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For nine months in 1915, British and French forces
battled the Ottoman Empire - modern Turkey - for
control of the Gallipoli peninsula, a small finger of
Europe jutting into the Aegean Sea that dominates a
strategic waterway, the Dardanelles. By opening the
Dardanelles to their fleets, the Allies hoped to
threaten the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (now
Istanbul) and knock the Turks out of the war.
Among the British forces were the Anzacs - the
Australia and New Zealand Army Corps - who landed on
the peninsula on 25 April. The landing, like the
Gallipoli campaign itself, was ambitious and ultimately
unsuccessful: the peninsula remained in its defenders'
hands.
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The campaign was a costly failure for the
Allies: 44,000 British and French soldiers died,
including over 8700 Australians. Among the dead were
2721 New Zealanders - roughly one-quarter of those who
fought on Gallipoli. Victory came at a high price for
the Turks: 87,000 men died in the campaign which became
a defining moment in Turkish history.
The
Gallipoli campaign was a relatively minor part of the
First World War (1914-18), but it has great
significance for New Zealand's history and it has
become an important symbol of its national identity.
The campaign was the first time that New Zealand
stepped on to the world stage, and the New Zealanders
made a name for themselves fighting hard, against the
odds, in an inhospitable environment.
New
Zealand marks the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings
each year on Anzac Day - 25 April - remembering not
only those who died there, but all who have served the
country in times of war. The Gallipoli battlefields are
now part of the 33,000 hectare Gallipoli Peninsula
Historical National Park, or the Peace Park.
Anzac Cove
The Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed at a
small bay (now known as Anzac Cove) north of Kabatepe
on the Gallipoli peninsula on 25 April 1915. Their
objective was to seize part of the Sari Bair range to
cover their advance across the peninsula to cut the
Turkish supply lines and threaten Turkish forces
fighting further south at Cape Helles.
The
Anzacs were never meant to land at the cove, with its
steep hinterland of rough gullies. They should have
landed on a much longer beach and on a wider front, but
it seems that a navigational blunder put the troops
ashore in the wrong place.
Australian troops
went ashore first, and the New Zealanders followed from
late morning, pushing inland to join Australians who
had reached the second ridge (and in some cases to the
third ridge) - about 2 km from the bay. They struggled
in the rugged terrain, and found themselves under
increasing pressure from the Turkish defenders.
By the end of the day the situation was so bleak
that proposals were made for the evacuation of the
troops. But this was impracticable, and the Commander-in-Chief,
Sir Ian Hamilton, urged the Anzacs to dig in. This they
did, establishing a tenuous line of outposts along the
second ridge. The troops depended on supplies landed at
Anzac Cove, which was the hub of the Anzac effort.
For many years Anzac Day ceremonies were held at
Ari Burnu Cemetery on the northern point of Anzac Cove.
The number of people attending grew so large that an
Anzac commemorative site was created a few hundred
metres to the north, facing North Beach. It was opened
on Anzac Day 2000.
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Hill 60
The attacks by the Anzacs on
Hill 60 were the last throw of the dice for New
Zealanders in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915.
Brigadier-General Andrew Russell, commander of the New
Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, dubbed Hill 60 'an
abominable little hill'. This relatively insignificant
feature on the edge of the Suvla plain just north of
the Anzac area was the site of a number of attacks by
units of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade in
August 1915.
The first attempt to take the hill
from its Turkish defenders was made by men of the Otago
and Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiments on 21 August as
part of an unsuccessful general attack at Suvla that
left 5000 casualties on the Allied side. The New
Zealanders succeeded in seizing part of the Turkish
trench system but could not dislodge the Turks from the
hill. Six days later, the remnants of the whole brigade
(about 300 men, down from the 1865 who landed in May)
made another daylight attack that extended the line but
again failed to capture the target.
The British
historian Robert Rhodes James later wrote that 'For
connoisseurs of military futility, valour, incompetence
and determination, the attacks on Hill 60 are in a
class of their own.' Many of the New Zealand casualties
in this fighting are recorded on the New Zealand
Memorial to the Missing in Hill 60 Cemetery.
Chunuk Bair
One of New Zealand's epic stands on the Gallipoli
peninsula was in the heat of August 1915 at Chunuk Bair,
one of the three high points on the Sari Bair range.
These were the main objectives of the Anzacs' offensive
of early August 1915 when they tried to break out of
the stalemate with the Turks in the Anzac sector.
The New Zealand Infantry Brigade advanced up
Chailak Dere and Sazli Beit Dere during the night of
6-7 August to capture Chunuk Bair. Earlier, their way
had been opened by the New Zealand mounted rifles units
and the Maori Contingent, which had captured key points
(including Old No 3 Outpost and Table Top) guarding the
valleys in daring night assaults.
The attack
had fallen behind schedule and the New Zealanders were
still a kilometre short of the summit when dawn broke
on 7 August, sheltering at a position below
Rhododendron Ridge that would become known as The Apex.
In a mid-morning attack the Auckland Battalion
suffered heavy casualties to reach the Pinnacle, 200 m
from the summit. When ordered to follow suit, the
Wellington Battalion's commander Lieutenant-Colonel
William Malone refused to sacrifice his men in a futile
attempt, insisting that the attack be mounted that
night.
In the pre-dawn darkness of 8 August the
Wellington swiftly moved up Rhododendron Ridge on to
the summit, which almost inexplicably had been
abandoned by its Turkish defenders. When the sun rose,
Malone and his men, assisted by some Auckland mounted
riflemen and British troops who also reached the summit,
engaged in a desperate struggle to hold off the Turks.
The Otago Battalion and Wellington Mounted
Rifles relieved the Wellingtons during the night of 8-9
August only to endure a similar ordeal all through the
long summer day. They, too, were relieved during the
night of 9-10 August by two British battalions, which
almost immediately succumbed to a massive counterattack
launched by the Turkish commander, Mustafa Kemal.
The summit was lost, but the New Zealanders stemmed
the Turkish flood down the seaward slopes of the hill.
The Apex was held until the end of the campaign.
Cape Helles
The main Allied landing on the Gallipoli peninsula
was at Cape Helles on 25 April 1915. Unlike the landing
at Anzac Cove, this was successful, but the way
northwards was soon barred by hastily summoned Turkish
reinforcements.
An attempt to take the small
village of Krithia (now Alçitepe), earlier entered by
landing troops but abandoned in a typical Gallipoli
muddle, failed. A new attack was planned in early May.
To bolster the attacking forces, the New
Zealand Infantry Brigade and an Australian brigade were
redeployed from Anzac to Cape Helles. Unimaginative
daylight attacks on 8 May had predictable results. At
heavy cost in lives the New Zealanders pushed forward a
few hundred metres, but the Turks fought off the attack
with relative ease. The village of Krithia was still
firmly in their grasp when the Anzacs were withdrawn
and returned to the Anzac area.
In three days,
the Allies had advanced about 500m, with 6500
casualties, 800 of them New Zealanders. Some New
Zealand artillery units continued to operate in the
Cape Helles area until the middle of August 1915. The
stalemate at Cape Helles ended on the night of 8-9
January 1916 when the Allies were evacuated.
The
Cape Helles Memorial, a 33-m high cenotaph commemorates
the British Empire's part in the Gallipoli campaign.
All British ships, military formations and units -
including the Anzacs - are recorded. Inscribed on the
wall surrounding the memorial are the names of 20,763
men who have no known grave.
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