Battle of Gallipoli

1. How did geography matter in WWI?

• Geography had a significant effect on how the battles were going to be fought during World War I. In Gallipoli, geography is what made the campaign a total failure. The Gallipoli Peninsula entirely favored the Turks. The Peninsula is completely covered with mountains, so when the Allied Forces arrived through the beaches, the Turks fired downwards and the Allied Forces had no where to hide. In the battle of Romani geography affected both sides. The Battle of Romani occurred in the Sinai which is full of sand dunes that made it very hard to transport machinery, supplies and soldiers. The geography of the dessert slightly favored the Turks since the British were not trained to fight in the desert while the Turks were. However, in other battles such as in the Battle of Ypres, which was fought in a very wet place, and therefor muddy area both the Germans and the British were favored. Since the land was incredibly muddy it was very easy to hide mines in the mud. So, “no man’s land” was completely full of mines, which made it extremely hard for the soldiers from the opposite side to advance. It was geography, in the end, that determined how the battles were going to turn out.

 

2. What was the soldier’s experience in WWI? 

• While being in the battle field, soldiers had to undergo many inhumane situations. In Gallipoli getting access to water was extremely difficult, soldiers would have to travel long distances in order to get water and there was always the risk of being shot by the Turkish soldiers. So because of the lack of water there was a lack of personal hygiene. The soldiers were also surrounded by dead bodies and flies, and many of them suffered from dysentery. Very similar to the Battle of Gallipoli, was the Battle of Verdun. During the ten month battle, over 70,000 men died per month. With so many deaths and a small piece of land, the soldiers were surrounded by thousands of dead bodies, they would eat, sleep, and fight next to the corpses. The Second Battle of the Marne was fought very close to the River. Since it was fought close to a river, the land was very wet thus being very muddy.The feet of the soldiers were under the mushy mud for long periods of time and as a result many of them got trench foot which in many cases caused resulted in amputations. All these situations made the time soldiers spent in the war horrible and inhumane since those situations are something that no one should ever go through.

 

3. How did imperialism play a role in the war? 

• Imperialism had a huge role in the causes of many battles in the Middle East during World War I. The main objective of the Gallipoli campaign was for the Allied Forces to get a direct rout to their ally Russia. To do so, their plan was to capture the Dardanelles. In the case of the Battle of Rafa, the main objective was for the British to secure the Sinai Peninsula. This way they would be able to protect Egypt but at the same time, continue to be a threat to Palestine. Also, the main goal behind the First Battle of Gaza was to invade and take over Palestine, however they did not succeed. This led to the second and third Battle of Gaza and they eventually were able to capture Palestine. The goal behind many of the battles of World War I was to imperialize and capture land.

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4. In what ways were many tactics or strategies of early WWI battle still “living in the past”?

• Many strategies used during World War One could be considered as “still living in the past” since their tactics were not very advanced compared to all these new weapons and strategies that were being used in many of the other battles. The main reason for the failure of the Gallipoli campaign was the lack of knowledge of the terrain. The maps that they Allied Forces had used to plan the battle, were very inaccurate. The maps were old, and they lacked many details about the terrain. In the map the land appeared to be very flat, however in reality the land was nothing like that. And it was because of this old, inaccurate, hand drawn maps that the campaign failed. In the Battle of Rafa the battle strategies were living in the past. For this battle the armies were still using horses and camels mounted with infantry. The same occured in the Battle of Romani, since the ANZAC forces were also using horses to travel through the Sinai desert. Truly, many of the resources and tactics used by the armies in many of the battles were still in the past.