The Gallipoli campaign and the aftermath
World War One was seen as the war to end all wars though
that would not entirely be true. One of the battles of the war has become
widely known throughout Australia and New Zealand not because it was a victory,
but due to the fact it was a defeat. This defeat is celebrated every year on
the 25th of April. The conflict, which is often overlooked as an
invasion of another country and the country pushing back at the invaders.
Nearly everyone knows the stories of the campaign with its battles between
Turkish soldiers and the ANZACs. I wont be doing a blog on that here as it tends to be well written about. The beginning and what came afterwards for
Turkey might not be known very well.
The idea of invading Turkey by sea and taking Constantinople
was created by Winston Churchill, First Lord of Admiralty and First Sea Lord
Fisher. The idea was to send the navy up the Dardanelles and onto
Constantinople where the idea was to bombard the city hoping for a quick
defeat. The hope was for other countries to join the allies. The attack had
begun on the 18th February 1915 and was not until 18th
March 1915 where the allied ships had to withdraw after a few had struck mines.
The Allies had lost three older battleships; two older ships and one modern
battle cruiser were badly damaged. This set in motion for the operation that
would become known as the Gallipoli campaign.
The task for the Gallipoli campaign seemed simple enough
where the ANZAC troops were meant to land on a small beach on the Gallipoli
peninsula, over run the Turkish positions and march onto Constantinople. The campaign that began in the early hours of
April 25th in 1915 was anything but a cakewalk. To other nations
outside of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand the campaign is remembered as just
another name in a list of battles during World War one. The German and Ottoman
troops were not just fighting against the ANZAC troops as the story seems to
go, but there were other soldiers located on other beaches. There were British,
Indian, French and Newfoundland soldiers too. . In total there were supposedly
almost a million men fighting in the area. When comparing casualties at
Gallipoli the Ottomans suffered more casualties than any other campaign of the
war. The last of the ANZAC troops were evacuated from Gallipoli on the 20th
December 1915.
The battle to the Turkish people was known as the Battle of
Canakkale. Canakkale was actually a town that was nearby situated on the side
of the straits called Canakkale otherwise known to Europeans as The Narrows.
World War One was not the only conflict that Turkey or the
Ottoman Empire was in. It did seem like the country had been in one continuous
struggle. Conflict in Turkey had begun in 1902 with the Macedonian Insurrection
followed by World War One and then the war of Independence that ended in 1923.
Turkey views the commemorations around the victory of the
British and French fleet on 18 march 1915. Turkey now remembers the campaign as
the launching of Mustafa Kemal’s career. He had won nearly all his victories
against the ANZACs though he was unknown to them until the end of the war.
Today there is a massive monument that dominates Chunuk Blair commemorating his
contributions. Both Australians and Turkish people see Gallipoli as a unique
bond between the nations. Turkey is proud to have fought the war on both sides
as it was their victory and the ANZACs defeat.
Visiting the locations of the war graves in Europe including
those at Gallipoli in Turkey for many would be viewed as visiting a sacred
place as the locations are no longer just sightseeing. To many who visit,
Gallipoli provides many different experiences to people.
The career of Mustafa Kemal later known as Ataturk was a
soldier whose career was launched from the Gallipoli campaign and he would
later become Turkey’s first president. Not long after the end of World War one
the Turkish war of Liberation began in 1919. This bought about the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire and a new nation was created out of the ashes in 1923, The
Republic of Turkey. The nation’s capital moved inland to the small town of
Ankara where it was redesigned along with a number of reforms that included
abolishing the caliphate and Islamic educational Institutions. Istanbul had
been seen as the centre of the Ottoman government and Islam for 500 years so
the reason for the new location. One of the reasons for Ankara was that it had
a railway and the town was redesigned with automobiles in mind as the streets
would be wide to accommodate the vehicles.
On a side note:
In New Zealand a native contingent committee had been
established as they thought Maori had every right to fight in the war even when
there had been Imperial concern about Maori picking up arms against Europeans.
The first contingent had sailed in Feburary 1915 and they were sent to Malta
for garrison duty that would free pakeha soldiers to fight on the front. Due to
the casualties in Gallipoli and changing Imperial policy, the native contingent
landed at ANZAC Cove on 3rd July 1915 joining other New Zealanders
already there. During the campaign 50 Maori lost their lives also according to
an account by Te Rangi Hiroa the efforts of the Maori had earnt the respect and
admiration of British troops.
Bibliography
Aksan, Virginia H ‘Ottoman to Turk: Continuity and change’,
International Journal, 61, Winter 2005/2006, pp.
19 – 38.
Erickson, Edward J. ‘One more push: forcing the
Dardanelles in March 1915’, Journal of
Strategic Studies, 3, 2001, pp. 158 – 176.
Fewster, Kevin Bargam,Vecihi and Bargam,
Hatice Hurmuz Gallipoli: The
Turkish Story Sydney: Allen
& Unwin, 2003, pp. vii (contents), ix-x, 1-3, 5, 6-
15, 18.
Foster, John ‘No man’s land has two sides: A view
for children of Gallipoli, 1915, from the Turkish and Australian trenches, Birdbook, 41, 2003, pp. 21 – 27.
Kucar, Duygu ‘Ankara, a small town transformed to a
nation’s capital’, Journal of Planning
History, 9, 2010, pp. 43 – 65.
Scates, Bruce ‘In Gallipoli’s shadow: Pilgrimage,
memory, mourning and the Great War’, Australian
Historical Studies, 119, 2002, pp. 1 – 21.
No comments:
Post a Comment