Focus Question 3: What Happened During The Gallipoli Campaign?The original plan was to land ANZAC troops at the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 25th of April 1915 and then rapidly force their way to capture Constantinople, (Istanbul), which is the Turkish Capital. Success would have helped ensure passage through the Dardanelles. Troops underestimated the amount of time theyd spend fighting at Gallipoli. It was estimated that after the initial few days, theyd have made impressive progress and the entire mission would take no longer than a month or so. They were wrong. The Gallipoli mission was doomed from the moment they stepped onto land. Due to navigational errors, troops were landed roughly 2km north from where they were intended to be. The terrain that they faced was extremely different to what they were expecting, and very different from everything they were used to. Instead of the flat coastline that they were meant to face, they faced a rugged, narrow beach that was overlooked by vast steep cliffs enclosing hundreds of Turkish soldiers fighting to push them back. After a full day of violent gunfire, the light was beginning to dim, and there was little to no shelter for the troops. In order to stay safe while they rested, troops began digging trenches up to a few meters deep, while only being a meter or two wide. It was their first night that it began to dawn on them that they were in for a long, dangerous and ferocious fight. They were shocked and scared that the terrain wasnt what they were expecting, and they were terrified of the intensity of the fighting. Everything was taking the soldiers by surprise. By this time, hundreds of ANZAC soldiers had been killed or injured. As the fight went on, conditions began to worsen. Troops were faced with extreme weather conditions and were made to live a primitive lifestyle, with minimal food, little water and no chances for sanitary. The fighting was proving to be unsuccessful as little progress was being made, with the only thing increasing being the casualty rate. Many attack attempts were made, such as the assault at Krithia on the 28th April, which proved to be a complete disaster with nothing being achieved but more deaths. Food was rationed out amid soldiers, but as the fight continued, food portions began to decrease. Occasionally, a cease-fire was requested just to clean up the bodies of the dead soldiers littering the battlefield. Neither forces knew what they were fighting for, nor why they had to fight in the first place. The majority of the soldiers had not prepared for conditions as brutal as these and it was beginning to take its toll. Soldiers described living conditions as bitter cold, cramped, and most described it as living in hell. Medical attention was highly sought after as sickness travelled very quickly, with a lot of deaths being claimed by diseases. At this time up to 75,000 troops had been deployed, (with over 100,000 New Zealanders making up that number) all having to live in wet, cold and cramped trenches. It wasnt until Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton was replaced by Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Munro that plans for evacuation were put in place. The British government had begun to question the usefulness of persevering at Gallipoli so they sent Sir Charles Munro in to examine the condition of the battle. After reviewing the fight, Munro quickly suggested an evacuation was needed. The British government agreed, and on 15 December 1915 evacuations began in the dead of night. It took 5 nights, but all troops were eventually withdrawn, quickly, quietly and successfully. This evacuation is often labelled as the most successful part of the Gallipoli campaign. Overall the Gallipoli campaign is viewed as a failure for the Allied forces. Almost 45,000 soldiers had been killed, including 2,779 New Zealanders approximately a shocking one fifth of the soldiers deployed. Although the Ottoman Empire won this battle, victory came at an extremely high cost with over 87,000 of their troops killed throughout the Gallipoli campaign. The deaths were extremely high for a mission of this size, and it had an everlasting effect on both New Zealand and Turkey. Even though the outcome of this battle was not favourable, New Zealanders still today celebrate the significance of the Gallipoli campaign.