Who led the Gallipoli battle?

Answer 1

Th Gallipoli campaign had no overall commander - this is one of the reasons that it failed. The first, naval, attack up the Dardanelles straight was to be lead by Admiral Carden, but he soon resigned for Admiral de Robeck to assume command. De Robeck soon lead a great naval attack up the Dardanelles straight, but he lost three ships to hidden Turkish sea mines, and abandoned his assault. At this point, with great pressure from all directions wanting different types of attacks, repeats and withdrawals, Lord Hamilton, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, convinced de Robeck that the best option was a military landing on the Gallipoli peninsula.

From here, the attack was lead mainly by Hamilton, but still, there was no overall commander in chief - the navy had its leaders, the army had its own, but noone had the bigger picture.

Throughout, however, possibly the closest thing to a commander that the operation had was Winston Churchill himself, who first convinced the war Council to allow it, and throughout, put pressure on each leader (from Britain) to follow the assault as he wished. However, he wielded no true, official, and clear power over the men in the Mediterranean, and thus he was not a true commander. However, for his part, he still took much of the blame for the failure of the compaign at the time, but was later acquited.

I hope that answers your question - NOONE truly commanded the Gallipoli campaign.