The Battle of Gallipoli by Zander

World War I was a really big war where millions of people died fighting. In Turkey, 500,000 of soldiers died over a critical shipping lane. Getting supplies to Europe was important for the Allies, so they attacked Gallipoli.  The Narrow Strait in Turkey is a very important shipping lane to access the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In World War 1, thousands of people died fighting over the Gallipoli Peninsula.

A WW1 artillary piece.

Now Gallipoli is full of memorials.

                The Narrow Straits is a very important shipping lane was a strategic place in World War 1, because it connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Gallipoli Peninsula was important in World War I. It was important, because it was a passage way for supplies to Russia. The Turkish have been living in the straits for hundreds of years, and they have built forts and a ship yard to keep control of the straits. In World War I, hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for the control of the Straits and Gallipoli Peninsula.

My mom and I posing next to war machines

                In Gallipoli, thousands of French, British, and Anzac soldiers died trying to overcome the Turkish defenses. The Allies had planned that the British and French would land on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, while the New Zealand and Australian (Anzacs) landed on the outside of the straits. The Turkish defenses were too strong, and both attacks failed, so the Allies retreated. In World War 1, army’s fought using trenches. The army’s did that because their enemy’s had to strong of guns to fight without cover. In trenches, there’s no space, and there is a lot of diseases that get spread around.  The soldiers have to stay down because they are constantly being fired upon with artillery. The soldiers had to fight for every yard and thousands of soldiers died. The Allies attacked a few times in the 1915 and1916 and didn’t manage to take Gallipoli, but at the cost over 500,000 casualties. Thousands of Turkish and Allied troops died when they tried to take and control the shipping lane in the Dardanelles Narrows.

Map of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Trench life in WW1.

                For the troops to land at Cap Hells Memorial, the Allies had to overcome the Turkish navy.  There was a large naval battle that over 12 ships were sunk. The Turkish had a ship yard and forts lining the straights, so they were pretty well defended. When the Allies attacked, they ran into the Turkish mines that had been set up in preparation for the battle. The British and the French lost a few ships to the mines. But what saved the other ships from the mines were the mine sweepers. The Allied navy overcame the Turkish, but the Turkish forts bombarded the Allied fleet forcing them to retreat. In the course of the battle, over 12 ships were sunk in Gallipoli. There was a great navy battle off the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula where thousands of sailors died fighting.

                Thousands of soldiers were killed during the Allies’ repeated assaults in 1915 and 1916, but the Turkish had a tight hold on the shipping lane. In Gallipoli, hundreds of thousands of soldiers died. Sometimes, there trenches were only meters apart, and the soldiers fought to stay alive. Holding the strategic position helped Turkey fight the war and hurt the Allies. In the end, the Allies had to pull out in 1916. Gallipoli was one of the major battles in World War 1 and was fought in appalling conditions to control a major shipping lane.