Why was the landing at Gallipoli so difficult?

Answer 1

Strategically, Gallipoli was a campaign with the idea of assisting Russia in the east by opening the seaway from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Obviously the Turkish forces did not want this to happen, and the sea was mined. The British lost two capital ships and the French lost one trying to get through. Troops were landed by the British, using Anzac units mainly (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). Unfortunately the British, instead of having a dynamic leadership, allowed the Turks time to reinforce the defensive positions on the peninsula. The opportunity was lost and eventually the troops were withdrawn in a costly and pointless endeavour. It remains as an example of how not to conduct a military expedition, and an example of poor leadership of brave men who died achieving nothing. Had it been successful, then the war in the east would have been different, and as with all these things, hindsight is a wonderful thing to behold !

Answer 2

Becasue when we arrived the Turks were all ready waiting on the top of all the hills and so they had a disadvantageto us when we arrived,that's how sum of us died

AnswerBecasue when we arrived the Turks were all ready waiting on the top of all the hills and so they had a disadvantageto us when we arrived,that's how sum of us died

Answer

It's really crappy ground to fight over, full of folds and ridges and steep cliffs and scrubby waste ground.

The Turkish Army was able to secure all the strong points along the hills (they actually weren't waiting - if the Allies had moved faster they might have got there first) and they pinned the landings into small areas around their landing beaches. This meant that they could shell and harass them the whole time.

Amphibious warfare was still in it's infancy, the Navy was more used to landing small groups of Marines and didn't really know how to get large numbers of troops shore and support them, shore bombardment was pretty hit and miss (literally).

Most of the landing troops - with the exception of the regular 29th Division - were pretty much freshly trained recruits (ANZACs, Royal Navy Division and so on) and their Generals were only really just learning to fight a war on this scale.

Answer 3

because the clif is almost perpendicular and the conditions were horrible