Dardanelles Campaign fails – humiliation for Allies

Dardanelles Campaign fails – humiliation for Allies

The campaign which ended temporarily the ministerial career of Winston Churchill, in autumn 1915 was a particularly poignant event for many local families. The harsh and unforgiving climate and terrain of the Gallipoli Peninsular frustrated the Allies (Britain and France), much as the hostile terrain of Afghanistan today allows a small and irregular group of dissidents to cause significant difficulties at a heavy cost for a much larger and sophisticated foreign alliance.

Much more so in Gallipoli, where the opponent was a well-trained and reasonably well-equipped adversary, assisted by German advisors who had been active in training the Turkish Army for many years before the war began. Heavy losses at the southern tip of the peninsular were incurred in April and June, 1915 with further losses in August as the Allies tried to get around the Turkish defenders ensconced on the high ground that ran down the centre of the narrow isthmus guarding the access to the sea of Marmora and the prize of Constantinople. Capturing this capital city of the decaying Ottoman Empire was seen as the way to knock Turkey out of the war and gain access to Russia for supply and reinforcement of the beleaguered Tsarist Armies. By September the position was hopeless but it was another four months before the allied governments admitted defeat and organised an ignominious, if brilliantly executed withdrawal at virtually no cost in terms of soldiers’ lives but enormous damage to the reputations of the two greatest imperial nations of the day.

A failed naval assault in March, 1915 was followed by what is often called a ‘reinforcement of failure’ – the forced landings onto the peninsular. The local population in Tynemouth saw many men killed and wounded in the fearful conditions of heat and a bare landscape offering little protection against enemy fire. The campaign also saw the near destruction of the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division (RND) on the Fourth of June, 1915. Only reformed after most of its men were interned in Holland in October, 1914 at Antwerp, the battalion was put into action for the first time on 4^th June, 1915 and suffered 75% casualties, with over 300 men killed including 18 of its officers, of whom, only two survived and both wounded and put out of action. Major General Paris, commander of the division felt he had no option in the field but to disband the Collingwood and reallocate its survivors to other battalions in the second brigade of the RND.

The next in our series of talks will be at the Low Lights Tavern and will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 21^st August, 2013, and will feature the origins and deployment of the Royal Naval Division.

Tickets – Free – can be obtained from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop, Fenwick Terrace, Preston Road and the Project workroom.