GALLIPOLI 



3405 



GALL1POLJ 



Gallipoli. Seaport of Greece, 

 formerly belonging to Turkey. 

 Situated at the N.E. end of the 

 Dardanelles, on the peninsula of 

 the same name, it is 130 m. S. W. of 

 Constantinople. It was the an- 

 cient Kallipolis, of which some 

 ruins remain. Before the Great 

 j War it had a considerable trade in 

 wheat, barley, maize, and linseed, 

 produced in the neighbourhood. 

 Its capture by the Turks in 1354 

 gave them their first foothold in 

 Europe. There are two good 

 harbours, of which the Allies made 

 full use during the Crimean War. 

 Pop. 25,000. 



Gallipoli (Gr. Kallipolis, beau- 

 tiful city). Seaport and city of 

 Italy, in the prov. of Lecce. It 

 stands on the Gulf of Taranto, on 

 an island, protected by a fort and 

 connected by a bridge with the 

 mainland, 23 m. W. of Otranto. It 

 possesses an Angevin castle, and a 

 cathedral dating from 1629. For- 

 merly famed for its olive oil, 

 stored and clarified in rock-cut 

 cisterns, it exports wine and fruit, 

 but the output of oil has declined. 

 In the vicinity there are stone 

 quarries. Tunny fishing is engaged 

 in. As the " beautiful city " it was 

 founded by Greeks, and in Roman 

 imperial times was known as 

 Anxa. Pop. 30,000. 



Gallipoli. Peninsula of Europe. 

 Anciently known as the Thracian 

 Chersonesus, this tongue of land is 

 52 m. in length from the isthmus of 

 Bulair in the N. to Cape Helles 

 (Helles Burnu), its S. extremity, 

 and varies in width from 2 m. to 

 12 m., its broadest part, from 

 Kilid Bahr, on the W. side of the 

 Narrows of the Dardanelles, to 

 Cape Suvla (Suvla Burnu), being 

 measured from S. to N. The 

 isthmus of Bulair is 3 m. across, 

 with the Gulf of Saros on the W., 

 and the S.W. end of the Sea of 

 Marmora, above Gallipoli Strait, 

 on the E. The isthmus is strongly 

 fortified by the Bulair Lines. 



The E. shore of the peninsula 

 forms the W. side of the Dar- 

 danelles, and is of enormous 

 strategical importance. Its W. 

 shore fronts the Gulf of Saros on 

 the N., and the Aegean on the S., 

 opposite the island of Imbros, 

 about 20 m. W. The peninsula 

 is covered with rocky ridges and 

 hills, some of which, in the Kara- 

 man Dagh, W. of Gallipoli, the 

 Chinar Dagh, near the hamlet of 

 Karnabili, about three m. from the 

 Gulf of Saros, and the Sari Bair, 

 looking over the Aegean, rise to a 

 height of nearly 1,000 ft. Along 

 the coast, which has only two good 

 openings, Suvla Bay on the W., 

 and Morto Bay on the S., are sandy 

 beaches, that soon give place to 



craggy and precipitous headlands, 

 over 100 ft. in height. From 

 Gallipoli there is a poorly paved 

 road S. to Maidos, about 2 m. 

 above the Narrows, which is con- 

 tinued to Kilid Bahr, whose forti- 

 fications, with those of Chanak on 

 the other side of the Dardanelles, 

 command the channel, and goes on 

 to Krithia, near which is the height 

 of Achi Baba, 600 ft. The other 

 roads are mere tracks. The popu- 

 lation is sparse, and apart from the 

 town of Gallipoli there are only 

 some small and squalid villages. 



The most important place in the 

 peninsula is Kilid Bahr, from its 

 military significance, at the foot of 



the Pasha Dagh, 700 ft. high. 

 Mohammed II, the Conqueror, who 

 took Constantinople in " 1453, 

 founded it, and it came to be termed 

 the castle of Europe, just as Chanak 

 opposite it was called the castle of 

 Asia. In the 17th century the 

 Turks constructed fortifications at 

 Sedd-el-Bahr, at the S. end of 

 Gallipoli, and at Kum Kale, on the 

 Asiatic side, at the entrance to the 

 Dardanelles from the Aegean. In 

 common with the neighbouring 

 shores of the Bosporus and Sea of 

 Marmora, Gallipoli is within the 

 zone of the Straits under a com- 

 mission appointed by the League of 

 Nations. See Achi Baba, illus. 



GALLIPOLI: THE CAMPAIGN OF 1915 



H. W. Wilson, Military and Naval Critic of The Daily Mail 



A sequence of articles deals with Gallipoli and its history. The 

 ports of this name and the peninsula are described ; then comes the 

 following article on the campaign of 1915. The landing and the 

 evacuation are next described in detail. For the naval operations 

 see Dardanelles. See also Hamilton, Sir Ian ; Krithia ; Suvla Bay 



On Jan. 2, 1915, the Russian 

 government appealed to Great 

 Britain for action against Turkey, 

 in order to relieve the pressure on 

 the Russian army in the Caucasus. 

 A promise was given by the British 

 government that a demonstration 

 would be made, and after much 

 discussion, and against the advice 

 of Lord Fisher, the point at which 

 it was to take place was fixed by 

 the Cabinet as the Dardanelles. 

 This project gradually widened 

 into a campaign for reaching Con- 

 stantinople and opening the Black 

 Sea, though in January, 1915, the 

 Turkish forces in the Caucasus 

 were beaten and forced back upon 

 the defensive, so that the immediate 

 danger to Russia passed. But the 

 risk remained that she might col- 

 lapse before the German attack in 

 Poland, owing to the want of muni- 

 tions, which she could neither 

 manufacture nor import ; and if 

 the Black Sea could have been 

 opened her forces could have been 

 increased by some millions, and 

 her artillery could have been pro- 

 vided with shells. 



The first intention of the British 

 was to deliver a purely naval 

 attack, but, even before this had 

 opened, it was decided that land 

 forces must be available, if re- 

 quired. On Feb. 19 the naval 

 attack on the Turkish forts com- 

 manding the Dardanelles began 

 and was prosecuted as weather 

 permitted till March 18, with no 

 result to the Allies but heavy loss 

 in men and ships. The Turks had 

 been given such ample warning 

 possibly the Allied plans were be- 

 trayed to them by the Greek court 



their defences. At the outset 

 Venizelos, the Greek prime minis- 

 ter, was anxious to join in the cam- 

 paign, and offered the aid of the 

 Greek fleet and Greek troops, but 

 King Constantine at once repu- 

 diated this offer and forced his 

 minister's resignation. A Russian 

 corps was held at Sevastopol ready 

 to strike at Constantinople, but at 

 the end of April it was withdrawn 

 to meet the Austrians in Poland. 



Plans of Attack 



On March 12 Sir Ian Hamilton 

 was appointed to command the 

 Allied landing force which was to 

 be held ready. He was promised 

 by Lord Kitchener 80,000 men, of 

 whom about 15,000 would be 

 French. The instructions given by 

 Lord Kitchener were of a casual 

 character. He believed that the 

 whole Turkish defence system 

 would collapse if only one British 

 submarine entered the sea of 

 Marmora; he placed the Turkish 

 force at only 40,000 men ; he 

 thought that the southern part 

 of the Gallipoli peninsula, which 

 was reported by those on the spot 

 to be very strongly entrenched and 

 wired, was " open to a landing on 

 very easy terms " ; he declared 

 that the Turks were " busy else- 

 where " ; and he appears at that 

 date to have expected the navy to 

 clear the passage, leaving the ex- 

 peditionary force only the duty of 

 occupying Constantinople. His in- 

 structions forbade operations on 

 the Asiatic coast, which, according 

 to the French ex-military attache 

 at Constantinople, was the most 

 vulnerable point, and he seems to 

 have been responsible for the plan 



that they were ready, and, under eventually adopted, of landing at 

 the direction of Liman von San- the tip of the mountainous, roadless 

 ders, had thoroughly organized and desolate Gallipoli peninsula, 



