Before the battle of Gallipoli

In our session today Miss Bland showed us a blog that she has made about her uncles who served in World War 1. She explained to us that after Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, they asked New Zealand to send some soldiers to help them. The first soldiers that New Zealand sent were called the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Miss Blands Uncle John was one of the first soldiers from New Zealand to sign up for the war. These soldiers were the ones that landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

We watched six minutes of a long documentary about the battle of Gallipoli. We learnt that when the war wasn't going well on the western front in early 1915, the British decided on another tactic. They wanted to open up the Dardanelles to enable their ships to have access to Russian ports. This proved disastrous as three naval ships were sunk by the Turks who had stationed huge guns in the banks of the Dardanelles. The British decided then, to send ground forces to the peninsular.

We learnt that the Anzacs had two enemies on the Gallipoli peninsula - the Turks and the terrain. The documentary showed Turkish trenches overlooking the beaches. It would have been easy to mow down the arriving enemy. What hard work it must have been for the Anzac soldiers to hike uphill with their enemy firing down on them. We talked about how the Anzacs were invading another country and that the Turks were simply trying to protect their country. 

It was surprising to see some old war relics that had turned up in a farmer's fields. Apparently, every year items from the battle of Gallipoli are found, including old water canteens, shells, and sometimes, human bones. 

The documentary that we have begun to watch can be found below...