"Gallipoli’s First Day: a day of riddles" Topic

"Day 1 at Gallipoli is a story of great bravery and suffering on all sides—ANZAC, British, French and Ottoman – with desperate attacks, even more desperate defence, confusion, mistakes and lost opportunities. Overall, the Ottoman defenders were largely successful while the Allies failed to seize opportunities to achieve their objectives.

The main opportunity for an Allied advance to their objectives was due to the strategy of the Ottoman 5th Army commander, German General Liman von Sanders. He believed the main landings would take place much further north at the Gulf of Saros and so spread his 6 Divisions thinly at three points to cover all possibilities. This meant that only two divisions were placed at the southern end of the Peninsula around Maidos and Helles, where the actual landings took place (the 9th and 19th). This gave the Allies great numerical advantage in this main sector. Von Sanders' other four divisions were spread between the Gulf of Saros and Kum Kale/Besike.

Since von Sanders was unsure which beaches the British would use for their landings, his strategy was to have lightly manned front positions on the likely landing beaches with the main regiments placed in the rear for advance when the landing places became clear. This should have given the British and ANZAC forces time to gain a foothold on the Peninsula before Ottoman reserves arrived. However, the ANZAC troops failed to advance more than two kilometres and Gallipoli historians still debate the reasons for this. Key questions are:…"
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