In war, misjudgment and miscommunication are a major factor in causing casualties and material losses, so it can also cause a war disaster. In 1915, at the height of the First World War, under the command of british generals, the Allied forces, believing that they were sure of victory, launched an attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula, which extended southwest of Turkey, and as a result, the attackers lost their troops and returned without success, leaving behind huge casualties and heavy fear.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, arrogant British soldiers</h1>
After the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, Germany, trapped in a position of allied attack, was anxious to get rid of the two-front war pattern, and in 1915 the strategic plan was to take swift action on the Eastern Front, defeat Russia as quickly as possible, force Russia to sign a separate peace treaty, and then swing the Western Front against Britain and France.
Thus, from January 1915 onwards, fierce fighting took place on the entire Eastern Front, and the Germans, in coordination with the Turkish armies of the allied member countries, attacked the Russians and were invincible. Fortunately, Russia's vast land and large number of soldiers made it difficult for Germany to kill Russia, but Russia's losses were very heavy. On 5 January, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia sent a letter to The British, asking Them to take "some kind of containment, between the Navy and the Army."
The self-righteous Britain immediately acceded to Russia's demands, and the military took action. The british chose the place of attack not on the Western Front, but at the entrance to the Black Sea, the Dardanelles. In the eyes of the British army, this was an easy military operation.
For a long time, the fortifications of the Dardanelles were old and fragile, and military installations on both sides of the strait, even arsenals, were exposed to the close-range flat fire of warships. No one could doubt that the Allied fleet would be able to effortlessly cross the entire Strait and occupy Constantinople. From the very beginning of the war, The British Admiral Churchill was advocating the capture of the Dardanelles. He repeatedly claimed that it was a limited military objective and the only way to the Russian Black Sea port.
The Gallipoli Peninsula, located at the entrance to the European side of the Dardanelles, is 96 km long and 6 to 20 km wide. Its topography is characterized by its narrow, barren and mountainous terrain, but the mountain beams overlooking the channel serve as a natural barrier to defend the European side of the Dardanelles. The British, who boasted a first-class navy, did not look at Gallipoli at all. Almost every British soldier believed that as soon as British troops entered the Dardanelles, there would be a coup d'état in Turkey, which would result in the fall of the Sudanese regime and Turkey's separation from the Allies in favor of the Entente.
On 19 February, a combined Anglo-French Navy mobile fleet of 18 British capital ships and 4 French battleships and auxiliary ships reached the entrance to the Strait of Daniel, where a heavy bombardment of naval fire muted the Turkish coastal cannons on either side of the entrance. Due to poor weather, British assault forces landed at Gallipoli only 5 days later.
Only then did they discover that in the hidden parts of the cliffs, there were strong fortifications and garrisons of Turkish troops with considerable combat effectiveness. The British commandos were driven back. When the news reached London, British military leaders were not impressed. Field Marshal Kitchinner dismissively said that as soon as the British warship appeared, the Turkish army in Gallipoli would flee in the wind, and Britain would not need to send troops to land on the peninsula.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the teacher is unfavorable</h1>
On 18 March, the British and French naval fleets launched an attack on the Dardanelles, and 10 battleships, escorted by a large number of frigates, attacked the strait. No sooner had the fleet penetrated the strait than 8 kilometers into the strait when it unexpectedly encountered a minefield of 20 mines, sinking 3 capital ships and killing nearly 700 officers and men on a single warship called the Little Bull. Fearing another accident, the commander of the fleet, Admiral Drobe, ordered the remaining ships to return to the Aegean Sea. The attack, which was supposed to be victorious, ended hastily.
Although the division was unfavorable, the British did not mind, and the only thing that changed was that the British War Department intended to send the Army to capture Gallipoli when it re-entered the Dardanelles Strait. General Hamilton, An old subordinate of Kitchener, was ordered to lead the attack. And his knowledge of Gallipoli came only from a 1912 Turkish Army exercise, a dilapidated map of the war zone, and a guide to Constantinople that he bought in a bookstore when he left London.
Since the War Department did not have a relevant battle plan, he used the worn-out map to select and determine the landing site in Gallipoli on the way to the mission. The veteran British general thought his task was simply to drive away or eliminate the enemies in Gallipoli.
Hamilton first arrived in Egypt and saw that most of the troops he commanded were the Anzac Army of Australians and New Zealanders, a French division and a Gurkha force, about 78,000 people. Although it was believed to be enough to scare off the Turkish troops stationed there, it lacked minimal combat equipment, even weapons. So Hamilton slowly and methodically began to prepare for the war.
Because the troops lacked the weapons and tools needed for trench warfare, he organized craftsmen to produce grenades, trenching tools, periscopes, and even mortars. Before the expedition, he had not yet figured out whether Gallipoli had fresh water, so he assigned officers and soldiers to collect empty oil drums, leather bags and other containers everywhere in cities such as Cairo and Alexandria. Local donkey men were recruited to transport fresh water. He then led the army to Greece and prepared to attack.
At the same time, however, under the deployment and command of the German generals, the 84,000-strong Turkish army was already in Gallipoli. On the morning of 25 April, the repeatedly delayed offensive finally began. At the beginning of the Allied offensive, it was shelled by the Turkish army. Carrying more than 2,000 officers and men, the River Clyde, a landing ship temporarily converted from a coal carrier, was sunk as it approached the shore, and few survived. According to one survivor, "The water was as transparent as crystal, and we could see that the bodies of well-formed soldiers in uniform were lying on the bottom of the water, and they were hit or stumbled into the water when they climbed ashore." ”
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, fierce hand-to-hand combat</h1>
After several fights, at about 10 a.m., after inflicting heavy casualties, the Allied forces finally landed at Cape Helles, a prominent point in Gallipoli. However, at this point they find themselves in a very dangerous position. Less than 1.2 kilometres long and less than 30 metres wide, the beach is precipitous in front of it, a far cry from the maps and travel guides bought from bookstores.
The constant landing of troops made this narrow strip more and more crowded, and the Turkish army could encircle and annihilate them at any time. Therefore, the landing forces immediately organized an attack on the surrounding Turkish positions, and the battle was so fierce that it was carried out almost all day in hand-to-hand combat, so that the British war report recorded the first day of the battle as a "close-quarters fight".
When the landing was completed, it was indeed as the British had imagined before the personnel, and the Turkish army fled in the wind. However, just as it was about to collapse, Kimal stepped forward. He was a pioneer, and the commander lay on the ground, ready to shoot at the Australian troops who rushed up. Kemal said to the soldiers, "If you run out of ammunition, at least there are bayonets." Then, under his command, reinforcements from 8 battalions arrived, and 3 artillery squadrons entered the position in time.
In this way, almost in the blink of an eye, the Turkish army built a condescending blocking fire. Fighting continued until dusk, when the Australians withdrew from the hillside after 2,000 casualties.
On 6 May, the Allies' offensive was at its most intense, and Hamilton took command of the front. After three days of fierce fighting, the Allied forces not only gained nothing, but lost one-third of their soldiers. And the Turkish army always launched an endless counterattack, hoping to drive the landing enemy into the sea, also after paying huge casualties, repeatedly and without success.
This repeated killing caused the beach to be littered with corpses, and the air was filled with a foul smell. Due to the arrival of summer, malaria and dysentery began to rage. In desperation, the warring parties agreed to impose a burial truce on 24 May. After the burial of the deceased, the two sides began to fight again.
In August, the Allies again focused their operations on land, but round after round of attacks did not shake Kemal's defenses. During the month, the Allies paid for the lives of 40,000 soldiers. In September, Hamilton was recalled, Kitchener was still stubborn to continue the battle at Gallipoli, and the British general Monroe took office in bleakness.
In November, winter begins. In Turkey, not only has the temperature dropped sharply, but it has also been accompanied by torrential rains. While the Turks were in a difficult situation, the Allied forces were even more miserable, and they could not distribute enough warm clothing and quilts, nor did they have rainproof equipment. As a result, many officers and men on both sides were either frozen to death in bunkers or drowned in trenches. In November, Kitchener made a brief stop at the Gallipoli front, where he understood that victory was hopeless.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >4</h1>
After the battle, the British wartime government changed, Churchill was removed from the cabinet, and Kitchener was no longer trusted. More importantly, the lives of the Gallipoli Peninsula are ruined. Gallipoli's fight lasted about a month, and both sides suffered extremely heavy casualties and property losses.
The Allies invested about 500,000 troops here, and the result was more than half of the casualties. The death toll was more than 48,000, or about 28,000 Britons, about 10,000 French, 7,595 Australians and 2,431 New Zealanders. Turkey had at least 500,000 troops in the war, and the number of casualties announced by the Turkish side was about 251,000, of which 66,000 were killed.
References: Modern and Contemporary World History, Full Documentary of the Second World War, Hitler and Mussolini