Commemorating a defeat in war

“Today is our national day of mourning and transcendence, of tribute and kinship.” These were the opening words of the editorial in ‘The Weekend Australian’ of 25 April referring to the completion of 100 years of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey during World War I. 

No one realised it was going to be a huge tragedy. More than 8,700 Australian soldiers died and almost 18,000 were wounded. Of the 8,556 New Zealanders 2,701 died and 4,752 were injured. Turkey had 251,309 casualties including 87,000 dead.

The day is now remembered as Anzac Day every year but this year was special being the centenary year.

Paul Kelly, Editor-At-Large writes in ‘The Weekend Australian’: At 4.29 the first boat hit the shore. The Australian 9th and 10th battalions scrambled across the narrow pebble beach. Turkish fire high above the beach, Ari Burnu, thudded into the water and claimed the lives of the first of the 7,825Australins who would be left behind on the Gallipoli peninsula across its demoralising eight-month campaign.

“The next 12 hours saw confusion, excitement, death and astonishing stamina as the Australians rushed the steep slopes. The Turkish troops were retreating despite the losses it had inflicted. Within three hours 8,000 Australians were ashore and most were climbing, facing fewer than 500 confused Turks.”

The Australian forces landing at Gallipoli were under the control of the British government. The Anzac Corps had been formed in Egypt under the overall command of a British officer, Major-General William Birdwood. The Australian government was not consulted about the Gallipoli strategy and made no assessment of the campaign.

Kelly continues: “It was part of a strategic plan as fantastic as it was impossible seizing the Gallipoli peninsula and opening the way to Constantinople to force Turkey from the war, assist Russia, rally the Balkan states and offer an alternative to Western Front trench warfare. It was a wild and impractical project championed by the first lord of admiralty, Winston Churchill.”

War historians have commented at length of the Gallipoli tragedy.

Historian Robin Prior says: “Even if the Ottoman Empire had been overthrown, the impact on the German army would have been minimal.”

The Gallipoli campaign has been described as one that almost defies belief. It saw young men from the New World travel to conquer the Old World: thousands of Australians and New Zealanders were invading Turkey, a distant country about which they knew next to nothing.   

In his book ‘Gallipoli’, Alan Moorhead laments that a strange light plays over the Gallipoli landing where nothing goes to plan, the invaders are confounded by unexpected countryside, men rush to death, then rush to retreat, slaughter in one valley runs parallel with strange silence in another, and the commanders have no control over this unpredictable intersection of Anzacs, Turks and impossible terrain. 

The landing was universally seen as a character test for young Australia in an age when baptism by blood was pivotal to national mythology. These expectations were mirrored in the early reports. The first report had come from British journalist Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, who said of the Australians: “Though many were shot to bits their cheers resounded throughout the night. They were happy because they had been tried for the first time and had not been found wanting.”

Historians report that the Anzacs were beaten by terrain, poor organisation and lack of artillery. Signs of demoralisation were apparent by the second day as some troops retreated towards the beach. The suggestion to withdraw was unacceptable to the British commanders. So the fighting went on. 

Instead of deciding to evacuate Gallipoli in mid-year, the British War Council did the opposite. It authorised an August offensive in the desperate hope of a breakthrough.  Churchill was still a believer. Much of this thrust relied on the Anzacs making progress. Yet the troops, exhausted from dysentery and sores, were in a bad condition. Countless deaths at the battlefield were the result.

Though signs of success were seen at times, on the whole, the offensive failed. The allied commanders had misjudged. This extinguished the final hopes for the campaign. Commander Hamilton was recalled; Churchill had to resign. More than 46,000 allied lives were lost, Australians contributing a sixth of the allied dead. 

Kelly sums up: “The power of the Anzac story arises from its authenticity. From the first day, Gallipoli was hailed as a test of Australia’s worth. With Australia contributing 417,000 men from a population of just four million, nearly every home was touched by the 1914-18 war. Gallipoli commemorated a defeat and that made its story more poignant. Its rituals are about loyalty, sacrifice, mateship, duty, compassion and family ties. This is the reason for its endurance.”