In short
British and French forces launched an ambitious amphibious assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey between February 1915 and January 1916, hoping to knock the Ottoman Empire out of World War I by securing a sea route to Russia. After nearly a year of brutal fighting in difficult terrain, with tens of thousands dead on both sides, the Allies withdrew in defeat-a strategic failure that reshaped how military planners thought about combined operations.
How it unfolded.
The five-minute version
What actually happened.
The Gallipoli campaign, the Dardanelles campaign, the Defence of Gallipoli or the Battle of Gallipoli was a military campaign in the First World War on the Gallipoli Peninsula from 19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916. The Allied powers unsuccessfully attempted to make the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, capitulate by taking control of the Turkish straits. They intended to expose the Ottoman capital at Constantinople to bombardment by Allied warships and cut it off from the Asian part of the empire. An Ottoman Empire defeat could have led to unfettered Western control of the Suez Canal and the opening of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Allied supplies headed for the Black Sea and warm-water ports in Russia.
Day by day.
Across 324 days, 6 pivotal moments.
Timeline
How it actually unfolded.
Naval bombardment begins
British and French warships open fire on Ottoman coastal fortifications at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait.
ANZAC and British landings
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) land at what becomes ANZAC Cove; British forces land at Cape Helles. Both face fierce Ottoman resistance from the outset.
Ottoman counteroffensive
Ottoman forces under Mustafa Kemal launch a major assault on ANZAC positions, suffering heavy casualties but preventing Allied breakout.
Suvla Bay landing
British attempt a new landing at Suvla Bay to outflank Ottoman defenses, but coordination failures and Ottoman reinforcements under Kemal's command contain the beachhead.
Decision to evacuate
British military leadership decides to withdraw all forces from Gallipoli after failing to break through Ottoman lines or achieve any strategic objective.
Final evacuation completed
The last Allied troops depart Gallipoli. The campaign ends in complete failure, with the Ottoman Empire remaining in the war until 1918.
The visual record.
The chain begins -
The chain of consequence.
Impact
What followed.
Gallipoli stands as one of World War I's costliest stalemates: the Allies suffered roughly 187,000 casualties without achieving their objective, while Ottoman forces lost approximately 251,000 men. The campaign vindicated defensive doctrine, exposed fatal gaps in amphibious planning, and became a defining national trauma for Australia and New Zealand, whose forces bore the heaviest burden. It also demonstrated that geographic proximity to an enemy and numerical advantage meant little without tactical coordination and realistic objectives.
Captured in time.
Captured before it changed
The web as it looked, the day it happened.
Wayback Machine snapshots of the pages people actually loaded that day. Click any card to open the archive at full size.
Sources & citations.
Sources
Where this came from.
Every claim on this page traces to a public, license-clean source. We don't asterisk well.
Wikipedia
1 source- 1.Gallipoli campaign
en.wikipedia.org