WWI - Gallipoli

Gallipoli - 833mm x 312mm steel sign

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli, or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire between 19 February 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies, Britain and France, launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.

The campaign was the only major Ottoman victory of the war. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history, a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. Arabs formed a substantial force in the Gallipoli Peninsula being part of the Seventy Second and Seventy Seventh regiments. According to several sources Arabs made up two thirds or 2/3 of the 19th division under Colonel Mustafa Kemal. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later, with Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatürk) as President, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli. The campaign is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness; 25 April, the anniversary of the landings, is known as "ANZAC Day", the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day).