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Somewhere Else

As the casualties mounted in France, and no one could see a way to break through the enemy trenches, some people began looking for alternative ways to win the war. One idea, supported by Winston Churchill, was to attack Germany’s ally, Turkey, at Gallipoli, capture their capital, Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), and force them out of the war. With Turkey defeated, the Dardanelles, the strait from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, would be open and allow Britain and France to support Russia by putting pressure on Germany from the east.

Winston Churchill, the son of α famous British politician, fought in India and the Sudan at the end of the nineteenth century. After becoming a politician himself, as First Lord of the Admiralty in the British Government at the beginning of the war, Churchill was energetic in supporting new ideas, such as the tank and the landings at Gallipoli.

He later became one of the most famous people of the twentieth century by leading Britain as prime minister during the Second World War, making stirring speeches on the radio and inspiring the British peoples resolve to resist German bombings.

The first plan was for the British and French navies to force a way through the Dardanelles. When this failed, and three Allied battleships were sunk by mines on March 18, it was decided to take the Gallipoli Peninsula by landing soldiers on the beaches. Allied soldiers from Australia and New Zealand came ashore on five separate beaches at dawn on April 25th, 1915. Three landings, S, X and Y beaches, were only lightly opposed, but two, V and W beaches, were hotly contested.

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Canadian Prime Minister Borden (left) with Winston Churchill in 1912

At V Beach, an old ship, the River Clyde, was driven ashore, and the men let down ramps. They were mowed down by Turkish machine guns. At W Beach, the boats being rowed ashore were hit by machine gun and rifle fire, and the equipment-laden men who jumped into the water sank and drowned. More than half the 3,000 men on V and W beaches were killed or wounded that day.

The soldiers at Gallipoli succeeded in fighting their way off the beaches but failed to take the heights on the peninsula or to threaten the Turkish guns that dominated the Dardanelles. Both sides dug trenches, and the campaign became a miniature version of the Western Front. For eight months, the casualties rose with no appreciable change in the lines on the map. Finally, in December 1915 and January 1916, in the only successful operation of the whole misguided campaign, the entire Allied force was evacuated without a single casualty.

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Allied landings at Gallipoli The letters indicate beaches where Allied forces landed from April to August 1915.