The Great War, Gallipoli & Churchill

V R Raghavan.

COMMEMORATIONS of  FirWorld War I, a century ago, began last  year will continue for some time.  It will be a hundred years in  April, 2015 after the disastrous campaign fought in the Gallipoli Peninsula, between Turkey and the Allied powers led by United Kingdom. World War I was  termed the Great War as much for the size of the forces which fought in it as for the carnage and costs to victors and vanquished alike. Gallipoli was a side show of the war but became a campaign marked by the valour and sacrifices of the troops, mainly from Australia, New Zealand, France and UK as also of Turkish army led by Kemal Ataturk. 

It was a costly but wasted campaign away from the  great battlefields in Belgium and  France which made the Great War famous. It was a campaign initiated by Winston Churchill against military advice. The disastrous campaign led to Churchill resigning from the British cabinet and going into oblivion to command a regiment on the western front. The Great War  brought about the breakup of the Ottoman empire but Gallipoli began the emergence of Turkey as a modern state under Ataturk.

A remarkable outcome of the Gallipoli fiasco and its heavy costs in lives, was  the  new awareness in Australia and New Zealand of their national identity. The two nations began the shift from being mere appendages of  Great Britain  to becoming states in their own rights. Knowledge of  London's  misplaced assumptions about its colonies' willingness to bear any costs saw the beginning of demands for a new status for Australia and New Zealand. 

April 25, the day the Gallipoli campaign commenced in 1915, became known as the ANZAC Day  named after the men of Australia New Zealand Army Corps  who  fought against impossible odds. Today ANZAC has surpassed  Remembrance Day in the emotional upsurge it creates in the antipodes. In Canberra and Wellington, the most impressive war memorials are for the ANZAC  in Gallipoli.

Grand Strategy which ruled  imperial notions in London in 1914-1915 required that  its Russian ally be supported against Germany. The reality was of the belief that a Russian collapse would allow Germany to  turn all its military power against France and Britain. Russia could only be supported  by opening a supply route from the south, which required capturing the Dardanelles and Constantinople, which  meant defeating Turkey which had allied with Germany.  Churchill,  First Lord of the Admiralty,  ambitious and confident as ever, over ruled naval and military advice and carried the argument for a naval offensive.  He managed to get old and reconditioned ships and submarines, and  even  commandeered  Turkey's naval  ships under renovation in Britain, to form an armada. 

London believed that a show of force would be enough to bring down Turkey's resistance. The operation which involved  pushing  ships and submarines through the narrow Dardanelles straits was akin to a naval version of  Charge of the Light Brigade. The operations was a failure with shore -based  Turkish guns blazing away at the hapless armada, leading to ships and submarine being destroyed. There was no military or land attack to support the operations. 

A stalemate ensued and was  followed by a military attack   with  troops from Australia, New Zealand, Britain and France and  some Indian  troops. They attempted to take the heights occupied by Turkish army led  by Gen Kemal Ataturk and advised by German generals. It was a long and costly eight months long disaster with 252,000 casualties to the allies and roughly the same numbers of Turkish soldiers. The disdain with which London, and particularly Churchill, viewed the  campaign is to be seen in the  response to the defeat. When the public became aware of the casualties the media, the cabinet and  the Prime Minister turned against Churchill and he was sacked, but led a campaign for more troops to be sent to Gallipoli.  

The costs rising in casualties,  General  Hamilton  the  commander was asked to plan a withdrawal.  Imperial  hubris or obstinacy prevailed and he refused.  He was replaced  by General  Munro who on arrival saw the situation and ordered a withdrawal. Churchill, protagonist of military offensives, fumed and said of Munro, “He came, he saw, he capitulated.” Not long after that Russia collapsed, the Tsar abdicated and communist rule began in Moscow. Germany was able to turn its full military power to the western front  and by  1918 was  near Paris. 

Churchill soldiered on with his Regiment in France, and  worked his way back into British politics after the War. He went on to become  Prime Minister and benchmarked his place in history by leading the allies to a stupendous victory in World War II, in 1945. Kemal Ataturk rebuilt Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. He paid the soldier's fine compliment to allied troops who had perished in Gallipoli with his words,   “You, the Mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe your tears.... your sons are now lying in our bosoms, and having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.” ANZAC  Day  commemorates the sacrifices made in a pointless military campaign. 

The writer is a retired Lt General