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The year 1915 came in
with sleet and mud.

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In the brief pause of winter,

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the motionless armies of both sides
waited.

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The British Government surveyed
the ruin of the war's early hopes,

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and took stock of the future.

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Grave doubts now replaced
the first bright optimism.

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Powerful minds applied themselves
to strategy and tactics.

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Was the deadlock
of the Western Front permanent?

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Could it be broken?

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Would the French offensive succeed
in thrusting the Germans back?

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Some doubted.
Lord Kitchener was one.

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"The German lines in France
may be seen as a fortress
that cannot be completely invested.

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"The lines may be held
by an investing force,

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"whilst operations go on elsewhere."

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Operations elsewhere, but where?
The Baltic? The Mediterranean?

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In the first days of August 1914,

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the German cruiser Breslau and

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the new battle cruiser Goeben
had been in the Mediterranean.

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16 British warships closed in
on them.

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To escape capture,
the German ships raced to Turkey,

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a neutral state,
but one with pro-German sympathies.

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Germany offered the ships to Turkey.

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Their commander became
a Turkish admiral.

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The chief of staff of Turkey's army
was German,

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with another German in charge
of training.

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Under a figurehead sultan,
Turkey was ruled by Enver Pasha.

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His power was absolute,
but dependent on German support.

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His ambitions were grandiose.

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In October 1914, Enver Pasha had
committed the Goeben and Breslau

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to shell Russian ports in the Black
Sea and sink all ships in their way.

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By 30th October, Turkey was at war
with the Allied powers.

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The British War Council considered
a naval attack on the Dardanelles.

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Here, the prizes of success
seemed glittering indeed.

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Egypt and the Suez Canal would be
secured, Italy and the Balkan
states would join the Allies,

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and Russia would be able
to import munitions

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from the Western Allies and America.

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And Russia's huge stores of grain,

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bottled up in the Black Sea ports,
would be released.

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It was indeed an attractive project.

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On January 14th, 1915, the British
War Council's mind was made up.

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"The Admiralty should prepare
for a naval expedition in February

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"to take the Gallipoli peninsula,

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"with Constantinople as its target."

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The naval attack opened
on 18th February, 1915.

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For two weeks, the British
and French fleet tried to destroy
the forts guarding the Dardanelles.

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Hampered by bad weather,
they still made useful progress.

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Marines and bluejackets went ashore,
blew up abandoned guns

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and wrecked Turkish emplacements.

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CANNONS FIRE

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They met only light opposition.

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The task seemed easy.

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"The greatest satisfaction
was expressed at the Admiralty.

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"I was surrounded by smiling faces."

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Unexpected difficulties now arose.

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Forts apparently silenced
came to life again.

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New Turkish guns appeared.

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Minefields impeded
the Allied battleships.

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Unarmed trawlers sweeping for
mines were driven off by gunfire.

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Doubts about the Navy's ability to
finish the job alone began to grow.

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In London, Lord Fisher,
the First Sea Lord, said,

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"The Dardanelles?
Futile without soldiers.

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"Someone will have to land
at Gallipoli."

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But where could soldiers be found?

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Lord Kitchener, weighing the needs
of the Western Front,
faced a difficult decision.

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There were troops in Egypt,
the Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps,

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Indians, and British territorials.

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Half-trained, ill-equipped,
they were not yet an army.

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Something more had to be added -
a regular division.

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Only the 29th remained, already
promised to the Western Front.

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Reluctantly, Kitchener agreed
to release the 29th to Gallipoli.

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The French government
also offered a division,
making 70,000 men ready for action.

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As commander-in-chief, Kitchener
appointed Sir Ian Hamilton,

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a general of great distinction for
whom the war had not found a role.

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Kitchener told him:

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"We are sending a military force to
support the fleet at the Dardanelles.

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"You will command. If the fleet gets
through, Constantinople will fall.

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"You will have won not a battle,
but the war."

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On 18th March, Hamilton saw
the navy deliver its final assault
on the Narrows,

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the strip of water eight miles long
and less than a mile wide

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which was the gateway
to Constantinople.

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It was early afternoon and
all was going well.

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Suddenly, the French battleship
Bouvet blew up in a huge explosion

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and vanished in two minutes,
taking with her nearly 700 men.

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By the end of the day, three Allied
battleships had gone down.

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Three more were damaged by gunfire.

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The action was called off, and
the fleet retired from the Straits.

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The Turkish gunners, down
to their last rounds of ammunition,
waited for the fleet to return.

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The Turkish government
prepared to abandon the capital.

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Then, as days passed
and the Allies failed to appear,

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a fierce exultation
seized the Turks.

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Enver Pasha crowed with confidence:

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"I shall go down in history
as the man who demonstrated

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"the vulnerability
of the British fleet."

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Now, Turkish blood was up. The Turks
turned in fury of revenge

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on the aliens in their midst,
the Armenians.

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There were two million Armenians in
Turkey, Christians in a Muslim land,

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and Christians whose homeland lay
partly in Turkey, partly in Russia.

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Potential traitors, in Turkish eyes,
and tribal enemies for centuries.

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In the weeks that followed, three
quarters of a million Armenians

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were savagely exterminated.

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Said Turkish minister, Talat Bey:

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"The place we have sent them to
is nowhere.

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"No Armenian can be our friend
after what we have done to them."

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While this killing went on, reports
of an Allied military expedition
in Egypt poured into Constantinople.

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Enver Pasha handed command
of the Gallipoli peninsula
to the German, Liman von Sanders.

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Von Sanders had six
Turkish divisions,

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not enough
to cover the whole coastline,

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but he placed them to concentrate
against any dangerous landing.

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A crash programme of training
and defence works followed.

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Time was precious. The Turks worked
and waited.

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But no-one came.

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In Egypt, the expeditionary force
struggled against disorganisation.

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Everything had to be improvised.

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SHIP HORN BLOWS

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In the intervals of work and
training, Egypt offered diversions.

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Spirits were high. The war was
young and new for these warriors.

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Hamilton decided to confront von
Sanders with six landings at once.

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At the same time, two diversions
would add to the Turks' confusion.

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The French would land on
the Asiatic shore and then withdraw.

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And a mock assault would be made

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on the neck of the peninsula
at Bulair by the Navy.

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The moment drew near.

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The excitement of the adventure
ahead seized men's minds.

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Rupert Brooke, the poet turned
soldier, expressed the feeling:

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"I suddenly realised
that my life's ambition

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"has been to go on a military
expedition against Constantinople.

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"Oh, God, I've never been so happy.
Like a stream flowing to one end."

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But Brooke fell sick, and died
before the expedition sailed.

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As the great armada pulled away
amid cheering from the troop ships

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to the battlefields of classical
antiquity and the Golden Horn,

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Sir Ian Hamilton wrote in his diary:

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"Almighty God,
watchman of the Milky Way,

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"shepherd of the golden stars,
have mercy upon us,

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"smallest of the heavenly shiners.

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"Our star burns dim
as a corpse light.

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"The huge black chasm of space
closes in.

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"If only by blood, thy will be done.

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"En avant, at all costs, en avant!"

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The first landings
were at Gaba Tepe,

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where the peninsula narrowed
to a bare four miles.

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At 4am on April 25th,

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the boats cast off from warships
and troop ships,

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bearing their loads of soldiers
towards the dark and hostile shore.

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For these men,
this was a culminating moment.

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These were Anzacs,
entering their first battle,
determined to make a name.

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From the gentle pastures
of New Zealand,

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the turmoil of Sydney,
the dignity of Melbourne

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and the wide spaces of Queensland,
they came not just to fight Turks,

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but to lodge their youthful nations
in the great affairs of the world.

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'It was pitch dark.

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'Then suddenly, a dim outline
of the coast loomed up.'

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As we got closer, we were all
getting tensed up and nervous,

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wondering what would happen,
as everything was so quiet.

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Then a single shot rang out,

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and a yellowish light flared up.

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From then, everything was let loose.

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Machine-gun and rifle fire
came direct at the boats.

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They cast us off, the multiple
oarsmen took up the row,

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and we were rowed ashore.

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As soon as the boats grounded,
it was every man for himself.

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As we scrambled ashore, those
that were lucky enough to get there,

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we found what cover under the cliff
we could.

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As we lay there for a few moments,
gathering our wind,

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we slipped off our back,
fixed our bayonets,

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and someone in the crowd said,
there was no-one in charge,

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the order was, "Right, lads.
After the bastards!"

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RAPID GUNFIRE

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At five o'clock that morning,
Liman von Sanders was roused
with a series of alarming reports.

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The Allies had arrived.

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Von Sanders galloped off to Bulair.

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There he remained all day, waiting
for the landing that never came.

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The first diversion
was a complete success.

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So was the second.

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The French landed easily
on the Asiatic coast and took
500 prisoners before they withdrew.

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Opposite the French at S beach,
the landing was also successful.

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At Y beach, on the further flank,
2,000 men went ashore
without a casualty.

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But they did not press inland.

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At W beach the Lancashire Fusiliers
fought their way ashore

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through dense barbed wire,
under murderous fire,

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giving their name to this
battlefield - Lancashire Landing.

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MACHINE-GUN FIRE

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By evening, they had linked up with
the men at X beach, further north.

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But the high drama of the day
was elsewhere.

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At 6am on 25th April, naval
bombardment lifted over V beach,

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and a floating Trojan horse
neared the tip of Cape Helles.

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In broad daylight,
the collier SS River Clyde,

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with 2,000 troops aboard,
grounded herself gently offshore.

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Doors opened in her side,
ramps came down,

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Dublin and Munster Fusiliers
poured forth.

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Seconds later, 20 boats loaded with
more fusiliers, scraped the sand.

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It was very quiet.

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But the Turks were ready.

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They opened up on the shore
and there was firing -

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not only machine guns - rifle fire.

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They had these nice little pom-pom
shells, all nice painted colours.

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Beautiful things.

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They was hitting off the side
of the ship and ripping...

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..people to pieces.

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00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,000
Even the bullets, if they missed you,
was hitting the ship...

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..tearing pieces out of them.

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Three-and-a-half hours later,
barely 200 men were ashore.

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00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,000
These were trapped in a small area
of safety beneath a low sandbank.

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The brigadier was dead.

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00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:55,000
The survivors crouched behind
the plates of the River Clyde
and waited for nightfall.

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00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,000
Flying overhead, an Allied airman
looked down and reported the water
was absolutely red with blood.

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00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,000
V beach had been a catastrophe.

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00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,000
Not until the following day,
after bitter fighting, did the
British capture this beach.

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00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:19,000
To the north, the dawn of the first
day found isolated groups of Anzacs
chasing a fleeing enemy.

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00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:25,000
By eight o'clock time,
we were well advanced.

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I should say somewhere
between a mile, a mile and a half.

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00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,000
And later in the morning, we got
well across to the peninsula -

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we could see the coast
of the Narrows.

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00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:43,000
But now, a Turkish colonel
arrived on the slopes of Sari Bair.

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His name was Mustafa Kemal.
Kemal realised at once

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that this ridge was the key to the
southern half of the peninsula

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and the enemy must be driven off it.

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He rallied the retreating
Turks and sent for reinforcements.

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His orders were uncompromising.

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00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,000
'I don't order you to attack.
I order you to die.'

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The Anzacs
were forced off the ridge.

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00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000
By the end of the day, 15,000 men
were crowding into the Anzac
bridgehead - two miles long.

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On a narrow beach, barely 1,000
yards long and 30 yards wide,

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supplies and equipment piled up.

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From the cliffs came the wounded,
choking the incoming traffic.

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It was the most precarious position
a bloke could find himself in.

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You sort of made up your mind -

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"Well, we're here and the only way
he can get us off is by carrying us
off feet first."

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00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:49,000
Altogether, there were 30,000 men
ashore on Gallipoli.

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00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:54,000
Casualties had been heavy
but that was expected.

230
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,000
More serious was the fact
that none of the main landings
had achieved their objectives.

231
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:05,000
Now everyone stood by for the
Turkish counterattacks against
those frail footholds of the Allies.

232
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,000
At Gallipoli,
the battle flared up again.

233
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:58,000
On 18th May the Turks, outnumbering
the dominion troops by three to one,

234
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,000
tried to wipe out
the Anzac bridgehead.

235
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,000
In great hulking mass -
they were rather big men, the Turks -
a fine body of men.

236
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000
As they came over in two great waves,

237
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
they were shouting
and blowing their trumpets

238
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,000
and whistling and shouting
like schoolboys.

239
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,000
As they got closer,
within nice rifle range,

240
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:28,000
we had the order to fire.

241
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,000
We opened fire with rapid fire
and brought them down in hundreds.

242
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,000
Hundreds of them fell.

243
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,000
In front of our trench,
when the attack was over,

244
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:45,000
there would be up to 3,000 dead
and dying in front of our brigade.

245
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,000
They were lying there
for about three or four days.

246
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,000
The smell got so awful.

247
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,000
We prayed that the wind would blow
in from the sea and take the stench

248
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:01,000
of the dead over into the Turkish
trenches instead of our own

249
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000
as the stench got so awful
at that time.

250
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:08,000
For both sides, infection
and disease were now the dangers.

251
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000
A front-line armistice was arranged.

252
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:16,000
Anzacs and Turks worked together
to bury the dead in large,
communal graves.

253
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:21,000
I wasn't one of those burying
the dead, but I sat on the parapet

254
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:27,000
and afterwards, I walked over
and offered bully beef to one Turk

255
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,000
and he smiled
and seemed very pleased

256
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:36,000
and passed me a whole string, two
strings of dates, I think it was.

257
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,000
Three weeks after the landings,

258
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:44,000
Hamilton launched a major attack
to take the first day's objectives -

259
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000
the village of Krithia
and the high ridge of Achi Baba.

260
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000
RAPID MACHINE GUN FIRE

261
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,000
The attack failed.

262
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:11,000
By the end of May,
Hamilton's British casualties
alone totalled 38,000 men,

263
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,000
and he cabled London
for more troops, more ammunition.

264
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:19,000
Touring the Anzac bridgehead
at that time, Hamilton saw...

265
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,000
"Men staggering under huge sides of
frozen beef.

266
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,000
"Men struggling up cliffs
with kerosene tins full of water.

267
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,000
"Men digging, men cooking.

268
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,000
"Men card-playing in small dens
scooped out from the banks
of yellow clay.

269
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,000
"Everyone wore a bank holiday air.

270
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,000
"Evidently the wranglings
and worryings of mankind,

271
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:53,000
"miseries and concerns of the spirit,
had fled the precincts of the valley.

272
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:58,000
"The boss, the bill, the girl,
envy, malice, hunger, hatred,

273
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,000
"had scooted away to the Antipodes."

274
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,000
But there was another side to the
picture and Hamilton saw that too.

275
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:10,000
"All the time,
from that fiery crest line,

276
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,000
"there comes a constant trickle
of wounded.

277
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:18,000
"Some dragging themselves painfully,
others being carried on stretchers.

278
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:25,000
"Bomb wounds all. A ceaseless,
silent stream of bandages and blood.

279
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:31,000
"Yet three out of four of the boys
have grit left for a gay smile
or a cheery nod to their comrades,

280
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:37,000
"waiting for their turn as they
pass, pass, pass, down on their way
to the sea."

281
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000
The ding-dong struggle continued
all through June and July.

282
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:46,000
By 1st August, each side had lost
57,000 - killed and wounded.

283
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:52,000
Each battle held its nightmare of
shadeless heat and dust and death.

284
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,000
EXPLOSIONS AND GUN FIRE

285
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,000
Soon a cynical prayer
was passed along the front line -

286
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,000
"Please, God, send us a victory,
but not in our sector."

287
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,000
The smell of death thickened
in the blinding sun,

288
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:57,000
and the strain of living day to day
under enemy eyes took its effect.

289
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:04,000
During the day we could see
the vultures heading down
towards the bodies.

290
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:12,000
Both Turks and their own men, and
occasionally, we would take a pot
shot at them to keep them off,

291
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000
particularly if we thought there
was somebody wounded out in front.

292
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,000
But we couldn't fire too much for
fear of giving away our own position.

293
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,000
The Turks had very good
observation posts

294
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:30,000
and could see practically everything
that we did.

295
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,000
Water was very scarce
and when the summer came,

296
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,000
it brought the disease
and the flies with it.

297
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,000
The rations were nothing -
only bully beef and apricot jam.

298
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,000
And when we did get the summer,
the jam was a regular issue -

299
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,000
nothing else but apricot.

300
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,000
When you opened that,
it was almost like water -

301
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:54,000
you had to pour it
onto your biscuit.

302
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:59,000
Before you could get that to your
mouth, it was literally covered
with flies.

303
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:06,000
You held the biscuit in one hand
and waving flies off with the other.

304
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,000
Lethargy settled over the beaches
between the battles.

305
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,000
1,000 men a week went down
with dysentery.

306
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:19,000
It was a very weakening thing.
We walked about like skeletons,

307
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,000
finding it difficult
even to move at times.

308
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000
And, of course,
if anyone was out of the line,

309
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,000
there were heavy things to lift,

310
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,000
er...on fatigue,

311
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,000
water-carrying
and helping to dig roads.

312
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:40,000
It was as much as we could do
to lift the tool or whatever it was
that we were carrying.

313
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:45,000
In faraway London, the ripples
of Gallipoli made themselves felt.

314
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:50,000
Lord Fisher resigned
and the Conservatives insisted
Churchill should go too.

315
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,000
The shell shortage persisted.

316
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,000
The Liberal Government fell.

317
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:02,000
Gallipoli drew in more troops,
more ammunition needed
on the Western Front.

318
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:09,000
The War Council agreed Hamilton
could have five more divisions
ready for action by the end of July.

319
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,000
But by then, the equivalent
of ten new Turkish divisions
had dug in and were waiting.

320
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
The ripples of Gallipoli
touched more than politics,

321
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,000
they touched the hearts of men

322
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,000
and worked their changes
on human nature itself.

323
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,000
To the Allied soldiers fighting
on the peninsula,

324
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:33,000
the Turks displayed not only
fanatical bravery, but chivalry too.

325
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000
The half-affectionate nickname
Johnny Turk was born.

326
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,000
The Turkish soldier
was very highly regarded

327
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:47,000
by me and all the men
in our...on our side.

328
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:53,000
He was a clean fighter and one of
the most courageous men in the world.

329
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,000
When they came,
there was no beating about the bush.

330
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,000
They faced up to the heaviest rifle
fire that you could put up

331
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:05,000
and nothing would stop them, they
were almost fanatical.

332
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000
We came to the conclusion that
he was a very good bloke indeed.

333
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,000
We had lot of time for him.

334
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:18,000
The British virtues also revealed
themselves - the extraordinary
talent for improvisation.

335
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,000
For making a harbour
on an open shore.

336
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,000
Making bombs out of jam tins.

337
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,000
Turning a hole in the gully
into a little bit of a home.

338
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,000
Making a barrage
without enough guns or shells.

339
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:43,000
The British also revealed their
traditional stubbornness in defeat.

340
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:49,000
But there was a sense of sickening
disappointment. The failure of
the Navy could not be disguised.

341
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,000
When German submarines sunk two
battleships in the Mediterranean,

342
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,000
the rest of these great vessels
scurried to safety to their
harbours.

343
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000
As they steamed away, they took
most of the hope that was left.

344
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,000
The glittering prize of
Constantinople began to fade away.

345
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,000
Ian Hamilton had one last shot
in his locker.

346
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,000
One more flanking attack
up the peninsula - another landing.

347
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000
More reinforcements arrived,
including three divisions
of Kitchener's new army,

348
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,000
who had the virtues and faults of
this great volunteer force,

349
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,000
its eagerness, its devotion,
its lack of training.

350
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,000
Its ardent young soldiers...

351
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,000
..and its elderly generals.

352
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,000
On August 6th,

353
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,000
the new Army divisions landed
at Suvla Bay by a dry salt lake.

354
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,000
It was a complete surprise.

355
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,000
The way across the peninsula
was open.

356
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000
CRASH AND RUMBLE OF EXPLOSIONS

357
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,000
MACHINE GUN FIRE

358
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,000
But the untrained soldiers,
and their bewildered leaders,
failed to push on.

359
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:35,000
Hundreds brewed tea and bathed
while vital hours slipped away.

360
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:40,000
On their right, the Anzacs were
waging their bitterest battle -

361
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,000
Lone Pine.

362
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,000
The fighting went on for two days.

363
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:35,000
At the end, the Turks still held
the commanding heights of Sari Bair.

364
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,000
This meant the British new army
divisions could not advance either,

365
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,000
even when they found out what
to do and where to go.

366
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Muddle and missed chance
had prevailed again.

367
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
The expedition was still blocked.

368
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000
This was the end of hope.

369
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000
Ian Hamilton wrote,

370
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,000
"An ugly dream came to me last night.
I was being drowned,

371
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,000
"held violently
under the Hellespont.

372
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:17,000
"For hours afterwards,
I was haunted by the thought
that the Dardanelles were fatal -

373
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,000
"that something sinister was afoot -
that we, all of us, were pre-doomed."

374
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000
Yet for weary months,
the armies stayed.

375
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,000
It was trench warfare now -

376
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,000
barbed wire, snipers, machine guns,
boredom.

377
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,000
Like France, yet not like France.

378
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Gallipoli was further away.

379
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
No-one who went there
ever came home on leave.

380
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,000
From Dover to Calais - 22 miles.

381
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,000
From Dover to Cape Helles -
3,000 miles.

382
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:02,000
On Gallipoli, in 37 weeks,
31,000 Allied soldiers were killed,

383
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,000
73,000 were wounded,
93,000 went sick.

384
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:07,000
For the wounded and sick,
there were the flyblown
casualty clearing stations.

385
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,000
bathing in the sea
became an inexpressible joy.

386
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,000
To get away from the flies,
wash off the dirt and dust,

387
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,000
to feel cool again.

388
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,000
One said, "In some ways,
it was a curiously happy time."

389
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:59,000
In October, Ian Hamilton was
recalled and his successor,

390
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:05,000
General Monroe, arriving from the
Western Front, toured the beaches
and came to a swift decision.

391
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,000
The peninsula must be evacuated.

392
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,000
Winston Churchill said,

393
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:17,000
"He came, he saw, he capitulated."

394
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,000
But there was no escaping facts.

395
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000
Kitchener went to Gallipoli to see
for himself. His conclusion was...

396
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000
"Well, I've seen the place.

397
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,000
"It's an awful place
and you'll never get through."

398
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,000
So the bitter decision was reached.

399
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,000
Evacuation.

400
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:42,000
But Gallipoli had one
last extraordinary trick
to play on the defeated Allies.

401
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:53,000
After all the miseries of heat
and flies and diarrhoea,

402
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:58,000
a blizzard in November put 15,000
men out of action with frostbite.

403
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,000
It was the worst storm
for 40 years.

404
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000
And now they came to the last act
on Gallipoli.

405
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:41,000
120,000 men, thousands of animals,
hundreds of guns.

406
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
What would become of them all?

407
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,000
The evacuation plan
was a masterpiece.

408
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,000
Ironic success
in the midst of utter failure.

409
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,000
Every ruse was employed to persuade
the Turks that things were normal.

410
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,000
Troops bathed and played games,

411
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:11,000
reliefs and ration parties went on
with empty boxes.

412
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Automatic devices fired rifles
sporadically along
the emptying trenches.

413
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:29,000
With sacking around their boots to
dull the sound, the soldiers left.

414
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:33,000
The Australian, General Monash
described their departure:

415
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,000
"Down dozens of little gullies
leading back from the front lines

416
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:39,000
"came groups of six to a dozen men,

417
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,000
"the last closing the gully
with barbed wire.

418
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000
"All these columns kept joining up,

419
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
"like rivulets flowing
into the main stream.

420
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,000
"At last they coalesced
into four continuous lines.

421
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,000
"There was no check, no halting,
no haste or running,

422
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:01,000
"just a steady, silent tramp
in single file,

423
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,000
"without any lights or smoking.

424
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000
"And every yard brought us
nearer safety."

425
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,000
83,000 men were taken off
from Suvla and Anzac in December,
without a casualty.

426
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,000
In January, the whole performance
was repeated at Cape Helles.

427
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,000
The tears streamed down my cheeks.

428
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,000
I just couldn't restrain 'em.

429
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:29,000
My eyes smarted. I walked the rest
of the way with my eyes closed.

430
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000
I knew it so well and I couldn't
go short, I was in a trench.

431
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,000
As we got further from the line,
near Backhouse Post,

432
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000
I remember the advance we had
on May 6th,

433
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,000
when more of my pals,

434
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,000
Petty Officer Warren and young Yeats.

435
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:51,000
I could even hear young Orton
crying for his mother as he died.

436
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,000
I remember Colonel Coulter.
Great big chap, legs thin as a poker,

437
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,000
guards officer.

438
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:06,000
I remember him leading the advance
and going to his death

439
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,000
armed with a huge walking stick.

440
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,000
He told us before he landed,
when we were on the boat,

441
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,000
that the eyes of the world
would be upon us.

442
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,000
The eyes of the Turks certainly were

443
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,000
and so were their rifles.

444
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000
But the world has forgotten us.

445
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,000
Another said,
as he set off towards the boats,

446
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:31,000
"I hope they won't hear us
going down to the beaches."

447
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:42,000
On the beaches, the last stores
blazed, the ammunition exploded.

448
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,000
The great adventure was over.

449
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,000
The war went on,
mounting to new ferocity.

450
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,000
No rest for the gaunt survivors.

451
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,000
Rest only for the unforgotten dead.