THE WITHDRAWAL

The end of the campaign

The End of the CampaignDuring November 1915, with the arrival of winter, the Anzacs huddled in their trenches and encampments. Heavy rain and big seas caused flooding of dugouts and tracks, and the destruction of wharves, buildings and stores on the beaches. Freezing conditions gripped the men in the trenches when the rain turned to snow. Although many of the troops were cheerfully resigned to spending Christmas on Gallipoli, higher British authority, notably Lord Kitchener , the Minister for War, decided upon withdrawal.

Soldiers in the snow outside a dugout

Boats evacuate the wounded from Gallipoli

Reasons for the EvacuationHuge loss of lifeLittle gain in territoryThe Turks remained in control of the high ground and showed no signs of weakening

How do you evacuate 80 000 men without loss of life?

The Evacuation

In early December, orders were given for a secret withdrawal from Gallipoli. Remarkably, after the chaos and tragedy of the landing seven months before, the withdrawal plans were so well organised that some 80000 troops were evacuated from the peninsula with only a handful of casualties. Many ingenious devices were used to keep rifles and other weaponry in action so that ‘Johnny Turk’ would go on thinking that the allies were in their trenches and ready to fight.

A soldier recalls the evacuation‘On the last night our men were told to arrange rifles so they would fire. It was arranged with weights, like water, leaking into another can, and as the pressure built up the rifle would fire. We had put hessian on our feet, to stop vibration when moving down to the beach.’

List two methods used by the Anzacs to trick the Turks.

A rifle rigged to fire

Note the tin can

Abandoned Turkish Fortifications

Turks surveying empty battle fields.

How do the officers feel?What might they be saying to each other?

Australians celebrating in the saloon of a transport ship

How do the Anzacs feel?What might they be saying to one another?

Where to next?The Anzacs were not sent home. Many of them were sent to Belgium and France in March 1916 to join the British and French troops facing the might of Germany and Austria. They were now fighting on the Western Front, a line of trenches which stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland. The armies facing each other were massive and equipped with deadly weaponry. No decisive breakthrough had been possible.

Conditions on the Western FrontThe Anzacs first experienced the trenches at the Battle of the Somme. Rain, mud, rats and diseases such as trench foot made life a misery. Raids, barbed wire, snipers, gas attacks, bombardments and aircraft attacks claimed many lives.