First World War 1914-1918 ( other theatres of war)

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First World War 1914-1918 ( other theatres of war)

Postby apowell » Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:49 am

Gallipoli Campaign 1915 –1916

In 1915, the western Allies sent a massive invasion force of British, Indian, Australian, and New Zealand troops to attempt to open up the strait. At the Gallipoli campaign, Turkish troops trapped the Allies on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. The campaign results did damage to the career of Sir Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty, who eagerly promoted the use of Royal Navy sea power to force open the straits. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, later founder of the Republic of Turkey, was a commander for the Ottomans during the battle.

The straits were mined by the Turks to prevent Allied ships from penetrating them, but in minor actions, two submarines, one British and one Australian, did succeed in penetrating the minefields. The British one sank an obsolete Turkish pre-dreadnought battleship off the Golden Horn of Istanbul. Sir Ian Hamilton's Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was unsuccessful in its attempt to capture the Gallipoli peninsula, and its withdrawal was ordered in January 1916, after 10 months fighting. Total Allied deaths were 43,000 British, 15,000 French, 8,700 Australians, 2,700 New Zealanders and 1,370 Indians. Total Turkish deaths were around 60,000.

First Battle of Krithia
28 April 1915
Allied Army initially gained ground but were driven back to their initial positions suffering 3,000 casualties.

Battle of Chunuk Bair
7–19 August 1915
Allied Army initially gained ground but were driven back to their initial positions. The New Zealanders played a major part in the battle taking Chunuk Bair heights. They held these heights for 2 days before being dislodge suffering terrible casualties ‘Of the 760 Wellington Battalion who had captured the height that morning’, wrote Charles Bean, ‘there came out only 70 unwounded or slightly wounded men … they could talk only in whispers … their eyes were sunken … some broke down and cried’.

Second Battle of Krithia
6–8 May 1915
Allied Army of 20,000 men gained little ground. The Australians suffered paying a heavy price here after making a courageous advance, mostly across open ground and under heavy fire, advancing the line around 500 metres, but failing to reach the Turkish lines. In barely an hour the Brigade suffered over 1,000 casualties from a complement of 2,900 men.

Third Battle of Krithia
4 June 1915
Allied Army gained little ground.

Battle of Sari Bair
6–21 August 1915
Allied Army gained little ground.

Battle of Hill 60
21–29 August 1915
last major assault of the Battle of Gallipoli before complete evacuation of Allied Armies. The first assault was made by Australians of the 13th and 14th Battalions together with the 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers. With no effective artillery support, under fire from Hill 60 and neighbouring Hill 100, the infantry were decimated. Attacking and counter-attacking continued until 29 August when the Allied offensive finally ceased. The Australian 18th Battalion was reduced to one third of its original strength after less than a fortnight of action. Today, the hill is the location of the Hill 60 Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery.
Casualty
Casualty figures for the campaign vary between sources, but it is believed that by the time the Gallipoli Campaign ended over 100,000 men had died, including 56,000 – 68,000 Turkish and around 53,000 British and French soldiers. Many soldiers became sick due to the unsanitary conditions, especially from enteric fever, dysentery and diarrhoea. It is estimated that at least 145,000 British soldiers became ill during the campaign. Turkish sick are given as 64,000.

The Macedonian Front (or Salonika front) 1915-1918
The Allied expedition was as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia but eventually, a stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River. The Macedonian Front remained quite stable, despite local actions, until the great Allied offensive in September 1918, With a breakthrough by Serbian forces west of the river Vardar the Bulgarian army was forced into a general retreat. The campaign concluded with the surrender of Bulgaria on 30 September 1918. Malaria proved to be a serious drain on manpower during the campaign. In total the British forces suffered 162,517 cases of the disease and in total 505,024 non-battle casualties. With the campaign being a low priority for the War Office the assistance rendered by voluntary medical organisations, such as the Scottish Women's Hospitals, proved invaluable.

Battles of Dorian
1916 - 1918
British Army at all three battles gained initial ground but this was lost due to fierce Bulgarian counter attacks.

Mesopotamia campaign 1914-1918
This campaign was fought in the Middle Eastern between the Allies represented by the British Empire, mostly troops from the Indian Empire and Australia, and the Central Powers, mostly of the Ottoman Empire. The British and the British Indian Army forces lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918 the British had deployed 350,000–410,000 men into the area. 112,000 of them were combat troops. The vast majority of the British empire forces in this campaign were recruited from India.

There were numerous engagements during this campaign mostly due to attempts to relief the British at Kut where a 8,000 strong British-Indian garrison was besieged by the Ottoman Army. General Townshend commander of the Garrison attempted to arranged a ceasefire , after failed negotiations, he simply surrendered on 29 April 1916 after a siege of 147 days. Around 13,000 Allied soldiers survived to be made prisoners. 70% of the British and 50% of the Indian troops died of disease or at the hands of their Ottoman guards during captivity. Townshend himself was taken to the island of Halki on the Sea of Marmara, to sit out the war in luxury.
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