The Importance the Gallipoli Campaign Succeeded

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The Importance the Gallipoli Campaign Succeeded Gallipoli is in Turkey, near the Dardanelle's. The Peninsula of Gallipoli lies in Turkey, which forms one side of the Dardanelles Straits, which is only about 45 miles long, its historic waterway links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. The campaign was started on March 18th 1915. It was started to try and knock Turkey out of the war, because they had just signed an agreement with Germany and were now attacking Russia, also the Ottoman Empire was seen as the sick-man of Europe and therefore Germany's weakest ally. Further this campaign was also designed to open another front against Germany and its allies and so draw troops away from the Eastern Front and therefore relieve the pressure on Russia. As well as those reasons there were many more which made it important for the campaign to succeed. Firstly I will look at the strategic value of Turkey, at Gallipoli. First of all Britain felt that Turkey needed to be knocked out of the war as this would encourage Balkan countries around them to support us. Their help was much needed, as it would mean another front could be opened up in Austria-Hungary and it would put Germany under a huge amount of pressure, as they would now be fighting on three fronts. Also England was worried that Turkey would threaten our colonies such as India. Not just as a threat of them taking them over but it would show them that Britain could be defeated and that they could break away from the empire. There were many ways that Britain thought of knocking Turkey out of the war, however the one they used as one of their main aims was to invade Constantinople and destro... ... middle of paper ... ...e water and the water was contained in empty food tins and this then spread dysentery throughout the troops. Also in the summer the heat and dust was dreadful and the rotting bodies smelled terrible and were causing some sickness and there had to be a days truce were the troops from either side would help clear no mans land. As well as these terrible conditions there were the terrible illness that infected the troops. These included gunshot wounds, gangrene, de-hydration, respiratory problems, fly plaques (open wounds attack flies but in some cases this helped the men as the maggots ate dead tissue, which otherwise might have become gangrenous). So overall there is enough evidence when the sources are used together, but not if each source is used alone as they are missing other vital factors to why the campaign failed.

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