WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 I want you to imagine a military campaign so 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.419 disastrous that it literally brought down a government. 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:07.480 Right. We're talking about staggering strategic 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:11.039 blunders, unimaginable human suffering, and just 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.419 the geopolitical failure of epic proportions. 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:16.219 Truly epic. But at the exact same time, and this 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:19.539 is the crazy part, this very same military catastrophe 00:00:19.539 --> 00:00:23.379 was so profoundly impactful that it forged the 00:00:23.379 --> 00:00:26.260 national identities of three entirely separate 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:28.920 modern countries. Yeah, it's quite the paradox. 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:32.079 Welcome to today's deep dive. You were always 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:34.520 looking for that underlying story, that hidden 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.600 layer beneath the historical consensus. And today, 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.500 we have a harrowing, the vital one for you. We 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:42.299 really do. We are looking at a comprehensive 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:45.820 collection of historical records, war cabinet 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.119 minutes, and primary source diaries, all focused 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:50.219 on the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. Which 00:00:50.219 --> 00:00:52.780 should place over 10 grueling months from 1915 00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:55.820 to 1916. Exactly. And reviewing these sources, 00:00:55.899 --> 00:00:58.359 you realize very quickly that the line between 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:01.039 military genius and fatal arrogance is Well, 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:03.719 it's razor thin. Oh, absolutely. And our mission 00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:06.620 for this deep dive is to cut right through the 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:09.579 overwhelming military statistics. We really want 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:12.480 to uncover the very human stories, the strategic 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.420 rigidity, the sheer chaos and the enduring legacy 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.719 of this clash on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Yeah, 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:19.640 get past the numbers and see the people. OK, 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:22.640 let's unpack this, because to understand how 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.560 this all unfolded, we have to look at the geopolitical 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.930 chessboard in late 1914. Europe is completely 00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:34.469 locked in the brutal, muddy stalemate of trench 00:01:34.469 --> 00:01:36.689 warfare on the Western Front. Right. The war 00:01:36.689 --> 00:01:39.349 maneuver is just dead. Precisely. And the Allied 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:42.269 powers were facing a severe logistical bottleneck. 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:44.810 I mean, overland trade routes were blocked, the 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:47.250 Baltic Sea was sealed by the German Navy, and 00:01:47.250 --> 00:01:49.650 the Arctic ports were just frozen solid. So Russia 00:01:49.650 --> 00:01:52.370 is completely cut off. Yes. Russia was bleeding 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:54.650 heavily in the East, demanding arms and supplies. 00:01:55.049 --> 00:01:56.909 But the Allies simply couldn't get shipments 00:01:56.909 --> 00:01:59.840 to them. The only viable warm water route into 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:02.420 the Black Sea was through the Dardanelles Straits. 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:04.239 Which were controlled by the Ottoman Empire. 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.319 So, you know, the strategy seems straightforward 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:09.740 enough on paper. Force a passage through the 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:12.080 straits, threaten the capital of Constantinople, 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.500 secure the supply line to Russia, and protect 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:17.919 the Suez Canal. Sounds simple. It does. But the 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:20.599 hubris involved in the execution is just staggering. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.259 I was reading through the source text. And there's 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:25.719 a detail regarding allied intelligence that is 00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:28.479 both amusing and completely appalling. Oh, the 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:31.759 maps. The maps. Military planners lacked proper 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:34.300 topographical maps of the peninsula. So what 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:37.199 did they do? They literally relied on Egyptian 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.120 travel guides. Yeah. And outdated tourist maps 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:44.020 to plan a sprawling multinational amphibious 00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:47.310 invasion. It is a breathtaking example of imperial 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:49.889 overconfidence. The allied leadership viewed 00:02:49.889 --> 00:02:52.210 the Ottoman Empire as a declining power that 00:02:52.210 --> 00:02:54.310 would basically just shatter at the first show 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:56.889 of overwhelming force. Just break and run. Exactly. 00:02:57.030 --> 00:02:58.889 And this is where Winston Churchill enters the 00:02:58.889 --> 00:03:02.219 narrative. Yeah. As First Lord of the Admiralty, 00:03:02.539 --> 00:03:05.139 Churchill aggressively championed a purely naval 00:03:05.139 --> 00:03:08.039 attack on the Dardanelles. He essentially argued 00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:11.080 that they could use a fleet of older, obsolete 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:13.900 British and French battleships. Vessels that 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:16.120 were no longer fit to face the modern German 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:18.719 dreadnoughts. Right, exactly. He thought they 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:21.500 could use these old ships to just blast their 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:23.340 way through the straits and shock the Ottomans 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:26.479 into surrender. It was a monumental gamble. And 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:28.719 it bypassed the concerns of other senior leaders, 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:31.580 like Admiral Fisher, who had serious reservations 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:33.379 about the whole thing. You really did. But on 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.960 March 18, 1915, they rolled the dice. An allied 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.159 fleet of 18 battleships flanked by cruisers and 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.620 destroyers steamed into the narrowest part of 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:45.520 the straits. The expectation was just a straightforward 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.319 bombardment to silence the coastal guns and sweep 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:50.819 the mines. But they sailed straight into a perfectly 00:03:50.819 --> 00:03:53.879 laid trap. They really did. largely because they 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:56.819 completely underestimated their opponent's tactical 00:03:56.819 --> 00:04:00.259 adaptability. First, they failed to account for 00:04:00.259 --> 00:04:02.939 the mobility of the Ottoman artillery. Under 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.919 the guidance of German General Otto Lehmann von 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.580 Sanders, the Ottoman gunners were constantly 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:11.080 shifting their howitzers. So the allied ships 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.039 simply couldn't get a fixed firing solution. 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.979 Right. But the far more devastating miscalculation 00:04:15.979 --> 00:04:19.300 involved a secret minefield. Just 10 days prior 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:22.019 to the assault, an Ottoman mine layer called 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:25.000 the Newsret recognized the turning patterns of 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.819 the allied ships. Wow. And they secretly laid 00:04:27.819 --> 00:04:30.860 a new line of mines parallel to the Asian shore 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:32.920 rather than across the strait. And the results 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:34.899 were catastrophic. I mean, the French battleship 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:37.740 Bouvet struck one of those unseen mines, suffered 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:40.579 a massive magazine explosion and capsized in 00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:42.759 just two minutes. Two minutes. It took almost 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.680 its entire crew down to the bottom. Only 75 men 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.939 survived out of a crew of over It's just horrific. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.279 Shortly after, the British battleships, Irresistible 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:55.600 and Ocean, also struck mines and sank, while 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:58.360 several other major capital ships were severely 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:01.839 crippled. The allied naval commander had no choice 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.319 but to sound the general recall. The invincible 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:08.000 armada retreating in disgrace. Now, you might 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.620 assume that after such a spectacular failure, 00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:13.480 the war cabinet would cut their losses. You'd 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.899 think so, but if we connect this to the bigger 00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:18.819 picture, we see a textbook example of the sunk 00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:23.259 cost fallacy. The naval assault failed, but the 00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:25.800 political capital invested by Churchill and Lord 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:28.300 Kitchener was too high to abandon the campaign. 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:30.699 Right, they couldn't just walk away. Exactly. 00:05:31.259 --> 00:05:33.399 They decided that if the ships couldn't pass, 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:35.779 they needed to capture the peninsula by land 00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:38.060 to physically dismantle the forts guarding the 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:40.939 straits. They pivoted to a full -scale amphibious 00:05:40.939 --> 00:05:43.060 invasion. But wait, if they made that decision 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:45.379 in late March, why did it take them a full five 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:47.399 weeks to actually launch the land invasion? Weren't 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:49.959 they just giving the Ottoman forces time to dig 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.720 in? They absolutely were. But logistically, their 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:55.240 hands were tied by their own administrative incompetence? 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:57.560 Oh, this part is wild. The troops they had hastily 00:05:57.560 --> 00:05:59.680 gathered in Egypt were loaded onto transport 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.060 ships completely backward. Cannons were loaded 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.339 without their ammunition. Wagons were loaded 00:06:04.339 --> 00:06:06.439 without their horses. So they literally had to 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:09.839 sail the entire fleet back to Alexandria, completely 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:12.319 unload the ships, and repack them for combat 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:16.180 deployment. Yes. That five -week delay was a 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:19.199 fatal gift to the Ottoman Fifth Army. Lyman von 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:22.600 Sanders used every single hour of that respite 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.339 to transform the peninsula into a fortress. They 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:28.459 dug miles of trenches, laid thick belts of barbed 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:31.279 wire across the beaches, constructed improvised 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:33.899 explosive devices out of old torpedo warheads, 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.319 and positioned their reserves on the commanding 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:38.800 heights. The element of surprise was entirely 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:41.300 squandered. Which brings us to the dawn of April 00:06:41.300 --> 00:06:44.959 25th, 1915. The Allies assembled a highly diverse 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.800 force. You've got British regulars, French colonial 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.959 troops, Indian brigades, a regiment from Newfoundland, 00:06:51.259 --> 00:06:53.319 and the newly formed Australian and New Zealand 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:56.680 Army Corps. The Anzacs. The Anzacus. But waiting 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.220 for them was a fiercely determined Ottoman defense, 00:06:59.699 --> 00:07:01.800 heavily influenced by a brilliant young Ottoman 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.050 lieutenant colonel named Mustafa Kemal. Right, 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:06.310 who commanded the 19th Division and Reserve? 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:09.939 Against the advice of his superiors, Kamal had 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:13.139 correctly analyzed the topography and anticipated 00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:15.459 exactly where the Allies were most likely to 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:18.019 strike. And when the landings began, it was absolute 00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:21.100 chaos. Let's look at the ANZACs first. They were 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:23.060 scheduled to land on an open stretch of beach 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:26.480 before dawn, quickly push inland and sever the 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.399 Ottoman communication lines. But due to strong 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.639 undetected ocean currents. Or perhaps just severe 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:35.160 navigational errors in the pitch black. Exactly. 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:38.310 They landed roughly two kilometers too far north, 00:07:38.910 --> 00:07:41.009 instead of a gently sloping beach they found 00:07:41.009 --> 00:07:43.949 themselves staring up at sheer jagged ravines 00:07:43.949 --> 00:07:47.290 and dense impenetrable scrub brush. The unforgiving 00:07:47.290 --> 00:07:50.029 terrain just shattered their unit cohesion instantly. 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:53.180 Small, isolated groups of Australians were scrambling 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.240 up these vertical cliffs in the dark, relying 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.680 on those inaccurate maps, completely cut off 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:59.459 from their command structure. And because the 00:07:59.459 --> 00:08:02.379 rugged landscape slowed the ANZAC advance to 00:08:02.379 --> 00:08:05.240 a crawl, it bought Mustafa Kemal the critical 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.819 time he needed. He rushed his reinforcements 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:10.199 to the commanding heights of the Sari Behr Ridge, 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.879 specifically a peak called Chunuk Behr, and essentially 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:17.920 trapped the ANZACs within a tiny precarious perimeter 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:20.620 clinging to the cliffside. Meanwhile, at the 00:08:20.620 --> 00:08:23.199 southern tip of the peninsula at Ketels, the 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.360 British landings were turning into an absolute 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:28.420 meat grinder. Truly horrific. At V Beach and 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:31.379 W Beach, the Ottomans had established textbook 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:34.340 defensive positions overlooking the water. In 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:36.840 a desperate move, the British actually took a 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:40.039 converted coal ship, the SS River Clyde, and 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.179 intentionally ran it aground right beneath an 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:44.519 Ottoman fortress. Hoping to use it as a modern 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:48.100 Trojan horse. Yes. But it was a disastrous miscalculation. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:50.820 They'd cut Sally Port's essentially makeshift 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:53.460 doors directly into the ship's steel hull for 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:55.539 the troops to deploy from. But the moment those 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:57.840 doors opened, it became a deadly funnel. Yeah. 00:08:58.059 --> 00:09:00.720 The Ottoman defenders poured concentrated machine 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:02.940 gun and rifle fire into the men as they emerged 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:06.120 onto the gangways. Of the first 200 British soldiers 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.639 to run down those ramps, records indicate only 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:12.000 21 made it to the sand alive. The casualties 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.539 among units like the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:17.340 so catastrophic, they later had to amalgamate 00:09:17.340 --> 00:09:20.100 the survivors into a single unit nicknamed the 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:22.899 Dubsters. But the sheer grip wasn't limited to 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:26.029 the beaches. The Ottoman defenders were absorbing 00:09:26.029 --> 00:09:29.450 punishing losses to hold the high ground. There 00:09:29.450 --> 00:09:31.769 is a moment documented in the historical record 00:09:31.769 --> 00:09:35.210 that is incredibly chilling. Mustafa Kamal's 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:38.129 57th Infantry Regiment was facing a desperate 00:09:38.129 --> 00:09:41.169 push by the Australians up the slopes. His men 00:09:41.169 --> 00:09:43.610 were completely out of ammunition, reduced to 00:09:43.610 --> 00:09:46.049 holding the line with nothing but fixed bayonets. 00:09:46.409 --> 00:09:49.429 And Kamal issued one of the most grim and legendary 00:09:49.429 --> 00:09:52.190 orders in modern military history. He told them, 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.690 I do not order you to fight. I order you to die. 00:09:54.830 --> 00:09:57.789 Wow. In the time which passes until we die, other 00:09:57.789 --> 00:09:59.610 troops and commanders can come forward and take 00:09:59.610 --> 00:10:01.629 our places. And the profound tragedy is that 00:10:01.629 --> 00:10:04.350 they follow that order to the letter. Virtually 00:10:04.350 --> 00:10:06.809 every single man of the 57th Regiment was either 00:10:06.809 --> 00:10:09.309 killed or wounded, but they held the ridgeline. 00:10:09.730 --> 00:10:12.350 They halted the Allied momentum. So what was 00:10:12.350 --> 00:10:16.049 pitched in London as a swift, glorious victory 00:10:16.049 --> 00:10:19.690 to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war instantly 00:10:19.690 --> 00:10:22.529 devolved into a stagnant, horrific battle of 00:10:22.529 --> 00:10:24.970 attrition. It was the nightmare of the Western 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:28.330 Front, but compressed onto a tiny, isolated strip 00:10:28.330 --> 00:10:30.440 of land. And the conditions in those trenches 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.000 were genuinely apocalyptic. You have to consider 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.919 the geography. Unlike the Western Front, the 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:39.120 Allies at Gallipoli had no rear area. None at 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:40.960 all. Because they never secured the heights, 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:43.559 every square inch of the Allied beachhead was 00:10:43.559 --> 00:10:46.100 under constant Ottoman observation and artillery 00:10:46.100 --> 00:10:48.539 fire. You couldn't even safely boil water or 00:10:48.539 --> 00:10:51.100 bring up rations. And then the blistering hummer 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:53.980 heat arrived. The sources describe a reality 00:10:53.980 --> 00:10:57.129 that is difficult to stomach. because no man's 00:10:57.129 --> 00:10:59.750 land was so narrow in places, sometimes only 00:10:59.750 --> 00:11:03.269 a few yards wide. Thousands of corpses lay unburied 00:11:03.269 --> 00:11:05.649 under the Mediterranean sun. It's unimaginable. 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:08.129 It led to an absolute explosion in the fly population. 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:10.440 Diaries describe soldiers having to wave their 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:12.259 hands frantically over their mess tins just to 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:13.980 get a piece of heart attack to their mouths without 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.320 eating a handful of corpse flies. Which inevitably 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.820 triggered a severe dysentery epidemic that incapacitated 00:11:19.820 --> 00:11:22.620 tens of thousands of men on both sides. And the 00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:24.700 environment offered no relief. Right, because 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:26.679 after the summer... When the summer heat finally 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:29.980 broke, the winter brought violent gales, flooded 00:11:29.980 --> 00:11:33.080 trenches, and severe blizzards. Thousands of 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:35.179 soldiers who survived the bullets in the dysentery 00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:38.559 ended up suffering from severe frostbite or literally 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:40.700 drowned in the freezing mud of their own trenches. 00:11:41.059 --> 00:11:44.100 It's a relentless catalog of suffering. But amidst 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.460 all this tactical failure on land, there was 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:48.840 one theater where the Allies actually executed 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:51.360 their strategic objectives. Here's where it gets 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.779 really interesting. Beneath the waves. Ah, yes. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:57.019 While the surface fleet was humiliated in March, 00:11:57.500 --> 00:11:59.360 Allied submarines managed to do the impossible. 00:11:59.500 --> 00:12:02.440 They navigated the treacherous currents, slipped 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:04.940 beneath the heavily mined straits, and broke 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:07.379 out into the Sea of Marmara. The submarine warfare 00:12:07.379 --> 00:12:09.840 campaign was highly effective, and its impact 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.220 was vastly disproportionate to the tiny number 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:14.639 of vessels involved. Ships like the Australian 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:17.159 submarine AU -2 and the British E -14 operated 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:19.899 deep behind enemy lines. Their specific mission 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:22.779 was to sever the logistical lifeline of the Ottoman 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:26.340 5th Army. Exactly. The official German naval 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:28.519 historian later conceded that if those sea lanes 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:30.820 had been permanently choked off, the Ottoman 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:33.259 army on the peninsula would have faced starvation 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:35.940 and total collapse. The audacity of these submarine 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:38.820 commanders is wild. Lieutenant Commander Stoker 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:41.960 of the AE -2 was given orders to, quote, generally 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:45.309 run amok. And he did exactly that. These tiny 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.970 claustrophobic metal tubes caused so much havoc 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:50.809 that they forced the Ottoman military to essentially 00:12:50.809 --> 00:12:53.990 abandon the sea as a reliable transport route, 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:57.590 shifting to agonizingly slow overland supply 00:12:57.590 --> 00:13:00.629 lines. It is a striking contrast to the surface 00:13:00.629 --> 00:13:03.169 campaign. But returning to the men trapped in 00:13:03.169 --> 00:13:05.850 the mud above, despite the unremitting brutality, 00:13:06.029 --> 00:13:08.250 there were profound flashes of humanity that 00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:10.330 challenge our understanding of war. Yeah, this 00:13:10.330 --> 00:13:12.580 part of the sources really stood out. Following 00:13:12.580 --> 00:13:15.539 a colossal Ottoman counterattack on May 19th, 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.600 where thousands of Ottoman soldiers were gunned 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.419 down in no man's land, the stench and the psychological 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:22.820 weight of the dead became unbearable for everyone. 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:27.460 So on May 24th, a formal armistice was organized 00:13:27.460 --> 00:13:30.519 for the sole purpose of burying the dead. And 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:33.679 what unfolded is a deeply moving testament to 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:35.980 the strange psychology of the frontline soldier. 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.500 It really is. Men who had spent weeks trying 00:13:38.500 --> 00:13:41.279 to slaughter each other. cautiously climbed out 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:43.399 of their trenches and mingled in the center of 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:45.899 no man's land. I'm looking at a diary entry in 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:48.340 our source material from Private Victor Laidlaw, 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:51.059 an Australian stretcher bearer. He describes 00:13:51.059 --> 00:13:53.320 the surreal atmosphere noting that soldiers were 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:55.539 exchanging souvenirs and throwing gifts across 00:13:55.539 --> 00:13:58.200 the divide. Just incredible. The Ottoman soldiers 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:00.519 offered dates and local sweets and the Allies 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:03.120 tossed back tins of bully beef and packs of cigarettes. 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:05.860 For a few fleeting hours, the empires and the 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:08.210 politics faded away. They just saw each other 00:14:08.210 --> 00:14:10.649 as fellow human beings trapped in the exact same 00:14:10.649 --> 00:14:13.889 hellscape. But inevitably, the sun set, the officers 00:14:13.889 --> 00:14:16.269 blew their whistles, the men returned to their 00:14:16.269 --> 00:14:19.809 holes, and the killing resumed. And by August, 00:14:20.210 --> 00:14:23.730 the Allied commander, Sir Ian Hamilton, recognized 00:14:23.730 --> 00:14:25.809 that the static war of attrition was bleeding 00:14:25.809 --> 00:14:28.389 his army to death. He desperately needed to break 00:14:28.389 --> 00:14:30.909 the deadlock. This triggers the August offensive. 00:14:31.090 --> 00:14:34.049 Right. The Allies land fresh divisions at a new 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:37.840 location. Suvla Bay, just north of the ANSAAC 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:41.399 perimeter, and launch a series of desperate coordinated 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:44.299 assaults on the highest peaks. Places with names 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:46.559 that are now permanently etched into Australian 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:49.919 and New Zealand military history, like Lone Pine, 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:52.960 The Neck, and Chinook Bear. The operational plan 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.019 was highly complex, requiring precise nighttime 00:14:56.019 --> 00:14:58.799 coordination across fractured terrain, and it 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.419 unraveled almost immediately. The tragedy at 00:15:01.419 --> 00:15:04.419 the neck is particularly illustrative. Due to 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:07.399 a fatal failure to synchronize watches, the preliminary 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:09.820 naval bombardment lifted seven minutes early. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:12.279 Ten minutes. The Ottoman defenders simply climbed 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:14.240 back into their trenches, manned their machine 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:17.120 guns, and waited. When the Australian light horsemen 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:19.340 finally charged across the narrow ridge, they 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:21.759 were annihilated in seconds. At Chinook Bear, 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:24.100 the New Zealanders fought a desperate, heroic 00:15:24.100 --> 00:15:26.639 battle to briefly capture the summit, holding 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:29.240 it at severe cost, only to be swept off days 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:31.980 later by an overwhelming autumn encounter attack 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:35.740 led once again by Mustafa Kemal. The entire August 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:38.559 offensive yielded no strategic gain, only thousands 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:41.559 of fresh corpses. By late autumn, the situation 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:44.100 in London had reached a breaking point. The British 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:46.200 government finally dismissed Commander Hamilton. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:48.320 With winter freezing the men in their trenches 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:51.360 and no hope of a breakthrough, military leadership 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:54.740 made the agonizing decision to evacuate the peninsula 00:15:54.740 --> 00:15:57.820 entirely. Which leads us to a fascinating historical 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:02.299 irony. The single most brilliantly planned, flawlessly 00:16:02.299 --> 00:16:05.100 executed, and technologically innovative operation 00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:08.580 of the entire Allied campaign at Calipoli was 00:16:08.580 --> 00:16:11.440 the act of running away. It truly was a masterpiece 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:13.820 of deception. The military planners originally 00:16:13.820 --> 00:16:16.379 estimated that up to 30 ,000 men would be killed 00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:18.940 or wounded trying to withdraw from those beaches 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:21.659 under the direct gaze of the Ottoman artillery. 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:24.059 To prevent a slaughter, the Allies engineered 00:16:24.059 --> 00:16:27.570 a phantom army. They utilized ingenious ruses 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:29.649 to convince the Ottoman observers that the trench 00:16:29.649 --> 00:16:32.250 lines were still fully garrisoned while the bulk 00:16:32.250 --> 00:16:34.470 of the force secretly slipped onto boats under 00:16:34.470 --> 00:16:37.009 the cover of darkness. The psychological conditioning 00:16:37.009 --> 00:16:39.789 was brilliant. For weeks prior, the Allies would 00:16:39.789 --> 00:16:42.870 mandate strict periods of absolute silence, training 00:16:42.870 --> 00:16:45.350 the Ottoman soldiers not to investigate when 00:16:45.350 --> 00:16:48.299 the trenches went quiet. And then there was the 00:16:48.299 --> 00:16:51.399 famous drip rifle invented by an Australian soldier 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.580 named William Scurry. Oh, this is fascinating. 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:56.240 It was a remarkably simple yet effective mechanism. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.159 They mounted rifles on the parapets, the sandbag 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.340 walls at the front of the trench, and tied a 00:17:01.340 --> 00:17:04.640 string from the trigger to a lower pan. Suspended 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:07.299 above the pan was a water tin with a small hole 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:09.819 punched in it. As the water slowly dripped, the 00:17:09.819 --> 00:17:11.740 weight in the pan would increase until it pulled 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:14.019 the string and fired the rifle. They rigged these 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:16.279 up all along the front lines with varying drip 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:18.859 rates. So to the Ottoman sentries listening in 00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:21.500 the freezing dark, it sounded exactly like sporadic 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:23.859 routine sniper fire from fully manned trenches. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:26.359 In reality, the trenches were totally abandoned. 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:28.559 The success of this deception was staggering. 00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:31.650 Over December and January, the Allies evacuated 00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:35.329 roughly 35 ,000 troops, alongside thousands of 00:17:35.329 --> 00:17:38.069 horses and artillery pieces. On the final night 00:17:38.069 --> 00:17:41.130 of the evacuation at Anzeti Cove, they didn't 00:17:41.130 --> 00:17:44.890 lose a single man. Zero casualties. Zero. It 00:17:44.890 --> 00:17:48.029 was an operational triumph, but it merely punctuated 00:17:48.029 --> 00:17:51.670 a devastating strategic failure. The human cost 00:17:51.670 --> 00:17:53.829 of the Gallipoli campaign is difficult to fully 00:17:53.829 --> 00:17:56.819 comprehend. The statistics from the historical 00:17:56.819 --> 00:18:00.099 archives are sobering. Yeah, they are. The 10 00:18:00.099 --> 00:18:03.200 -month campaign resulted in roughly 500 ,000 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:06.140 total casualties across both sides. The Ottoman 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:09.420 Empire suffered an estimated 250 ,000 casualties, 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:12.740 with modern historians suggesting at least 87 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:15.779 ,000 dead. The Allies suffered an equal number 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:19.339 of casualties, with over 56 ,000 dead. Half a 00:18:19.339 --> 00:18:22.579 million men killed, wounded, or ravaged by disease 00:18:22.579 --> 00:18:24.839 for a piece of land that ultimately remained 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:27.299 in Ottoman hands. And the political fallout back 00:18:27.299 --> 00:18:29.900 in London was seismic. Winston Churchill bore 00:18:29.900 --> 00:18:32.119 the brunt of the public blame. He was demoted 00:18:32.119 --> 00:18:34.140 from the Admiralty, eventually resigning from 00:18:34.140 --> 00:18:36.480 the government entirely, and actually deployed 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:39.019 to the Western Front to command an infantry battalion 00:18:39.019 --> 00:18:41.640 in the trenches. The failures at Gallipoli heavily 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:43.680 contributed to the collapse of Prime Minister 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.539 H .H. Asquith's government, completely reshaping 00:18:46.539 --> 00:18:48.940 British wartime leadership. But what's fascinating 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:51.819 here is how this catastrophic military defeat 00:18:51.819 --> 00:18:55.079 acted as a crucible for national identity. For 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:57.819 Australia and New Zealand, Gallipoli was their 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:00.799 baptism of fire on the world stage. It sparked 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.259 a unique national consciousness. Oh yeah. A sense 00:19:03.259 --> 00:19:05.779 of rugged endurance and brotherhood, completely 00:19:05.779 --> 00:19:08.240 distinct from the British Empire. The anniversary 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:11.279 of those chaotic landings, April 25th, is now 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:15.769 Anzasi Day. It remains the most solemn and significant 00:19:15.769 --> 00:19:18.289 day of national remembrance in both countries, 00:19:18.789 --> 00:19:21.230 commemorated with dawn services that honor the 00:19:21.230 --> 00:19:23.230 resilience of those who served. And the impact 00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:25.630 was arguably even more profound for the Ottoman 00:19:25.630 --> 00:19:28.450 side. Their successful defense coined the famous 00:19:28.450 --> 00:19:32.190 national phrase, Senakali Jusilmis. Meaning Senakali 00:19:32.190 --> 00:19:35.630 is impassable. Exactly. Furthermore, it catapulted 00:19:35.630 --> 00:19:37.970 Mustafa Kemal to the status of an untouchable 00:19:37.970 --> 00:19:40.670 national hero. The fame and fierce respect he 00:19:40.670 --> 00:19:42.490 earned at Gallipoli allowed him to lead the Turkish 00:19:42.490 --> 00:19:45.089 War of Independence just a few years later. He 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:47.569 became Atatürk, the visionary founder and first 00:19:47.569 --> 00:19:49.769 president of the modern Republic of Turkey. Without 00:19:49.769 --> 00:19:51.990 the crucible of Gallipoli, the modern map of 00:19:51.990 --> 00:19:53.849 the Middle East and Europe looks fundamentally 00:19:53.849 --> 00:19:56.089 different. So what does this all mean for you, 00:19:56.289 --> 00:19:58.390 our listener? We've covered a vast amount of 00:19:58.390 --> 00:20:01.049 history today. Gallipoli is more than just a 00:20:01.049 --> 00:20:03.470 master class in the terrible dangers of hubris. 00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:07.009 It demonstrates vividly that technological superiority, 00:20:07.569 --> 00:20:11.430 like a fleet of mighty battleships, cannot automatically 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:14.549 overcome a well -adapted, tactically flexible 00:20:14.549 --> 00:20:17.309 defense. Absolutely. It shows the fatal consequences 00:20:17.309 --> 00:20:20.349 of strategic rigidity and the sunk cost fallacy. 00:20:21.570 --> 00:20:23.950 Simultaneously, the diaries from those trenches 00:20:23.950 --> 00:20:27.049 endure as an undeniable testament to human endurance 00:20:27.049 --> 00:20:29.670 under the most agonizing conditions imaginable. 00:20:29.890 --> 00:20:32.369 It leaves us with a highly complex legacy, and 00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:34.089 I want to leave you with a final thought to mull 00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:36.390 over. Our source text points out that in the 00:20:36.390 --> 00:20:38.809 decades following World War I, military planners 00:20:38.809 --> 00:20:41.609 from across the globe studied the Gallipoli campaign 00:20:41.609 --> 00:20:43.750 obsessively. They didn't study it to mock it. 00:20:43.930 --> 00:20:46.750 No, they used the painful bloody lessons learned 00:20:46.750 --> 00:20:49.089 from the Allied failures at the Dardanelles to 00:20:49.089 --> 00:20:51.930 meticulously crack the code of amphibious warfare. 00:20:52.690 --> 00:20:55.269 In many ways, the unmitigated disaster at Gallipoli 00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:57.430 literally wrote the modern military playbook 00:20:57.430 --> 00:20:59.769 that the Allies later utilized to achieve victory 00:20:59.769 --> 00:21:02.170 at the Normandy landings in World War II. That's 00:21:02.170 --> 00:21:05.049 quite the perspective shift. It is. Think about 00:21:05.049 --> 00:21:07.829 how often we are told to focus on and replicate 00:21:07.829 --> 00:21:10.809 our successors. But considering that this monumental 00:21:10.809 --> 00:21:13.650 Allied failure laid the hidden groundwork for 00:21:13.650 --> 00:21:17.309 their greatest triumph decades later. What spectacular 00:21:17.309 --> 00:21:19.930 failure in your own life or your own industry 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:22.349 might actually be the hidden blueprint for a 00:21:22.349 --> 00:21:25.250 massive future success? That is a heavy but vital 00:21:25.250 --> 00:21:27.549 question to leave our listeners with. Thank you 00:21:27.549 --> 00:21:29.609 for walking through this profound historical 00:21:29.609 --> 00:21:31.789 turning point with us. Keep questioning, keep 00:21:31.789 --> 00:21:34.029 digging deeper, and we will see you next time.