Winston Churchill, a man with a burning ambition and a delusion of grandeur, his innate desire to take control and command of the situation, led to the catastrophic failure of the Gallipoli campaign. The ambitious Churchill could visualize great movements and combinations in his mind, which he believed could have turned the tide in favor of Britain during the Great War.

Churchill had proposed a bold strategy to break the deadly stalemate in the Western Front. It involved Britain and the French-led Allied forces attacking the Gallipoli Peninsula on the northern side of the narrow 38-mile Dardanelles strait in northwest Turkey. The invasion was aimed at giving the British a clear sea route to their ally, Russia, and also knocking the fading Ottoman Empire, the “sick man of Europe” out of the war.

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, is considered one of the most infamous military operations of the First World War. It lasted from 19 February 1915, to 9 January1916, with the objective of capturing Constantinople, weakening the Central Powers, and safeguarding British strength in the Middle East. General Sir Ian Hamilton's strategy involved making two landings - one at Cape Helles by the British 29th Division and the other at Anzac Cove by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The aim of the Entente powers, comprising Britain, France, and Russia, was to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by gaining control over the strategically important Ottoman straits. This would expose the Ottoman Empire to bombardment by Entente battleships while opening the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Entente supplies, isolating the Ottoman Empire from its Asian territory. The campaign's success was anticipated to deliver a quick victory for the Entente powers and bolster their dominance. However, the Ottoman Turkish opposition did not collapse as expected. The Ottoman troops fiercely resisted the landings, making it impossible for the British and ANZAC to advance. Trench warfare became predominant at Gallipoli, resembling the fighting of the Western Front.

Despite initial success, Churchill’s insistence on continuing an attack that had been doomed to fail from the start, led to the catastrophic loss of thousands of lives in the Gallipoli campaign. His lack of a clear plan and an ability to anticipate the needs to meet the objectives led to hesitation and indecision by military commanders, particularly Admiral Sackville Carden, who collapsed under the pressure. Churchill’s unrelenting determination to push on with the attack, despite the weather worsening and Allied minesweepers drawing heavy fire, created an environment that ultimately led to disaster.

The fighting was particularly intense at Anzac Cove, which was located at a short distance from the Ottoman line of defense. The summer heat added to the difficulties, with rampant sickness, inedible food, and vast swarms of black corpse flies plaguing the Allied soldiers at Gallipoli. While the Entente forces attempted to force their way through the Dardanelles in February 1915, the naval action quickly led to an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915.

In August, the Entente powers launched a new offensive aimed at the hills surrounding Chunuk Bair in the north of Anzac Cove and a new landing at Suvla Bay, which failed spectacularly and quickly resuming the stalemate of the earlier campaign. Finally, in December, the desperate situation led to a strategic decision to evacuate the area, which was done in two stages, starting with Anzac and Suvla, with Helles following in January 1916.

Top photo: Soldiers in the trenches on the southern section of Gallipoli Peninsula (modern day Turkey). The men belong to the Royal Irish Fusiliers. In the Public Domain.

Bottom photo: Ottoman soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign, April 1915-Jan. 1916. Of the 315,000 Turkish defenders, over 215,000 were killed of wounded as they repulsed the British/French invasion. Source: War History Network. Click to enlarge.

As the campaign progressed, the month-long delay allowed the Turks to rush reinforcements to the peninsula and boost their defenses, and the British, French, and members of the ANZAC could make little progress from their beachheads. The Battle of Gallipoli turned out to be a slaughter and quickly morphed into a stalemate.

The ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign lasted nine months, and the Allies sustained 250,000 casualties with 46,000 Allied troops and 65,000 Turkish troops dead. The invasion had been scuttled by incompetence, hesitancy, and Churchill’s lack of clear planning. The Gallipoli disaster threw the government into crisis, and the Liberal prime minister was forced to bring the opposition Conservatives into a coalition government. As part of their agreement to share power, the Conservatives demanded Churchill’s removal from the Admiralty, and he was demoted to an obscure cabinet post in May 1915.

The Gallipoli campaign has, over the decades, been the subject of much debate and analysis by scholars and historians. While it is acknowledged that there were also other factors beyond Churchill’s control that contributed to the disaster, it is clear that Churchill’s insistence on pushing ahead with the invasion without a clear plan or strategy, his lack of military experience, and his failure to anticipate the challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, was largely responsible for the catastrophic failure of the invasion.

Bibliography

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"The Gallipoli Campaign: Churchill's speech about the Gallipoli Campaign." UK Parliament. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/collections/churchillexhibition/churchill-the-orator/gallipoli/.

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Moorehead, Martin. Gallipoli. London: Aurum Press, 2007.

Roberts, Andrew. "Perfect Preparation: What Churchill Learned from the First World War." International Churchill Society. Last modified May 11, 2021. https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-182/perfect-preparation-what-churchill-learned-from-the-first-world-war/.

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