Chapter 1

Introduction

In this piece of work, it is intended to look at the Battle of Gallipoli, a First World War battle which took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Mediterranean.  This battle began on the 25th of April 1915, when as well as troops from Great Britain and France, there were troops from the Empire including forces from India, Australia, and New Zealand taking part. (See Appendix 1.) The troops from the Antipodes were jointly known as the Anzacs, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and they became renowned for their fighting ability, indeed a legend grew up around them following their escapades on the battlefields of Gallipoli, which will be returned to in a later chapter.  
Interest in the Anzacs, and the battle of Gallipoli, came about while researching  the Goodwin family history.  The existence of the name of Willie Goodwin on the local war memorial had been known for many years, and upon making enquiries it was found that Willie Goodwin was actually Lieutenant Francis William Goodwin MC. and Bar, and was in fact a relative, who had fought in the Australian Army at Gallipoli, later going on to fight in Europe, where he was killed in action on the Western Front in 1917.  
In Australia the memory of Gallipoli was originally marked, from just after the end of the war, with Anzac Day.  This was on the day of the start of the battle, April 25th, and also became a National Holiday.  In more recent times however this had not been the case, and the memory of the battle had rather fallen out of favour, and not been well kept, until that is there was a renewal of interest following the making and release of films such as Gallipoli by Peter Weir in 1981.  This particular film helped to reestablish the awareness of the Australian public in the battle through its sympathetic handling  of the lives and subsequent fates of the men who went to fight, and as a result Anzac Day once more became popular.  The film portrayed the Anzac soldier as an ordinary ‘bloke’, and followed him from joining up.  It showed why many of them actually did join, and then followed them through good times in training in Egypt, to the worst of times clinging to a narrow strip of land, and facing almost certain death with bravery.  
The Battle of Gallipoli was in many ways a ‘first’.  It was the first modern amphibious landing of troops in battle, and the first battle where troops from around the British Empire were raised in their separate countries to be used in conjunction with troops from Britain itself.  Although, previously a large force of more than 16,000 Australians and New Zealanders had in fact been involved in the Boer Wars, they were Empire troops, and not raised by either Australia or New Zealand itself, as those that fought in The Great War were.  
To begin with it would be of interest to know why Gallipoli was chosen for the site of a battle at all?
The Gallipoli peninsula, and in particular the piece of water known as the Dardanelles Straits protected the way to Russia through the Sea of Marmara, and the Black Sea, and were thought to be strategic to the war in 1914, for many reasons.  The Straits were ruled by Turkey, who as yet had not joined the war in Europe,  In a plan, thought up by Winston Churchill, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty, it was believed that by storming the Straits and bringing a Naval force into the Sea of Marmara close to Constantinople, the British could persuade Turkey, either not to enter the war, or to join it on the side of Britain and its allies.  It was thought by the British War Council, that to begin with, it would not be necessary to involve land forces, as they believed that a small Naval Force of a handful of British and French Battleships would be more than enough to overcome the ancient forts protecting the Straits.  After destroying these forts, the Force would then be able to steam through and threaten the town of Gallipoli, and even Constantinople.  Lord Kitchener, who was also a member of the War Council, was himself a strong believer in this plan to force the Dardanelles, telling Sir Ian Hamilton who by then had been chosen to lead this Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that his ground troops would probably not be needed.  Kitchener believed that “If a submarine was to pop up opposite the town of Gallipoli, and wave a Union Jack, the whole Turkish garrison on the Peninsula would turn and run. ”  
The Straits were later to prove too well defended, and a number of British and French Warships were to be lost in trying to take them.  These were old battleships, and not modern Dreadnoughts, and were lost mainly through a combination of being ships that were largely unprotected against modern weapons, such as mines, and torpedoes.  At the same time the British underestimating the strength, and fighting ability of the Turks who were backed up by German advisers, weapons, and technology was also a factor.  The ships main armament of huge Naval guns, were also largely ineffective against these forts, as a high explosive shell would pass straight through the walls of these forts, without destroying them, except in the case of a direct hit on the arsenal of a fort.  As a result of this shelling, the forts big guns were put out of action but the buildings were only damaged enough to enable them to provide cover for smaller, more mobile guns.  These smaller guns were to prove a hazard to the fleet of wooden hulled fishing vessels that had been brought in to try and clear the channel of mines.    
Russia, as an ally of Britain, although it could raise a huge army, needed to be supplied with armaments and other materials for war.  It also had stocks of grain that would have a ready market in Britain and France if they could actually be shipped out to these markets.  Russia would also find itself in danger of an attack from the Turks, in the area of the Black Sea, if they were to join the war on the side of Germany, and the Central Powers.  
Britain and Turkey had been allies and fought together in the Crimean war, so it would have been expected that Turkey would join the battle in Europe on the side of the British.  Relations between the two countries were still reasonably good in the years leading up to the First World War, even though Turkey had been through a period of change.   Turkey had actually experienced a coup d’etat leading to a Government take over, when the sultan had been deposed by the Young Turks in 1908.  
Germany was looking for a way to bring Turkey into the war on its side, and already a number of German military advisers were involved with the Turkish military.  The British government through Churchill and the Admiralty provided all the justification that the Turks needed to side with the Germans, in part through the seizing of two battleships that were being built in Britain for the Turkish Navy.  
Churchill was worried because as they were near completion, these ships could be used against the British Navy if Turkey was to join the war as an enemy, so he ordered that they should not be handed over.  This was a particularly bad move on his part, because the building of these ships had been financed through public subscription in Turkey, and it led to lot of Turkish bad feeling towards Britain.  The Turks did indeed enter the war on the side of the Germans who, as a part of a package had promised to give them two cruisers, the Goeben and the Breslau in replacement for the battleships held by the British.  Germany,  had actually delivered them through the Straits only a matter of days before they were closed to shipping, preventing the British from pursuing them.  Within a couple of months of the start of the war, it had become bogged down on the Western Front, and it would seem that the time was right for the opening of a second front in the East through the Dardanelles.  
But, why and how was Australia to become involved?
In 1914, Australia was still part of the British Empire, although now a dominion, and so would be at war with Germany if Britain declared war.  Just before the outbreak of war the Australian Labor Party had won the National Election, and the new Prime Minister Andrew Fisher had declared at the town of Colac in Victoria in August 1914, as part of his election campaign  that `Australia would stand behind the mother country and help to defend her to the last man and the last shilling `.  At the same time the former Prime Minister Joseph Cook, a Liberal, had also said that in order to help Britain, Australia would give it control of its Navy and raise a force of some  20,000 men to send to Europe, or any where that they were needed.  
Recruiting took off at great speed throughout the country, and while it was not exactly clear whether these men were signing up to fight for the Empire, their country, or themselves, generally the strength of the ties with the old country were strong enough to overcome any opposition they may have had to joining in a fight.  Willie Goodwin, who it is believed emigrated to Australia after the death of his father in 1912, was one of the first contingent of enlisted men, signing up on the 29th of August 1914 , with an Army Number of 17, into the 8th battalion of the Australian Imperial Force as they were then known.  This battalion was formed in Victoria, it consisted entirely of men recruited in the State of Victoria, West Australia, and was to become part of the 2nd Brigade of the AIF.  
After sifting through the recruits, to sort out as many of the undesirables, and those ineligible on health grounds as possible, the rest, if they had not been in the services before, were given some very basic training, as it was originally planned to set up a training ground in Britain on Salisbury Plain to train these raw troops.  For this it was decided to transport this army to Europe as soon as it was possible, and the convoy containing both Australians and New Zealanders left Australian waters on the 1st of November 1914.  
While this convoy was actually under way, the War Council which had just been formed to take over the running of the war, decided that it was necessary that a second front should be opened up in the East, as Turkey had entered the war.  The idea was to prevent Egypt from being overrun, and to protect Britain’s route to the colonies such as India.  The destination of the convoy was therefore changed from Europe to Egypt, where the troops were to protect the Suez canal, and to continue training for a possible assault on Turkey.
In the subsequent chapters, it is proposed to look firstly at the preparations for the landings, including time the Anzacs spent in Egypt, and then at the actual landings on Gallipoli,  at a place called Gaba Tepe, which was later to become known as Anzac Cove.  The life of the Anzacs on the beach head after the landings, will also be examined, where they were to spend the next eight months clinging onto the narrow beachhead, making very little progress inland, while repulsing ferocious counter attacks by the Turks.  Then finally the evacuation of the entire area of Anzac Cove, and Suvla Bay, without a single casualty, this was to be a far cry from the landings, and was to be the only successful part of the whole campaign.