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==Background==
The First World War, began in the Autumn of 1914 when the German army invaded first Belgium and then France. The pushed on to the River Marne, only a short distance from the French capital and probably victory. The German advance was halted by the French army at the First Battle of the Marne. The entire might of the French army was required to beat back the German advance<ref> Keegan, John, The First World War (MacMillan, London, 1998), p. 134 </ref>. The Allied counterattack also came to a halt and by the winter of 1914, the war on the western front had become a bloody stalemate. The situation on the eastern front was somewhat similar. In the autumn of 1914, the Russian army had invaded Prussia from the Baltic States. Two huge armies poured into the east of Prussia.
[[File:Landing_French-Gallipoli.jpg|thumbnail|305px|Landing of French troops in Moudros]]
==Strategy of the Allies==
The British and the French were appalled by the bloody battles on the western front. They wanted a way that would allow them to attack the Central Powers and in this way to provide some relief for the hard-pressed British and French troops in Flanders and Northern France. The British suggested that the allies use their naval superiority to inflict a decisive defeat on the Ottoman Empire. The idea of seizing the Dardanelles Straits was soon mooted after the Ottoman Turks joined the war on the side of the Central Powers <ref> Moorehead, Gallipoli. (Ware, Wordsworth, 1987), p. 56</ref>. The British believed that their navy, by far the strongest in the world would be able to land a decisive blow against the Turks. The British navy argued that the allies land a large force of soldiers on the Straits. They would then be in a position to launch an attack on the Ottoman Capital of Constantinople. Another one of the objectives of the campaign were to secure a sea route to Russian and to protect its southern Black Sea flank. It would also allow the western allies to supply the Russian army with badly needed arms and equipment.
[[File: Gallipoli 1.jpg|thumbnail|270px|Turkish gun at Gallipoli]]
The British became convinced that any landing in the area of Constantinople, could lead to the Turks withdrawing from their alliance with the Central Powers<ref> Moorehead, p. 67</ref>. The Turkish Empire had arguably been in decline since the eighteenth century and many of the western powers believed that any attack on it would result in its final destruction. Winston Church who was Lord of the Admiralty had great expectations for the assault at Gallipoli, he believed that if the allies seized the Dardanelles that they could open up a new front in the Balkans and even force the Austro-Hungarians to sue for a separate peace and this would lead to the break-up of the Central Powers <ref> Haythornthwaite, Philip, Gallipoli 1915: Frontal Assault on Turkey. Campaign Series #8 (London: Osprey, 2004), p. 119</ref>. The French agreed to the plan and they contributed a significant sized force to the attack. However, the operation at Gallipoli was a British Empire undertaking. Apart from sizeable British army units and naval forces, much of the invasion force was composed of units recruited from the Empire. Many of these came from Australia and New Zealand and they became known as the Anzacs<ref> Moorehead, p. 78</ref>.
==Outcome of the Campaign==
[[File:British_troops_preparing_to_evacuate_from_W_Beach_Gallipoli_01-1916_AWM_H10391.jpeg|thumbnail|275px325px|British Troops evacuating from W Beach Gallipoli]]
As the months wore on and as Allied casualties steadily mounted in the Gallipoli Campaign, Churchill, and Hamilton, asked the British High Command to ask for up 100,000 men. The Secretary of War could only afford some 25,0000 men. Hamilton and Churchill wanted to continue the fight. However, as the operation had become a stalemate, the British government decided to end the operation. Hamilton was opposed to any evacuation as it could lead to massive casualties. He was replaced by Sir Charles Monroe, and he began plans for an evacuation <ref> Strachan, Hew. The First World War: To Arms I. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 113</ref>. He oversaw the evacuation of over 100,000 troops. The evacuation took place between December and January 1915-1916. The withdrawal was carried out in an orderly fashion with only limited casualties. Exact figures are unknown but it seems that some 46,000 allied troops died and almost 180,000 were wounded out of a total force of just under half-a-million men during the campaign. The Turks suffered rather more casualties with some 65,000 killed and 200,000 wounded<ref> Strachan, p. 113</ref>.
==Conclusion==
[[File: Gallipoli 3.jpg|thumbnail|200px300px|Ottoman Machine gun]]
The Gallipoli campaign was doomed from the start. Too few soldiers were allocated to the landings. To compound this, the Allied intelligence services failed to provide adequate intelligence. For example, they failed to indicate that Gallipoli, was not suitable, for large scale landings because of the nature of the terrain. Then the entire operation was poorly planned with little forethought from logistics or what the allies would do if the Turks were waiting for the invaders at the proposed beachheads. Then there was a complete failure to recognize that the Turks would fight fiercely because they were fighting for their homeland, this is symbolized by the great leadership displayed by the future Ataturk at Sulva Bay and elsewhere. The German commander at Gallipoli also devised a clever strategy but he was greatly helped by the failings of the allies.
