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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.