Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Explorers' Club, № CDLXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Gallipoli Campaign, Part VII
9 January 1916: The last British, French, & A.N.Z.A.C. forces were evacuated from Cape Helles, Anzac Cove & Suvla Bay having been evacuated on 20 December 1915. The evacuation was the most competently planned & executed phase of the Entente Powers' misadventure at Gallipoli.









From the initial naval attempts to force the Dardanelles to a final aerial battle days after the evacuation, Entente casualties exceeded fifty-six thousand killed & one hundred twenty-three thousand wounded. The defending Turks suffered over fifty-six thousand killed & one hundred seven thousand wounded. Winston Churchill was forced to resign from his position as First Lord of the Admiralty over the failure his Gallipoli gambit, & later the Dardanelles Commission would conduct on official inquiry into the conduct of the campaign.

The "Anzac spirit" looms large in the Australian & New Zealander national identities, I suppose much as Bunker Hill & Valley Forge do for Americans. 25 April, the anniversary of the first landings at Gallipoli, holds the annual observance of Anzac Day, commemorating & mourning the Australasian nations' war dead, much as Remembrance Day does in most of the other Commonwealth nations & Memorial Day does in these United States.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Gallipoli Campaign
№ CDXXXVI: The Battle of 18 March 1915 (Part I)
№ CDXLI: The Landings at Anzac Cove & Cape Helles (Part II)
№ CDXLVII: The Battles of 1st & 2nd Kiritha & Eski Hissarlik (Part III)
№ CDXLIX: The August Offensive (Part IV)
№ CDL: Henry Moseley (Part V)
№ CDLIV: The Battles of Scimitar Hill & Hill 60 (Part VI)

Lest we forget.

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