The European Conflict Becomes a World War By the end of 1915, none of the original combatants were fighting the war they had wanted and expected. There would be no quick victories, but there would be new enemies. Cost and timetables had gone disastrously wrong. Both sides were in much deeper than they had ever intended.

Turkey Unexpectedly, the Turkish navy would prove to be one of the most important factors in widening the war on a world wide scale. The Ottoman government was under the leadership of a revolutionary group called the “Young Turks.” Since their coup in 1908, they had been seeking to modernize the country. They had been leaning heavily on advice and investment from Germany.

Turkey, like all emergent powers of the period, looked to Britain for naval armament. In 1914, they were waiting for the British to deliver two Dreadnoughts to their ports. On the outbreak of war, Britain seized the ships. Two days earlier, Turkey had signed a treaty with Germany. Germany at once sent two battlecruisers to Constantinople. They ran up Turkish flags, and made the German admiral a Turkish naval officer. Within three months, Turkey entered the war on the side of the Germans.

Turkey’s entrance in the war opened up an entirely new theater. It also brought up religious, military and diplomatic concerns that had been previously negligible. The Ottoman empire’s territory was huge, reaching as far as the Persian Gulf. Britain had been treating the Gulf as a British lake, and once war was declared with Turkey, immediately sent troops, even though there was no Middle Eastern front as of yet.

Legally, Egypt remained part of Turkey’s empire, but was technically under British administration. The Turks, at German prompting, chose to attack the Suez Canal, which the British illegally closed at the beginning of the war. The canal was the most important line of communication in the Allies war zone and key to supply distribution. The conception was flawless, but the execution was not. The only result was an enlarged British garrison in Egypt.

About the same time, territorial ambitions prompted Italy to enter the war. The majority of the Italian people had no desire to undertake such a dangerous enterprise, but King Victor Emmanuel, Prime Minister Salandra, and Foreign Minister Sonnino believed the conflict could help modernize a backward Italy. France, Britain, and Russia agreed to grant Italy a large portion of Austrian territory if it entered the war by spring 1915.

Gallipoli The Dardanelles which separates Europe from Asia is a passage thirty miles long, and at it’s narrowest, less than a mile wide. On the north end is the Black Sea, on the south, the Aegean. In 1915, the Dardanelles were Turkish territory. The Dardanelles had long been coveted by European powers, especially Russia, which had both territorial and religious ambitions for the area.

While none of the Allies were enthusiastic about such a major expansion of Russian power, they believed that the opening of a new front might take some pressure off the Western Front. By winter 1915, an attack on the Dardanelles was gaining support from the Allies.

On February 19, 1915, the British began attacking the Turkish forts on the Dardanelles. The plan was long range bombardment, followed by heavy close range fire. Then minesweeper ships would move closer into shore, followed by the battle fleet. From there, things went terribly wrong. The minesweepers could only push six miles into the straits before being forced to retreat by heavy Turkish fire. The young Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, was frustrated by the slow progress and demanded results from the commander, Admiral Carden. Carden promptly had a nervous breakdown and had to be replaced.

The new admiral immediately ordered 18 battleships up the straits. Suddenly, the Bouvet struck a mine and sunk with all hands. Then two more ships followed. Many of those men were saved, but by the time the fleet retreated, 700 men were dead, three ships sunk and three were heavily damaged. The admiral informed Churchill that the Gallipoli peninsula could not be taken without the help of the army. Plans for full scale invasion were made.

The army requested 1Troops from Greece, New Zealand, and Australia joined British and French forces. 50,000 men to take the peninsula. They got half that. Turkish commander Liman von Sanders knew the attack was imminent. He began placing his 84,000 troops along the coast where the expected the landings to occur.

The attacks began on April 25th from two beachheads, Helles and Gaba Tepe. The Allies were unable to take the peninsula. A second major landing in August was also a failure. The decision was made to evacuate over 100,000 troops. Ironically, the evacuation was the most successful part of the campaign. The last of the men left Helles in January, 1916.

About 480,000 Allied troops took part in the Gallipoli campaign. The British had 205,000 casualties (43,000 killed). There were more than 33,600 ANZAC losses (over one-third killed) and 47,000 French casualties (5,000 killed). Turkish casualties are estimated at 250,000 (65,000 killed). ANZAC sacrifices at Gallipoli contributed greatly to the emergence of a sense of nationhood in Australia and New Zealand.