10 / 64
O
n April 25, NZ will remember the
ANZACs as we have done for 100
years. The numbers attending dawn
services or gatherings later in the day have
increased markedly over recent years,
especially among the younger crowd, as more
school children learn about our history. Most
Kiwis can cite the landing at Anzac Cove in
Gallipoli, Turkey as the reason for ANZAC
Day, but how many of us actually know the
circumstances that led to that ill-fated landing
on April 25 so many years ago?
In this, the 100th year since that significant
event of the First World War, we celebrate the
valour shown by our predecessors in their
efforts to preserve peace in their time. The
world as we know it would be a very different
place if not for such men’s sacrifices.
It all started with an assassination…
Widely believed to be the catalyst for WWI,
the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand (heir
to the Austro-Hungarian throne) on June 28,
1914 in Sarajevo, was followed quickly by
botched diplomacy and Serbian reservists
‘invading’ the Austrian side of the Danube.
The Austrian military response to this invasion
by the Kingdom of Serbia, caused Russia and
France to come to the aid of the Kingdom,
fulfilling prearranged war treaties and alliances.
Germany then became involved, to assist
the Austro-Hungarians. Other allies like
Great Britain then joined to support France
and Russia, and in November of 1914, the
strategically placed Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
aligned with the Central Powers (Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria). Soon most
European countries were at war, but perhaps
that original catalyst had been lost sight of.
Young men from Australia and New Zealand –
still loyal then to King and Country – couldn’t
volunteer quickly enough once news of the
conflict reached our shores. Only the fittest
were chosen from the many who signed up,
most aged 19-21. These largely untrained and
untested young men from down under became
known as the ANZACs, the Australia and New
Zealand Army Corps.
Churchill’s scheme for the Eastern Front
The Allied troops on the Western Front between
France and Belgium had made little territorial
headway, despite the nonstop exchange of
bullets, bayonets, bombs and mustard gas
claiming hundreds of thousands of lives within
a few months.
Ambitious English politician Winston Churchill,
by now First Lord of the Admiralty, decided to
change the war’s dynamics. Churchill prepared
two proposals: attack north to open the Baltic
Sea access to allied Russia, and open an
Eastern Front to take the strategic Dardanelles
Strait that flowed along the narrow Gallipoli
peninsula. This narrow strait connected the
Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and thus to
the Black Sea and to Russia.
When the Ottomans sided with the Germans in
October 1914, they closed the Dardanelles
to all Allied ships and staged an attack against
Russia who then declared war on the Turks, as
did England. Nearby neutral countries like
Greece joined the Allies. Political support grew
for the Eastern Front plan, and Churchill
predicted that the Allies would take
Constantinople, and with the shipping lanes
under Allied control, Russia would bolster this
Eastern front, and soon the War would be over.
The ANZAC arrive in Egypt
via the Suez Canal
It had been originally planned that training
of the ANZAC boys would be undertaken
in England, then they would travel on to the
Western Front, but as the English training camp
had storm damage (and now the Ottomans had
entered the fray), the troop ships were held in
Egypt as they sailed north through the canal.
In December of 1914, ships unloaded the eager
troops who were at first disappointed to be
far from the action. The picturesque pyramids,
the camels, all provided a great backdrop as
the Aussies and Kiwis trained together in the
intense Egyptian sun. When they were not
training, they learned to be keen sightseers,
dubbed ‘Massey’s Tourists’ (after Bill Massey,
NZ’s Prime Minister at the time), and patrons of
the exotic city life of Cairo.
Below a Turkish map of the Gallipoli Peninsula
showing where the Allied forces staged their
invasion attempts on that fateful April 25
morning. Many naval vessels took part.
English
forces
French
forces
Anzac
Cove
Gallipoli Peninsula
AEGEAN
0CEAN
The Dardanelles Strait
Charles Dixon,
The Landing at Anzac, 1915
10
COROMANDEL LIFE 2015 LATE SUMMER/EASTER
by Carol Wright
G
ALLIPOLI
THE FIRST ANZAC CAMPAIGN