed Winston Churchill that he could not capture the Gallipoli peninsula without the help of the army. General Ian Hamilton, commander of the troops on the Greek island of Lemnos, who had watched the failed navy operation, agreed and plans were now made for full-scale landings at Gallipoli.

Leaders of the Greek Army informed Kitchener that he would need 150,000 men to take Gallipoli. Lord Kitchener concluded that only half that number was needed. Kitchener sent the experienced British 29th Division to join the troops from Australia, New Zealand and French colonial troops on Lemnos. Information soon reached the Turkish commander, Liman von Sanders, about the arrival of the 70,000 troops on the island. Sanders knew an attack was imminent and he began positioning his 84,000 troops along the coast where he expected the landings to take place.

The attack that began on the 25th April, 1915 established two beachheads at Helles and Gaba Tepe. Another major landing took place at Sulva Bay on 6th August. However, attempts to sweep across the peninsula ended in failure. By the end of August the Allies had lost over 40,000 men. General Ian Hamilton asked for 95,000 more men, but although supported by Winston Churchill, Kitchener was unwilling to send more troops to the area.

On 14th October, Hamilton was replaced by General Munro. After touring all three fronts Munro recommended withdrawal. Lord Kitchener, who arrived two weeks later, agreed that the 105,000 men should be evacuated. The operation began at Sulva Bay on 7th December. The last of the men left Helles on 9th January, 1916.

About 480,000 Allied troops took part in the Gallipoli campaign. The British had 205,000 casualties (43,000 killed). There were more than 33,600 ANZAC losses (over one-third killed) and 47,000 French casualties (5,000 killed). Turkish casualties are estimated at 250,000 (65,000 killed).

Why and when Turkey joined WW1

Turkey (or at the time the Ottoman Empire) joined the Central Powers in 1914 or 1913 after Italy decided to split from the Triple Alliance (which was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). In 1913, the Young Turks, a radical party, found their way into the capital and soon took power. The Young Turks were imperialist and demanding, in contrast to the quiet, pacive Ottoman government that had been that way since the early 19th Century. The Ottoman Empire had been this way mainly because to survive in a modernizing Europe. The Ottoman Empire was nearly eradicated in the 1850s in the Crimean War in which they fought against the more powerful Russians. If Great Britain and France did not invervene on the side of the Ottomans, then the Ottomans could have easily been wiped out. After the Crimean War ended in 1857, several additional wars would be fought against the Russians, in which the Russians would usually win. The Ottoman Empire was surprised it had made it through the bustling and imperialism of the 19th Century. In the early 1900s, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire, taking from them the territory of Libya. With Libya in Italian hands, the Ottomans did not have any African territories, only those in the Middle East. In 1912, the Ottomans went to war against the Balkan nations of Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria. The coalition forces easily defeated the Ottoman soldiers, which were of poor quality and had little training. In 1913, the Young Turks took power, led by Enver Pasha, and led the Ottoman Turks to war against the Bulgarians in the Second Balkan War. The Bulgarians were defeated by the coalition forces and so ceded territory to the main allies. The Ottoman Empire was constantly attacked by Russian soldiers in the Caucasus as the British and French forces attacked Anatolia. Winston Churchill, who was the British First Lord of the Admiralty, persuaded the British and French forces to launch a naval opperation in the Dardenelles Straits. The naval operation, known as Gallipoli, culminated in 200,000 Allied men killed or injuried, with the last forces being pulled out before being discovered by the Turks. Despite the Turkish success, the British launched several campaigns in the Middle East. The Great Arab Revolt, which inspired the Arabs in Ottoman-sovereigned territories to rebel, was led by King Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca along with the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, who both helped the British forces in the Middle East by capturing key Ottoman ports. General Allenby soon defeated the Turks north of Jerusalem, capturing the city. The city hadn't been in Christian hands since the 11th Century. In 1918, the Ottomans signed an armistice with the allies, ending the war in the Middle East. Shortly after the war, Mustafa Kemal, also known as Ataturk, established a revolutionary government in 1919 and helped foster the Turkish Republic. He helped keep Turkey united and helped led the offensive against Greece in 1921-1923 after the Greeks had originally begun the offensive. Ataturk's contributions to Turkey were momentum and what the crippled Anatolian nation needed.

Thanks for that Bertie, very enlightening.

Australian and New Zealand got involved in WW1 because they were part of the British commonwealth, like so many other countries there involvement became about because of treaties and alliances. When Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Serbian Gavrilo Princip in 1914, Austria made demands on Serbia that they could not meet, had it not been for treaties and alliances a war could have been confined to just those 2 countries. This is a brief look how the main players got involved. The Austrian-Hungarian empire where allied to Germany, Germany wanted this alliance to protect it self from any advances from the Russians from the north. Serbia was allied to Russia, in turn France was in alliance with Russia. Great Britain and the commonwealth where allied to France and Belgium. As the war developed more and more countries and empires got involved as a way of taking advantage of the situation to develop there own needs and aspirations.

My husbands grandfather died on the HMS Goliath in this battle, his name was Frederick Keilaus from Rock Ferry.

About 17 years ago i was privileged to look after a gallipoli survivor a Mr Richard Yorston. He too had lied about his age and was infact 15 when he went to fight. Although he fought in 2 world wars the horror of Gallipoli never left him and he would often tell us about it(if only i had thought to record or write down his stories). He was twice interviewed by the BBC for armistice day although i never saw them broadcasted. He died aged 101 years old and unfortunatly his stories went with him.

My Great Uncle Harry Boughey was a survivor. His grave is in Rake Lane Cemetery,path first right as you go through main gate and on right hand side.

The local Western Front Association for WW1 enthusiasts meets first Thursday each month at Williamson Art Gallery at 7.15pm. Details of talks etc are on www.westernfrontassociation.com

PS to last posting. Thanks for this site it is so good. Will check it out further tomorrow. My Uncle lost a leg in this Campaign.