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The British Evacuate Gallipoli
The Gallipoli campaign was an attempt to drive Turkey, a major German ally, from the war, and to solve the bloody inertia occuring on the Western and Eastern fronts. Although many hands planned the campaign, Winston Churchill was a major proponent of the operation. He felt that the United Kingdom was not using its obsolete battleships and armored cruisers to their maximum potential since the Naval commanders feared loosing the older units if they faced modern fighting ships of the High Seas Fleet. These battleships, Churchill felt, would easily outgun Turkish shore batteries and make short work of fortifications guarding the Dardenelles. Once these forces swept away opposition ground forces, most unused units from colonial forces not yet sent to the meat grinder of the Western Front, would quickly take Constantinople, causing the entire Ottoman empire to collapse. The French, eager for any victory over Germany, likewise threw spare forces into the plan - placing the Oriental Expeditionary force under British command.
Although the strategic planning for the operation was sufficient and stood a good chance at success, the local command structure proved unable to carry out the attack rapidly enough toi achieve success, and the Turks showed themselves resourceful warriors. The campaign started off bad when it was delayed by five weeks with loading inexperienced troops into makeship toop ships. The importance of amphibious engineering, surprise, intelligence, and logistical planning proved beyond the British commanders, who were in turn timid and then reckless as the battle immediately turned against them. The Turks were able to use field artillery, shooting and running, to delay and stop ship movement in the straight. Troops were not told the importance of gaining objectives in a timely manner, and were often stalled by minor issues, allowing rapidly moving Turks to take up defensive positions. Finally, poorly thought out mine and submarine countermeasures meant that the attacking force suffered relatively heavy losses of ships.
Gallipoli was finally evacuated by the 20th of December, having achieved little and cost more than 50,000 Allied lives.
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