The 100th anniversary of Anzac Day approaches

On April 25, 1915, Allied assault troops, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey. Their fighting force was 16,000 men against an entrenched 12,000 mostly Turkish fighters. Put ashore one mile north of their intended landing beach and in the pre-dawn darkness, the assault formations became disorganized and failed to achieve their day-one objectives. The beachhead was crowded with scattered troops, wounded and dead on litters, and discarded equipment. In places, men were clinging onto cliff faces for hours under fire. That first day, the Allies lost an estimated 900 troops, with 2000 wounded and 4 taken prisoner. The Turkish suffered over 2000 dead and wounded.

There were several failed attacks and counter-attacks by both sides. The Turks never succeeded in driving the Australians and New Zealanders back into the sea and the Allies never broke out of their beachhead. In December 1915, after eight months of fighting, they evacuated the peninsula. During the entire campaign, 8708 Australians and 2721 New Zealanders were killed. The number of Turkish dead has been estimated at around 87,000.

Beginning in 1916 and every year since, the anniversary of the landing has been commemorated as Anzac Day. (Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.) This year, the flight deck of the USS Midway Museum is the venue for the local Anzac Day service.