At 6:00 am on the morning of 25th of April 1915 the First Expeditionary Force of the Anzacs landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. The aim was to strike in across the peninsula and destroy the Turkish naval defences in the Dardanelles, leaving the channel open for the Royal Navy to sail through to Constantinople and knock Turkey out of the war in one stroke. But the Anzacs were sent ashore in the wrong place, they found not open grasslands but steep hills. The Turks were well entrenched on the hill tops and cliffs overlooking the landing areas. Of the 16, 000 landed on the first morning, 2,000 were killed and between two and three thousand were wounded.
The primary objective was that the Turks would be driven back and that Constantinople would be reached within a matter of weeks. The main battle lasted from April 25 until the end of August. During those four months no more progress than a mile or two was made from the landing zone, which was continually within range of Turkish mortars and artillery. From some positions there was machine gun fire as well. The Turkish forces had no aircraft and poor artillery, however they were well prepared. By the end of the day, having suffered horrific losses, the Anzacs had established a small beachhead, clinging to cliffs that were to remain unchanged as the front line for the duration of the campaign.
On the night of November 1915 the Anzacs withdrew from Gallipoli, losing no men in the evacuation, but leaving behind thousands of their fallen friends. The evacuation of Gallipoli was regarded as the most successful operation of the war as there were no casualties. Anzac Cove and Sulva Bay were evacuated without a single casualty. To disguise their departure from Gallipoli, self-firing guns were set up along the Allied trenches. The Turks mounted an attack on the Allied trenches at Gallipoli the day after the troops had left, to find the trenches empty.
The Gallipoli Campaign ended in a costly failure. Allied troops had completely withdrawn by January 1916 having suffered over 30,000 casualties. The Turks had held the line but at a terrible cost with up to 200,000 casualties. The Royal Navy's inability to force the Dardanelles Straits with its battleships was clearly one of the causes of the expeditions failure. Also, the soldiers were not trained on how to land on beaches and were simply knocked down and killed before they reached land. The allies were slow to react having landed and the Turks had been given time to rearm and reinforce. The trenches were in terrible condition and soldiers suffered from disease, water shortages and food shortages. A new commander was put in charge of the campaign that decided to continue and brought an end to the campaign.
