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Page 17
The expeditionary force gathered in Egypt during the first half of
April, and about the middle of the month was being sent to Lemnos.
Germany was well aware of the English plans, and was doing all that it
could to provide a defense.
On April 28d the movement began, and about five o'clock in the afternoon
the first of the transports slowly made its way through the maze of
shipping toward the entrance of Mudros Bay.
Immediately the patent apathy, which had gradually overwhelmed everyone,
changed to the utmost enthusiasm, and as the liners steamed through the
fleet, their decks yellow with khaki, the crews of the warships cheered
them on to victory while the bands played them out with an unending
variety of popular airs. The soldiers in the transports answered this
last salutation from the navy with deafening cheers, and no more
inspiring spectacle has ever been seen than this great expedition.
The whole of the fleet from the transports had been divided up into five
divisions and there were three main landings. The 29th Division
disembarked off the point of the Gallipoli Peninsula near Sedd-el-Bahr,
where its operations were covered both from the gulf of Saros and from
the Dardanelles by the fire of the covering warships. The Australian and
New Zealand contingent disembarked north of Gaba Tepe. Further north a
naval division made a demonstration.
Awaiting the Australians was a party of Turks who had been intrenched
almost on the shore and had opened up a terrific fusillade. The
Australian volunteers rose, as a man, to the occasion. They waited
neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but springing
out into the sea they went in to the shore, and forming some sort of a
rough line rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy's rifles. In less
than a quarter of an hour the Turks were in full flight.
While the Australians and New Zealanders, or Anzacs as they are now
generally known from the initials of the words Australian-New Zealand
Army Corps, were fighting so gallantly at Gaba Tepe, the British troops
were landing at the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The
advance was slow and difficult. The Turk was pushed back, little by
little, and the ground gained organized. The details of this progress,
though full of incidents of the greatest courage and daring, need not be
recounted.
On June the 4th a general attack was made, preceded by heavy
bombardments by all guns, but after terrific fighting, in which many
prisoners were captured and great losses suffered, the net result was an
advance of about five hundred yards. As time went on the general
impression throughout the Allied countries was that the expedition had
failed. On June 30th the losses of the Turks were estimated at not less
than seventy thousand, and the British naval and military losses up to
June 1st, aggregated 38,635 officers and men. At that time the British
and French allies held but a small corner of the area to be conquered.
In all of these attacks the part played by the Australian and New
Zealand army corps was especially notable. Reinforcements were
repeatedly sent to the Allies, who worked more and more feverishly as
time went on with the hope of aiding Russia, which was then desperately
struggling against the great German advance.
On August 17th it was reported that a landing had been made at Suvla
Bay, the extreme western point of the Peninsula. From this point it was
hoped to threaten the Turkish communications with their troops at the
lower end of the Peninsula. This new enterprise, however, failed to make
any impression, and in the first part of September, vigorous Turkish
counter, offensives gained territory from the Franco-British troops.
According to the English reports the Turks paid a terrible price for
their success.
It had now become evident that the expedition was a failure. The Germans
were already gloating over what they called the "failure of British sea
power," and English publicists were attempting to show that, though the
enterprise had failed, the very presence of a strong Allied force at
Saloniki had been an enormous gain. The first official announcement of
failure was made December 20, 1916, when it was announced that the
British forces at Anzac and Suvla Bay had been withdrawn, and that only
the minor positions near Sedd-el-Bahr were occupied. Great Britain's
loss of officers and men at the Dardanelles up to December 11th was
112,921, according to an announcement made in the House of Commons by
the Parliamentary Under Secretary for War. Besides these casualties the
number of sick admitted to hospitals was 96,688. The decision to
evacuate Gallipoli was made in the course of November by the British
Government as the result of the early expressed opinion of General
Monro, who had succeeded General Hamilton on October 28, 1915.
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