WHY GALLIPOLI FAILED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 636, 12 April 1929, Page 9

WHY GALLIPOLI FAILED

AGE-OLD PRINCIPLES OF WAR NEGLECTED PUBLICATION OF HISTORY (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Wednesday The first volume of the Official History of the Gallipoli Campaign, with an admirable preface written by Brigadier-General C. F. Aspiuall Oglander, gives full credit to the Anzacs for their superb co-operation with the British troops. The composition of the Australian and New Zealand units and their States of origin are fully detailed. The preface states that the lack of success in the campaign was due greatly to the neglect of the age-old principles of war. All the belligerents displayed heroism and self-sacri-fice and reached the topmost pinnacle of human endeavour. It is contended that a wiser policy in 1915 w r ould have been to have regarded the importance of the West ern front as latent and to have cancelled the spring offensive in France, in favour of a temporary defensive while a strong, sudden blow was struck at the Near East, in order to destroy Turkey, succour Russia and rally the Balkans to the Entente. When the crucial decision had to be made the British Government lacked an authoritative General Staff at the War Office to supply a broad, general view of the military situation. DEMORALISING CONDITIONS

For that reason, with barely enough munitions for one theatre, offensives w'ere simultaneously undertaken in two theatres of Avar and neither attained success. It is doubtful, says the preface, whether any army ever operated under more demoralising conditions than those which faced lau Hamilton’s forces at the Dardanelles.

The problem of 1915 was not incapable of solution. Three times the issue hung in the balance. A combined naval and military attack, carefully planned before the embarkation and carried out under surprise conditions, could scarcely have failed. The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Gallipoli, with a smaller casualty list than was incurred on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, destroyed the flower of the Turkish army, safeguarded the Suez Canal and laid the foundation of Turkey’s final defeat. It is stated that the first estimate of the Turkish forces opposing the 15,000 Anzacs on April 25 was 20,000 men. Later statistics placed that number at 13,000. SUBMARINE'S SERVICE

Something not previously disclosed is the service rendered in the nick of time by the Australian submarine AE2 during the landing of the main Anzac body. A Turkish battleship intermittently shelled the anchorage and compelled the transports to change positions, but to the amazement of the watchers it ceased its fire when H was causing most annoyance. Later it was ascertained that this was directly due to the AE2’s passage up the Narrows. The Turkish battleship sighted her periscope near Chanak and incontinently ran for safety. Thus the submarine directly assisted in (he Anzac landing.