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British Empire declared war on the German.
Following the death of Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. This unleashes a string of pledges leading up to the British declaration of war on the German empire. As a sign of loyalty the Australia and New Zealand forces also pledge men. -
Period: to
the beginning to the end of the gallipoli gampaign
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Churchill's Plan
Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the British Admiralty Churchill felt that Turkey was unlikely to remain neutral between Britain and Germany and that the Turks would enter the war on the German side. He wanted to produce a plan to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. So they would have a head start. He consulted the greek army and the produced a very detailed plan to capture the peninsula. this would involve 60,000 troops including the ANZAC's -
the naval assult on the Dardanelles.
The British warships of the naval fleet opened fire on Turkish forts guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles at the Gallipoli Peninsula. The magazine in Sed-el-Bahr (Gallipoli Peninsula) exploded, destroying all the heavy guns in the area. -
AIF training courses begin.
Units of the AIF began arriving in Egypt. They were sent to Camps where they were prepared for war. Australians and New Zealanders were kept in Egypt because all the camps in England were either full or not fully ready to receive prisoners. -
Units of the ANZACS begin arriving on lemnos.
This day is when the first sign the ANZAC’s fleet appear off the near Gallipoli. because the voyage had scattered the fleet across the ocean they planned a meeting point just of the coast of Lemnos. Then they could regroup and attack with all their men at once. -
The beginning of the battle of Gallipoli
At this point all the fleet was reunited and began its trip towards the Gallipoli peninsula as they got closer the troops were broken into battalions and left the main ship into smaller boats. These boats had a shield on the front so no troops were injured before they even started fighting. They would carry the troops all the way up to the shore line and they would release the troops in waves. -
Turkey's counter-attack.
Between the 25th and the 29th of April the Turkish forces pounded the ANZAC’s and the British force. After only a day the total casualties tallied to about 1700 men, and the Turkish kept coming. The ANZACs only managed to hold onto a small chunk of land about 2 kilometres in diameter. -
Reinforcements begin arriving.
By this point of the battle the ANZACs were becoming weak, losing men by the minute. The first light horse brigade arrived to try and drive the Turkish back a bit, but the men came without their horses, they were used as infantry in the trenches. -
A truce is agreed.
After about a month of fighting, a truce was organised to pay tribute/remove their fellow fallen soldiers and bury them. The weather was hot and the bodies were rotting. It was also respect to the dead. No man’s land was cleared and the fighting resumed. -
Night time landings a found to be better.
Four “destroyers” arrived at Anzac Cove with troops to reinforce were shelled. The shelling killed four soldiers and wounded 41 other, seven of these died later of related injuries. As a result daytime landings were declared unsafe and so all troops and animals were landed at night. -
New weaponry is developed
A factory at ANZAC cove developed early models of a periscope rifle. These guns, allowed a soldier to aim and fire at the enemy from his trench without showing himself, giving the ANZACs a slight advantage over the Turkish, although the Turkish had a Shell cannon, which took over 1000 casualties alone. -
The First night attack
The British destroyer, HMS rattlesnake and men of the ninth battalion launched a night attack near the beach at Gaba Tepe. This was done because the ANZACs wanted to make the Turkish think they were also attacking from different side, hopefully the Turkish forces would spread out making them weaker. -
Fresh bread is given to the ANZACs
After months of stale hard rations the troops finally receive for the first time fresh bread. This may not seem like much to us but back then in the cold and wet climate this could have been the best resource they had received since the start of the war. -
The August Offensive.
The august offensive was the biggest push that the ANZACs had made since the first day. It involved four waves of men of the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade attacking Turkish trenches at the nek. Meanwhile diversionary attacks were made from quinn’s post. The diversionary attacks were unsuccessful. -
The August Offensive. day 2
The New Zealanders, with British support, captured Chunuk air and managed to hold it despite strong Turkish counter attacks another small unit briefly captured another summit to the north of Chunuk air, but they were driven off by the Turkish. The fourth Australian brigade failed to make any progress. -
The final day of the August Offensive.
On the final day after 4 days of battle, the Turkish troops managed to push the British troop back, although were unable to push them all the way back to the valley. The ANZACs and British empire had gained ground but the August offensive was deemed a failure. -
The first bad conditions.
After about six months of fighting the Troops in Gallipoli experienced their first severe storm. The storm lashed out across the Gallipoli peninsula and damaged a fair amount of the equipment including the fresh water supply. This was not major but defiantly set them back. -
The Silent Stunt
Between 24 and 27 November the troops at Anzac were ordered not to fire on the Turks unless they were attacked or threatened. This so-called ‘Silent Stunt’ was to show the enemy that their silence did not necessarily mean that they had retreated. Forcing the Turkish to always be alert even during moments of silence. -
The evacuation
Over two nights the 18 and 19 of December, all of the remaining 20,000 Australians and New Zealanders were withdrawn from the Anzac area of Gallipoli. The troops snuck out in the night and because of the silence previously the Turkish were unaware that a major evacuation was taking place. There were virtually no casualties -
The End
On Lemnos after the evacuation Australian troops celebrated Christmas away from home. This was the end of the Gallipoli campaign. There was a total of about 252,000 ANZAC casualties and the Turkish lost about the same.
