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World War I · Ottoman Empire · February 1915 – January 1916
The Gallipoli Campaign
To break the deadlock in France, Britain and France tried to force their way through the Dardanelles strait, capture Constantinople and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. Instead, eight months of fighting on a rugged peninsula ended in evacuation. Gallipoli became a defining story for Australia, New Zealand and modern Turkey.
Lt. Col. Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk, at Gallipoli in 1915
Quick facts
Gallipoli at a glance
| When | Naval attacks from February 19, 1915; landings April 25, 1915; last troops leave January 9, 1916 | |
| Where | The Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles strait, in today’s Turkey | |
| Sides | British Empire (incl. Australia, New Zealand, India, Newfoundland) and France vs. the Ottoman Empire, with German advisers | |
| Allied leaders | Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton; Gen. William Birdwood (ANZAC); First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill backed the plan | |
| Ottoman leaders | Gen. Otto Liman von Sanders (German); Lt. Col. Mustafa Kemal | |
| Troops | About 490,000 Allied and over 300,000 Ottoman soldiers served over the campaign | |
| Dead | Roughly 44,000 Allied and at least 56,000 Ottoman soldiers | |
| Result | Ottoman victory; Allied evacuation completed January 9, 1916 |
The big picture in 30 seconds
Why Gallipoli matters
- It was the biggest attempt to find a way around the Western Front deadlock.
- Its failure cost Winston Churchill his post at the Admiralty.
- April 25, Anzac Day, is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand.
- Mustafa Kemal’s fame from Gallipoli helped him found the Republic of Turkey in 1923.
8 months
of fighting on the peninsula
800,000+
soldiers took part
100,000+
dead on both sides
3
Allied battleships sunk by mines on March 18
Why Gallipoli?
A shortcut to victory
By early 1915 the Western Front was locked in trenches. Winston Churchill, head of the Royal Navy, and others argued for a new front. If Allied warships could steam through the Dardanelles, the narrow strait between Europe and Asia, they could threaten Constantinople, perhaps force the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea.
British and French battleships began shelling the outer forts on February 19, 1915. On March 18 they made a full attack. A line of mines laid secretly by the Ottoman minelayer Nusret sank the French battleship Bouvet and the British Irresistible and Ocean, and damaged others. The admirals called off the naval attack. The army would have to take the peninsula first.
Where it happened
A rugged peninsula above a narrow strait
The Gallipoli Peninsula is about 50 miles long, with steep ridges, ravines and scrub. The Ottoman forts guarding the Narrows sat across the water from Çanakkale. The British landed at Cape Helles at the tip, the Australians and New Zealanders (ANZAC) at the beach now called Anzac Cove, and in August a new British force landed at Suvla Bay.
Simplified map. The Dardanelles is the narrow strait between the peninsula and Asia. Red dots mark the landing areas and the key height of Chunuk Bair.
How the battle unfolded
From landing to evacuation
Neither side could break the other. Trenches soon ran across the peninsula, often only yards apart.
British troops land at five beaches around Cape Helles under heavy fire. The ANZAC land a mile north of their target, beneath steep cliffs. The French make a diversion at Kum Kale on the Asian shore.
British attacks on the village of Krithia and the hill of Achi Baba fail. A huge Ottoman attack at Anzac on May 19 is beaten off with heavy losses. Heat, flies and dysentery spread through the camps.
Attacks at Lone Pine, the Nek and Chunuk Bair, and a new landing at Suvla Bay, aim to seize the high ground. New Zealanders briefly hold Chunuk Bair before Kemal’s counterattack retakes it.
Hamilton is recalled in October. Anzac and Suvla are evacuated on December 19–20 and Helles by January 9, with almost no losses: the best-run part of the campaign.
Anzac
The birth of a legend
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps came ashore before dawn on April 25 at a narrow cove below steep ridges. Ottoman defenders, rushed forward by Mustafa Kemal, stopped them short of the heights. For the next eight months the Anzacs clung to a strip of ground barely a mile deep. Supplies, water and the wounded all moved across one small beach under shellfire.
About 8,700 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders died. Their courage and their suffering gave both young nations a sense of their own identity. Anzac Day, April 25, is still marked by dawn services across Australia and New Zealand and at Anzac Cove itself.
Commanders and soldiers
Who led the campaign
Why it mattered
A costly failure with lasting echoes
Gallipoli did not open the straits, help Russia or shorten the war. It cost more than 100,000 lives and brought down Churchill at the Admiralty and Prime Minister Asquith’s Liberal government, which had to form a coalition. But it shaped national memory in three countries and made Mustafa Kemal a hero.
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.”
Attributed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Words on the Kabatepe memorial at Anzac Cove, dated 1934
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Books and sources
- Gallipoli, by Peter Hart (2011)
- Gallipoli, by Alan Moorehead (1956)
- Gallipoli: The End of the Myth, by Robin Prior (2009)
- More recommended books