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Show REVIEW OF THE GALLIPOLI TRAP British Troops End Campaign Against Turks in Complete Failure. London, Jan. 9. With tho withdrawal withdraw-al of the British and French forces from the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, after tho evacuation of tho Anzac cove and Suvla bay positions on the western coast in tho middle of December, there has como to on end a movement that was begun with expectations ex-pectations that it would have a great bearing on the outcome of the war. Thousands upon thousands of men lost their lives in effecting landings on the Turkish coast and in tho fighting fight-ing since. In addition, a number or battleships and smaller war craft of the entente allies have been sunk or damaged. The chief military purpose of the Dardanelles campaign, which was begun be-gun in February, 1915, with the bombardment bom-bardment of Turkish forts at the entrance en-trance of the straits, was the capture J of Constantinople and tho opening of ' the Bosphorus, which connects the Mediterranean with the Black sea, so that Russia might have an avenue tor tho receipt of arms and ammunition 1 and also for the exportation of Russian Rus-sian grain. For England success meant the prevention of another Turkish Turk-ish invasion of Egypt, and the permanent per-manent safety of the Suez canal and England's communications with India. In-dia. Storm of CrIVclsm. In October, after the successful invasion inva-sion of Serbia by the Teutons and the Bulgarians, and the reports that German Ger-man ammunition was on its way to Turkey, a storm of bitter criticism of tho government's Dardanelles campaign cam-paign broke loose in England. Sir Edward Carson, attorney general, gen-eral, resigned from the cabinet because be-cause of a disagreement over the campaign, cam-paign, it was said, and Winston Churchill, first lord of the admiralty the principal target of attack, also resigned. re-signed. There also was a complete reorganization of the French cabinet, which was generally attributed to tho Balkan situation. The sending of tho fleet to force the Dardanelles without the co-operation of land "forces was generally conceded con-ceded to have been the big Initial blunder of tho campaign. The Inadequacy In-adequacy of the land forces when they were sent, was criticised as another. Three Major Operations. The campaign was marked by three major operations, one by the fleet alone and two by the land forces as sisted by the fleet. The net result was the conquest of the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula for a distance of three miles and a narrow segment of its middle western coast about twelve miles in length and hardly a mile deep. The 'first disaster came March 10 when mines blew up the French battleship bat-tleship Bouvet and the British battleships battle-ships Irresistible and Ocean while they were attempting a dash for the Narrows, the fortifications of which they had been bombarding for several weeks. Several other vessels were damaged at the same time and the fleet withdrew with-drew to the Aegean sea. On the same day, it was announced that Admiral Carden, the British commander, had been replaced by Admiral De Roebeck. Do Roebeck continued the bombardment bombard-ment with an occasional dash into the straits by the ships until April. Naval forces were landed March 24 at Seddul Bahr, the tip of the peninsula, penin-sula, but they were not strong enough to hold their positions, though they destroyed the fortifications. Allied troops for a landing came April 2G, but meantime the British battleship Triumph had been sunk and the submarine sub-marine E-15 went aground and fell a victim of Turkish fire. Landing of Troops. The first contingent of British troops under the command of General Sir Tan Hamilton, relatively small in numbers, landed at Seddul Bahr, April Ap-ril 25, but not without heavy losses. French troops landed on the Asiatic side but they stayed there only three days. The French subsequently formed form-ed the left wing of the BrltlBh on Seddul Bahr. Early In May other British troops landed on the north side of tho peninsula pen-insula near Arl Burnu. whioh nft-for ward came to be known as Anzac cove. The name was taken, from the Initials of the Australian and New Zealand army corps. Their object was to cross tho peninsula and cut the communications of the Turkish divisions at Seddul Bahr and storm the Turkish forts on the Gallipoli side of the Narrows, thus opening the way for the safe entrance of the British fleet They sustained terrible losses, and almost from that moment the fighting settled down Into trench warfare, war-fare, which was maintained until August C, when reinforcements landed, again with great casualties, in the famous Anzac covo and Suvla bay positions. The veteran Anzac troops won a victory, vic-tory, capturing the Turkish positions before them, but the failure of one of the divisions of the Suvla bay expedition expedi-tion to accomplish tho task assigned to it prevented thera from driving it home. The British succeeded in effecting a Junction of their forces, but gained no great military advantage. The fighting fight-ing here has been described as the most awful of the war, both sides suffering suf-fering tremendous losses. On November 2 Premier Asquith told parliament that the Dardanelles campaign had been a failure. Up to December 9 tho total British casualties casu-alties on the peninsula were 114,555 men killed, wounded or missing. The losses in the evaculatlon of the Suvla bay and Anzac covo regions were declared by the British at the time to have been only three men woundedmaking tho total casualties in leaving the peninsula Tour men. |