On the 9th of January 1916, the final remaining  Allied troops on the Gallipoli peninsula withdrew  

to the sea. Despite catastrophic predictions, the  evacuation went off without a hitch and the entire  

force escaped with only a few casualties. It was  the only success in a campaign marked by failure.

After naval attempts to force  the Dardanelles strait had failed  

the amphibious landings fared even worse.  Fierce Ottoman opposition stopped the Allies  

in their tracks and trench warfare quickly took  hold. There were heavy casualties on both sides  

not only from the fighting but  from the terrible conditions.  

After a succession of failed attacks, the  decision was finally made to withdraw.

So what went wrong? Why did the  Dardanelles campaign fail so badly?  

And why were the evacuations the only success?

Well to find out we first need to go back  to the end of 1914. As stalemate took  

hold on western and eastern fronts British  strategic thinking was increasingly divided.

You've got Westerners and Easterners. Now a  Westerner is somebody who wants to concentrate  

all forces against Germany on the Western  Front because Germany is the main enemy.  

Easterners are looking back to an old tradition  in British strategy where you use the navy  

to go around the periphery of the  enemy and look for weak points.  

It's looking for a cheap victory to avoid  big casualties on the Western Front.

The Easterners believe that Germany was being  propped up by her Allies Austria-Hungary  

and the Ottoman Empire. If they could  knock either of them out of the war  

Germany would be deprived of vital manpower and  resources. The Ottoman Turks in particular were  

a tempting target. Defeating them would create  a new link from Russia to Britain via the sea  

and open new routes into Austria-Hungary  allowing the Allies to attack via the back door.

In 1911 they lost the Italians in North Africa and  in 1912 they lose to a coalition of Balkan states  

and lose most of their territory in  Europe. So Turkey is looking a bit like  

a busted flush in an easy country to turn over  especially by the British and French armies.  

At the centre of this plan  for a quick and easy victory  

was the Royal Navy. While the army was tied  down fighting on the Western Front, the navy  

had ships to spare. Many outdated battleships  which were unfit for service against the Germans  

could prove very useful against the Ottomans who  had almost no navy to speak of. The plan was to  

send a Royal Navy force through the Dardanelles  strait which separates Europe and Asia.  

They would then threaten to bombard the Ottoman  capital of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul,  

which would then force the Turks to capitulate  essentially knocking them out of the war within  

a couple of days. The plan sounded great, but  it wasn't the first time it had been suggested.

In 1906 the Committee of  Imperial Defense in Britain  

did a study. The fortifications and potential  threat of minefields made this a very, very  

dangerous mission. So it was decided by  1907 that this was not a feasible option.

But by 1915 the study had been forgotten and  so despite the warnings an Allied naval force  

was put together. It primarily consisted of  pre-dreadnought battleships, nine British  

and four French, but also featured two modern  vessels the new dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth  

and battlecruiser HMS Inflexible. The  all-important task of clearing the  

minefields however was to be carried  out by 35 civilian fishing trawlers.

Now they've got a very dangerous  job but they're being crewed  

by their civilian crews. Men who have  really no experience of this job and  

won't be particularly keen to do it unless  it's going to be well covered by the navy.

Facing them were a large number of Turkish fixed  fortifications both at the entrance to the strait  

and at its narrowest point. These  housed dangerous shore batteries,  

but they could be engaged and destroyed by  the Allied fleet. There were also a series  

of minefields which covered the strait plus a  ship called Nusret which could come out at night  

and lay new ones. Worst of all for the Allies  though were Turkish mobile howitzer batteries  

which could hit Allied ships from hidden  positions before moving to new locations.

Now the mobile artillery are normally hidden in  ravines and a naval gun is absolutely useless  

to try to knock out something that's hidden  in the ravine. You need something that can  

lob a shell in an arc, not fire a shell in a  flat straight line. So they're difficult to  

knock out and they will probably be the  biggest threat facing the naval forces.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles  had actually begun in November 1914  

before a formal declaration of war had  even been made, but these mainly had  

the effect of alerting the Turks as to  where attacks were going to take place.

Those attacks began in earnest in February as  Allied ships successfully bombarded the outer  

forts at the entrance to the strait, allowing the  main attack to take place on the 18th of March.

As the allied ships steamed into  the Dardanelles the Turkish shore  

fortifications fell silent under sustained  naval fire. But as the minesweepers moved in  

they too came under fire, this time from those  Turkish mobile howitzer batteries, forcing them  

and their civilian crews to withdraw. In their  place the Allied battleships pushed forward.

And at that point, one of the French  battleships Gaulois is badly hit by  

shore battery fire and has to  withdraw. The battleship Bouvet  

blows up and sinks within two minutes. Of around  700 crew only about 10% of them actually survive.

Soon after that two more British ships  were hit by Turkish mines and later sunk  

before the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible was  severely damaged and that was the final straw.  

Unwilling to risk any more hits to their most  important ships, the Allied naval forces withdrew.

The strength of the Turkish defences really  catches the Allied commanders by surprise.  

Because our minesweepers can't get in to clear  these mines and the Turks are coming out tonight  

and laying other minefields. It's obvious to  the naval commanders that they're going to lose  

too many vessels if they try this again.  They need to get the army involved in this  

to nullify those Turkish  defences to make this a success.

To do that job the Allies pulled together  the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.  

This included the 29th Division, the ANZAC  Corps of Australian and New Zealanders,  

the Royal Naval Division, British Territorial  Army units and a small contingent of Indian  

Army soldiers. All of whom lacked experience  in battle. A well-equipped French division  

completed the force of around 70,000  men led by General Sir Ian Hamilton.

His plan was two-pronged, the 29th Division  and elements of the Royal Naval Division would  

land on five beaches at Cape Helles and the  ANZACs would land on one beach at Gaba Tepe.  

A diversionary landing would also be made by  french forces at Kum Kale across the strait.  

Once ashore the ANZACs were to push across the  island to Maidos and cut off any reinforcements  

heading to Cape Helles where the 29th  Division would have captured the high ground.  

From there the combined Allied force  would sweep the rest of the peninsula  

capturing Turkish forts and gun emplacements  and allowing the navy to complete its mission.

Standing in their way was the Ottoman Fifth Army.  This was under the command of the German General  

Limon von Saunders who had previously been in  charge of modernising the Turkish army. Other  

German officers took charge at divisional level  alongside some very capable Turkish commanders  

including Mustafa Kemal who would go on to play  a key role in this campaign and Turkey's future.

The other thing about this Turkish army is it  it's actually packed full of Anatolian Turks.  

So these are men that are defending their  homeland. The British army have met the  

Turkish army in Mesopotamia before Gallipoli,  but there most of the troops were conscripted  

locals from Iraq don't have any love for  the Turks and don't really want to fight  

for them. So we've got this idea again that  the Turkish army isn't up to much, but here  

we are facing basically the flower of the  Turkish army and their best commanders.

The Ottoman strategy was based on the defence  in depth that worked so well for the Germans  

on the Western Front. They placed only a  thin line of troops defending the beaches  

who would hold off the Allies for  as long as possible before the main  

reserve held in a central location could make  counter-attacks and push them back into the sea.

The landings commenced in the early  hours of the 25th of April 1915,  

but very little went to plan. At Cape  Helles, the troops landing at S, X, and  

Y beaches faced almost no resistance but failed  to advance inland or reinforce their positions  

losing valuable time. Meanwhile, the main  landings at V and W beaches were opposed by  

two companies of Turkish infantry who inflicted  heavy casualties thanks to thick barbed wire  

and accurate rifle fire from the cliffs. At V  beach the SS River Clyde, a converted collier,  

was used as a landing ship and run aground  beneath the Turkish fort of Sedd-al-Bahr.

But unfortunately, the gangways are so narrow  that as the men come out onto the gangways  

they're just shot down and casualties at W and  V beaches are really, really heavy. In fact  

at W beach the First Lancashire Fusiliers that  morning win 6 Victoria Crosses in their landing.

For the ANZACs things were even worse.  They were landed about a mile further  

north than intended. So instead  of the wide flats at Gaba Tepe,  

they had to fight up the steep cliffs of what  would become known as ANZAC Cove. The fighting  

was extremely bloody as the ANZACs tried  to take the heights around the beach but  

they were unable to do so due to fierce Ottoman  encounter attacks organized by Mustafa Kemal.

It's basically a defender's dream this terrain.  The Turks have been tenacious in defence  

and they're also very willing to put in  these counter-attacks. And the Turks suffer  

horrendous casualties as well because  then they're attacking and again  

the terrain favours the defenders. But they ensure  that there is no Allied breakout at Gallipoli.

While the ANZACs simply tried to cling on to their  beachhead the forces at Cape Helles continually  

tried to break out over the following months. But  supply problems plagued these attempts. Gallipoli  

was always playing second fiddle to the Western  Front where the bulk of the British army was  

engaged. The supplies that did arrive were within  range of Turkish guns and there was little room  

to store it. Most importantly though there was  never enough artillery or high explosive shells  

to seriously damage the Turkish positions. The  quick and easy victory had turned to stalemate.

In July, hope for success was renewed when  General Hamilton was offered 6 new divisions.  

He decided that a third landing further up  the peninsula at Suvla Bay would finally  

enable an Allied breakout. This terrain was  far more favourable and was to be supported  

by a simultaneous attack from ANZAC Cove.  However, when the offensive began on August 6th  

the Allies lost the initiative once again  waiting for artillery support to arrive  

and Turkish reinforcements were  able to seize the high ground.

At the same time as those new landings are going.  In ANZAC Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops  

are trying to secure the high ground. They try  and attack at night but they get lost. They get  

lost in this torturous, maze-like terrain and by  the time they attack it's dawn the Turks can see  

them coming. New Zealanders heroically managed to  secure the top of this ridge called Chunuk Bair  

but they're pushed off by a massive Turkish  counter-attack and no ground is gained.

A key reason for these failed attacks were the  terrible conditions. At ANZAC cove in particular  

there was a lack of water and nowhere  to dispose of waste or bury the dead.  

During the summer huge swarms  of flies went from corpse,  

to refuge, to food, and back again spreading  dysentery up and down the Allied lines.

Many of the men they're absolutely debilitated  which makes just even holding the trench line  

hard enough, let alone to actually  the idea of launching an attack.  

And it's actually relentless there  is nowhere to get away from this.  

The best way you can get away of from  it is to basically get yourself wounded.

By October frustration was building within Allied  leadership. Sir Ian Hamilton lost his job and was  

replaced by Sir Charles Monroe who immediately  concluded that the peninsula needed to be  

evacuated. But British leadership was unwilling  to accept such a knock to British prestige.

The event that forced Allied withdrawal actually  came in the Balkans. In October Austria-Hungary  

and Germany finally began to make gains  into Serbia and Bulgaria joined the war  

on the Central Power's side. Now Germany  had a direct railroad into Turkey itself  

and could begin supplying the Ottomans  with the heavy artillery they needed  

to push the Allies back into the sea. In November  after a visit from Lord Kitchener himself,  

it was clear that the situation was untenable  and the decision was finally made to evacuate.

They need to do this in great secrecy.  If the Turks get wind of this and attack  

during the evacuation it could be total chaos and  the destruction of the Allied force. Ironically as  

we're leaving the staff work is almost perfect,  it is really the high point of the campaign.

The Allies introduced periods of silence leaving  entire nights when not a single shot was fired.  

At first the Ottomans were confused, but  eventually it became routine and the Turks stopped  

reporting silence in Allied lines. The Allies also  landed empty boxes on shore, marched units around  

on the beach to give the impression of activity,  and left empty camps up with fires burning. One  

innovation that's invented by an Australian  is the self-firing rifle. You have two tins,  

the top tin containing water. The water drips into  the bottom tin, once it becomes a certain weight  

that tin drops and fires the rifle. So they set  these up on the last night just as they withdraw.

Over the course of the 18th and 19th of  December, the entirety of the forces from  

Suvla Bay and ANZAC Cove were evacuated with only  a few soldiers wounded. 83,000 men, 186 guns,  

and 4,600 horses and mules managed to escape  with the Turks none the wiser. In January  

the same tactics were employed again, this  time at Cape Helles. Despite a Turkish attack  

not two days before the evacuation, the  Allied forces once again escaped unscathed.  

The final act of the campaign was the  single bright spark in an otherwise  

dismal failure. The allies had suffered  115,000 casualties for no gain,  

while the Ottomans had suffered 186,000 in  the successful defence of their homeland.

Well Gallipoli ends in a disaster firstly  because we just didn't have the forces to commit  

to this campaign to make it work. You can't fight  these wars on the cheap. We underestimated our  

opponents, the forces put together were untried  and untested, many of the commanders were as  

inexperienced as the soldiers they were  leading. Really it was not going to work.

The men doing the fighting were badly let down by  their commanders and by the senior politicians who  

pushed for the campaign. British prestige took  a huge knock, coupled with the British surrender  

at Kut a few months later the British were twice  defeated by the so-called 'sick man of Europe' and  

alongside the shell crisis of 1915, the failure at  Gallipoli would bring down the British government  

and force Prime Minister Henry Asquith's  Liberals into a coalition with the Conservatives.  

Future Prime Minister Winston Churchill  would lose his job over the campaign,  

instead leading a battalion on the  Western Front. On the Ottoman side  

Gallipoli was a high point for national  morale. Beyond the war it was the making  

of Mustafa Kemal or Atatürk who would go on to  become the first leader of the Turkish republic.

Beyond that the failed amphibious landings  in particular would reverberate throughout  

the following decades. Many lessons were learned  for the successful Allied operations during the  

Second World War including Operations  Torch, Husky and Overlord. Finally,  

the impact of the campaign on the nations of New  Zealand and Australia are still felt to this day.

Gallipoli was was something of a birth  moving away from being dominions of  

Britain to being sort of nations in their  own right. And the fact that ANZAC Day was  

established for the 25th of April every  year made sure that the Gallipoli campaign  

was never forgotten. And that whole sort of idea  of the ANZAC as the mateship and the hardiness and  

steadfastness of those soldiers comes out  of Gallipoli and lives long into the memory.