Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in newspapers. As well, soldiers recorded things like their journey to the Gallipoli
campaign, general observations of battle situations and field-drawn base maps and
pictorial representations of troop positions and emplacements.
Keywords Cartography
History
Gallipoli
Personal geographies
1 The Gallipoli Campaign
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915-1916 came about because of the deadlock on the
Western Front, which turned British eyes towards other possible theatres, plus
appeals for assistance from Russia early in January 1915 (Travers
2001a
; Velsley
1997
). A plan preferred by Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty
was to be a naval operation (Heffernan
1996
). The original plan was for a com-
bined Anglo-Franco naval fleet, using mainly outdated battleships; to force the
Narrows, sail into the Sea of Marmara and then on to Istanbul. Once this was done,
three Divisions of the Greek Army would advance on Istanbul.
However, this was later amended to be a naval engagement, after Russian
opposition to the use of Greek troops. The revised naval plan was to force the
Narrows, penetrate the Sea of Marmara and bombard Istanbul, compelling Turkey
to surrender (Sea Power Centre
2005
). This was attempted on March 18, 1915,
with seventeen allied warships, supported by an assortment of other craft, like
mine sweepers (Millett
2000
). Mine fields and hidden guns prevented the success
of this plan. Six battleships were sunk or severely damaged (Millett
2000
). Some
military analysts considered that this plan would have never worked. I am still of
the opinion however, that the Royal Navy could not have ''rushed'' the Narrows
and go through in sufficient numbers to tackle the hostile fleet it would have met in
the Sea of Marmara (Aiguillette
1962
, p 63). The entrance to the Dardanelles and
the Narrows is shown in Fig.
1
.
Then Britain prepared another plan, for a larger military operation that would
capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, allow the waters to be cleared of mines and
opening it for the fleet to sail to Istanbul (Sea Power Centre
2005
). To support the
military operation, France provided a Division (the first division of the Corps
Expédition d'Orient made up of North African (Arab and European), Foreign
Legion and Sengalese troops (Hughes
2005
)), Britain its 29th Division, Australian
and New Zealand troops (moved from Egypt) (Travers
2001a
) and the Zion Mule
Corps. The stage was set for the invasion and subsequent landings on the beaches
of the Turkish Gallipoli (Chanakale) Peninsula by British, ANZAC and Indian
troops and at Kum Kale (on the Asiatic shore) by French troops (who acted as a
diversionary force by capturing a Turkish fort on the Eastern shores of the
Dardanelles (Millett
2000
)) (who were moved to Cape Helles on 26 April, where
they held the eastern part of the Allied line) (Hughes
2005
) on April 25, and the
Allied attacks of 28 April at Helles, 1915 (Travers
2001b
).
