Why Did the Gallipoli Campaign Fail?

Why did the Gallipoli campaign fail?

The Gallipoli attack took place on the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli from April 1915 to January 1916 during the First World War. This campaign was a British plan which was expected to defeat Germany through attacking Turkey. The plan had the intention of breaking the 'stalemate' or 'deadlock', where both sides were moving neither back or forth, this was due to the trench system which was a poor idea because it was incredible for defense but nobody could attack it. Unfortunately, this battle was a failure due to a number of mistakes occurred by the British, ANZACS (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), and the French navy. The mistakes lacked intelligence to support the ideas of capturing Gallipoli successfully.
The Turks took the control of Dardanelles strait, which was an access route to the Black Sea. Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, wanted to capture the Dardanelles which then they could easily send supplies and troops to Russia. On February 19, the British navy used submarines and tanks to attack the Dardanelles not knowing the fact that the Turks have placed mines for trapping them. A massive fleet led by Admiral de Robeck containing sixteen battleships tried to sail through the Dardanelles. Due to the sea mines, nearly all of the battleships were badly damaged and three of them were sunk. In the end, this just had a bad influence for them to aim further attacks by the naval power alone. Their plan to control the Dardanelles and take the Turkish capital Constantinople was completely out of topic, and their hope that if this plan was successful the nearby countries would help them to attack Germany from the East was ruined.

The British, ANZACS and French troops were forced to dig trenches, and had to suffer from immense amount of heat and poor supplies of food. Obviously, this led to disease and many soldiers suffered from it. There were a significant number of casualties and deaths from the disease. Thus, the troop lacked number of soldiers as well.

By looking at these, we can prove that the British were not settled or ready yet to fulfill their plan. Their attack was not strong enough, but also, they did not know enough about the situation and the opponent¡¯s tactics. Another reason why the Gallipoli campaign failed was that the hills were too steep for the army to cross over. The British, ANZACS and the French navy lacked these physical abilities to fight whereas the Turks were well trained by the Germans and was confident to fight. The British did not use aircraft for reconnaissance, which would have been easier for them to check and spy the Turks. Winston Churchill had underestimated the Turks and therefore did not provide themselves with enough planning and training. Unlike what the British have thought, the Turks were trained properly by the Germans and their tactics required far more intelligence than the British. The armies were not aware of the peril that might occur when they have reached the area. The plan was brilliant, clever and aimed high. Though, they should have been more alarmed about what they were doing and what they should have done to lead the Gallipoli campaign into a success.