April 25 marked the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, a major battle launched by the Allied Forces during World War One.
The campaign pitted the Allies, including soldiers from Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand against the Ottoman Empire and Germany.
The famous confrontation ended in a major and embarrassing defeat for the Allies. The official casuality list, including the dead and wounded on all sides, was a staggering 187,959, although it is widely estimated that the real figures are much higher.
The battle was set on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the Dardanelles strait, very close to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.
The strait was an important supply route to Russia, a major part of the Allied Forces in World War One. One of the key motives behind the campaign was the desire of the Allies to capture both the peninsula and Constantinople, to secure the Dardanelles.
As a result, the Gallipoli campaign, more than any other battle during World War One, exposed the imperialist ambitions of the Allied Forces, particularly Britain and France.
This campaign was not about advancing the
‘freedom of small nations’, it was about securing and expanding the interests of Britain and France in the Middle East.
There were two major elements to the Allied attack. The first element consisted of a series of sea landings on the peninsula which was to be followed by a land campaign aimed at capturing Constantinople.
While Gallipoli is often associated with the thousands of troops from Australia and New Zealand who took part, an estimated 15,000 Irishmen serving in the British Army, saw action during the battle.
These men served in a number of different British Army Regiments, including the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and the Munster Fusiliers and took part in some of the hottest encounters at Gallipoli.
On April 25 1915, as the sea landings began, the Irish found themselves in the usual role of cannon fodder. The Dublin and Munster Fusiliers were on board the
‘SS River Clyde’ heading for Gallipoli. Their mission was to capture
‘V Beach’.
However, the Turkish were waiting for them, and were ready to defend their homeland. As the Irish jumped from the
‘Clyde’ and attempted to storm the beach, they were cut down by the Turkish machine guns and shells from the German pom-pom guns.
Ninety per cent of the Irish troops present were killed in this initial encounter and
‘the sea ran red with Irish Blood’.
Over the course of the campaign, 3,000 Irishmen would die at Gallipoli, equalling the numbers of casualities from New Zealand.
The loss of life at Gallipoli highlighted the realities of war in a most honest and brutal fashion. Stories from the battle continue to inspire arguments against war and songs of protest.
The best known is probably Eric Bogle’s,
‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’, which charts the course of the battle from the point of view of an Australian solider maimed at Gallipoli.
The campaign has also left its mark on many Irish songs and ballads. With Ireland in the midst of its own revolutionary period, however, it is no surprise that the idea of Irishmen fighting in the British Army was not universally celebrated at home.
Perhaps the best known Irish song influenced by Gallipoli is
‘The Foggy Dew’, a much loved song which celebrates the 1916 Rising.
In its second verse, the song makes a poignant reference to the Irish who died at Gallipoli,
‘Right proudly high over Dublin town, they flung out the flag of war. T’was better to die,
‘neath an Irish Sky then at Sulva or Suld ed Bahr’.