Gallipoli

Gallipoli

          Gallipoli was one of the greatest disasters of World War 1. It was the plan designed by Winston Churchill creating a new war front in the Dardanelles that the central powers could not cope with to end the war early. Churchill suggested his plan on November 25th 1914 to the British government's War council. The central powers had only been fighting on two primary fronts: The western and eastern fronts. The German army had already been split to fight in both the west and the east. If they had to split their army again, it would leave the west and eastern fronts easier for the Allies to fight against. Churchill wanted to fight all at once and get the battle over with, while Admiral Carden, head of the British fleet anchored off the Dardanelles, thought that a gradual attack would be much more successful. The majority of the army kew that this attack would be risky, but Churchill had much enthusiasm for the battle. The meeting of the war council created much confusion, everyone except for Churchill believed that what they agreed on was "provisional to prepare, but nothing more" said Asquith after the meeting. Churchill thought that what they agreed on was to go ahead with the attack. On February 19th 1915, the attack as declared in the Dardanelles. It was going well for the Allies at first, they were pushing through the powers. Soon enough they started realizing that the central powers were more advanced than they thought. On March 18th, the Allies suffered an embarrassing failure. Three british battleships had been sunk and three were crippled. Despite their loss, Churchill still supported his decision of using the Gallipoli plan.

Link: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/gallipoli.htm