Gallipoli

GALLIPOLI

Peninsula between the Dardanelles and the Aegean Sea on the European side of the Turkish Straits.

Gallipoli was the site of an unsuccessful World War I Allied campaign (1915 and 1916) aimed at defeating the Ottoman Empire, opening up a second front against Austria–Hungary and Germany, and opening a supply route to Russia. Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill proposed this plan, expecting secretary of war Lord Kitchener to supply the necessary land troops, but Kitchener did not fully support Churchill's plan.

An Anglo–French force (mostly ANZAC [Australia and New Zealand Army Corps]) landed at Gallipoli in April 1915, after four unsuccessful naval attacks; they met a stubborn land defense by the Ottoman Turks. Although suffering enormous losses, the Allies—including Italy by August—nearly succeeded in a breakthrough. Lack of Russian cooperation, faulty intelligence, and skillful tactics on the part of the Ottomans and Germans, however, led to a stalemate, then to Allied withdrawal in January 1916. Churchill became the scapegoat and lost his position.

See also Austria-Hungary and the Middle East; Churchill, Winston S.; Kitchener, Horatio Herbert; Ottoman Empire; World War I.

Bibliography

Moorehead, Alan. Gallipoli. New York: Harper, 1956.

Sara Reguer