IGCSE History

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• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
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    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
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    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
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    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

Gallipoli

The landings at Gallipoli were the idea of the 'Easterners', led by Winston Churchill. They believed that it was impossible to defeat the germans on the Western front and it was their way to break the deadlock. The aim was to attack Turkey, Germany's ally from November 1914, and knock the country out of the war, then attack Austria and send supplies to Russia.

In March the navy had tried to force the Dardanelles but failed. This meant that the Turks were forewarned and, although the initial landings at Cape Helles in April were unopposed, the troops were unable to make any progress inland. The second force was landed in the wrong spot at Anzac Cove. Instead of a wide beach and gently sloping hills, they were faced by high cliffs and Turkish defenders, who were well dug in, and who had been trained by the German general Liman von Sanders.

In August 1915 another landing was made at Suvla Bay, but with little effect. Eventually it was decided to withdraw the entire force. The evacuation, the most successful part of the whole operation, was carried out without any loss of life in December 1915. By that time the Allied forces had suffered 250,000 casualties.

The first attempts by the Royal Navy to force the Straits in March 1915 warned the Turkish forces of the attack. This was the first time that operations involving the army and navy had been carried out and there disagreements between the army and navy commanders.

The landings at Cape Helles on 24 April warned the Turkish forces that a further attack was coming. The landings at Anzac Cove on 25 April were in the wrong place. The ships got lost and landed a mile away from the correct beaches. Instead of a shallow beach, the landing force was faced by steep cliffs. This meant that beachhead was too small to allow forces to be landed quickly and later landings faced similar problems. At Suvla Bay, in August 1915, the landings were carried out in darkness and the troops became lost. There was total confusion.

Once on land, the Allied troops found themselves bogged down in very difficult country, where the Turkish forces were always holding the high ground. There were serious difficulties in keeping the troops supplied and the climate was very inhospitable and many soldiers died of heat and disease.

"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a song written by Eric Bogle in 1972 that commemorates the battle between Australian and Turkish forces at Gallipoli during the First World War. It is written from the point of view of a young man who is sent to Gallipoli and subsequently loses his legs (Source)

• The Schlieffen Plan
• Deadlock on the Western Front
• Gallipoli
• The Somme and Passchendaele
• The War at Sea
• The defeat of Germany

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