Landing at Anzac Cove
25 April 1915 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
Allied forces tried to seize the Dardanelles and Constantinople but were repulsed by Ottoman defenders, including Mustafa Kemal, after heavy losses on both sides.
The sides
- Australia and New Zealand, led by William Birdwood: about 16,000 men
- Ottoman Empire, led by Mustafa Kemal: about 7,000 men
States that fought: Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of Great Britain, Commonwealth of Australia.
How it went
Landing at Anzac Cove
The First World War. In March British and French battleships failed to force the Dardanelles, the straits to Constantinople. Now an army is to land on the Gallipoli peninsula. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the Anzacs, are to come ashore on its western coast and push across to the hills that command the straits.
Dawn
At 4:30 in the morning, in the dark, the first 1,500 men are towed in in rowing boats. A current and a mistake carry them north of the wide beach they were aimed at, under the steep cliffs of Ari Burnu. Shots come down from the heights.
Up the cliffs
The covering force scrambles up the scrub-covered spurs with bayonets fixed and drives the defenders off Plugge's Plateau. Mixed up in the gullies, small parties push on inland; one reaches the third ridge and looks down on the straits.
Kemal
Mustafa Kemal, commanding the Ottoman reserve, does not wait for orders. He leads the 57th Regiment up to Chunuk Bair and sends it straight in: "I do not order you to attack. I order you to die." On the second ridge the 27th Regiment comes up from the south.
Baby 700
All afternoon the fight surges back and forth over the hill called Baby 700, which changes hands five times. New Zealanders climb up to join the Australians. By evening the Turks hold it, and the Anzacs are pressed back onto the edge of the second ridge.
Dig, dig, dig
By night 16,000 men are ashore and some 2,000 have been killed or wounded. The commanders ask about taking them off again. The answer comes back from Sir Ian Hamilton: "You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe."
Anzac
The two sides dig in a few metres apart and stay there for eight months. In August the New Zealanders take Chunuk Bair for two days and lose it to Kemal again. In December the Allies leave in secret. Some 11,000 Australians and New Zealanders die at Gallipoli; 25 April becomes Anzac Day, and Kemal goes on to found modern Turkey.
Men ashore or in the line by nightfall, rounded. The ridges are simplified; the first landing boats came in some 1.5 km north of where they were aimed.
People and wars
- World War I (1914–1918 CE): A global war from 1914 to 1918 between the Allies and the Central Powers, fought largely in trenches on Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts. Around 9 million soldiers died, and four empires collapsed.
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 CE – 1938 CE): Founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, who led the War of Independence and carried out sweeping secularizing and westernizing reforms.
- Winston Churchill (1874 CE – 1965 CE): British statesman who was Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, leading Britain through World War II, and again from 1951 to 1955.