Gallipoli

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BRAW LADDIES AMIDST THE CLASH OF THE EMPIRES 15
The British Government authorised the
evacuation to begin from Suvla Bay on
7 December 1915; the last troops left
Helles on 9 January 1916.
In all,some 480,000Allied forces
took part in the Gallipoli campaign,at
a cost of more than 250,000 casualties,
including some 46,000 the
Turkish side,the campaign also cost
an estimated 250,000 casualties,with
65,000 killed.
The British finally withdrew their
forces at the end of 1915, without any
casualties, not least because the Turks
had no interest in hindering the Allies’
departure. The great adventure to gain
an advantage in the war by other means
was finally over.
One statistic will stand for many:
when 1/4th Royal Scots were evacuated
they had been reduced to two officers and
148 men.
The failure of the Gallipoli campaign
has provided history with one of its
great conundrums, the conditional “if
only” being applied to most aspects of
it. If only the tactics, the leadership, the
reinforcements and the munitions had
been better, if only the execution had
matched the conception, then a sordid
defeat could have been a glittering
triumph. The original reasons for the
deployment had much to recommend
them but an absence of clear thinking
and the half-hearted conduct of the
campaign must account for its failure
and for the waste of so many lives and so
much equipment.
HMS CORNWALLIS FIRING AT TURKISH POSITIONS AFTER
THE EVACUATION OF ANZAC AND SUVLA, DECEMBER 1915
W I T H D RAWA L A N D E VAC UAT I O N