When the guns stopped at Gallipoli 100 years ago.

After nine months of military action the decision was made by the Allies to evacuate. Suvla and Anzac were evacuated successfully by December 1915, with Helles completed by 9th January 1916.

Perversely the evacuation was the best executed of the entire campaign. Thanks to so many ruses and deceptions it was carried out without the large casualties that had been initially feared.

It was a victory for the defending Ottoman forces but at great cost in terms of deaths and casualties which were greater than the combined total for the Allied forces. It was a very costly war in terms of the colossal loss of lives and injuries on both sides.

The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the first World War. In Turkey it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation’s history, a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.

The words from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’ are very appropriate.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them.