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Gallipoli and the Second battle of Ypres - The First World War - April 1915

Gallipoli. Following the failure of the Fleet to secure a route through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea in the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign the Allies looked for another way of opening a supply route to Russia. This operation took place at the Gallipoli peninsular.

The planned assault on the peninsular was badly organised from the start however. Following the arrival of the troops at the main base from which the attack was to be launched, they were then transported out of the area to Egypt in order for them to be assigned to transports etc. This caused a delay of a month, in which time the Turks, not blind to what was intended, reinforced the defences of the peninsular and sent additional troops to guard the area.

The attack was to be mounted from the sea. Five landing sites were chosen and a further number of troop ships sailed further along the Peninsular in order to make the Turks believe that a sixth landing was to take place. The success of the landings was mixed. British troops were pinned down on the beaches by heavy machine gun fire, whilst the Australian troops met little, if any resistance at their landing point.

Some troops managed to secure their beachheads and advance inland, but the success was only short-lived as Turkish troops met them and forced them back towards the beaches. Here they remained, pinned down in trenches suffering heavy casualties. The operation was not cancelled however. The troops continued to try and break out for several months before the British decided to send a larger force to the area. This stalemate lasted until August 1915.

Listen to a description of the Allied anti-gas methods employed as a result of the German forces use of gas in April, 1915. A BBC recording.

The Second Battle Of Ypres - 22nd April-25th May 1915

The Second battle of Ypres consisted of about four battles, these took place over about 6 weeks and it was the first use the new German weapon, poisonous gas. On the 22nd April the Germans launched and artillery barrage on the allied lines, it was as this battle was taking place that a cloud of yellow gas began to approach them, seeing this many of the allies left their posts to find cover. This left a gap in the allied line that stretched for some 4 miles. Seeing this the Germans charged into the gap but, under estimating the time it took for the gas to disperse thinly enough into the air, they ran straight into their own chlorine gas. The Canadian 1st Regiment, being the only men to stay at their posts, held off the German attack until soon the reinforcements came. Soon after, the battle flared up again and the whole of the Ypres front was random fighting; until, on the 24th May the Germans launched another massive gas attack, the allies did manage to fight through it and survive the attack, but only by risking many deaths and tragedy's. By the end of May the allied front had been rebuilt and the fighting had died down.

Many of the men lost in and around Ypres are commemorated on the Menin gate memorial. Click here to read about this memorial to the thousands of soldiers for whom there is no known grave.

The Second battle of Ypres was written by Alex Wade, a Year 9 student at Laisterdyke High School.