How bloody was the landing on ANZAC Day?
Just before 4:30 a.m. on 25 April 1915, the boats moved towards the Gallipoli shoreline under a dull grey sky, each one crammed with young men from across Australia and New Zealand.
Most of them had never seen combat and had little idea what to expect other than what they had been told during training.
Within a few hours, the sea ran red in places, bodies lined parts of the beach, and the hope of a quick victory that would settle the campaign early vanished beneath the crack of rifle fire from the cliffs above.
Why were the ANZACs at Gallipoli?
After months of deadlock on the Western Front, Allied planners had searched for an alternative theatre where they could break the military stalemate and force a strategic advantage.
During this period, Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty and proposed a major plan to strike at the Ottoman Empire, which had entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.
He argued that a naval breakthrough at the Dardanelles Strait could open a sea route to Russia and remove the Ottomans from the war, a result that he believed would encourage support from Balkan states.
Initial operations had begun on 19 February 1915, when British and French warships bombarded Ottoman coastal defences along the Dardanelles.
As the campaign progressed, Allied ships had encountered heavier-than-expected resistance.
On 18 March, disaster struck when Turkish mines sank three battleships and forced the rest to retreat under sustained artillery fire.
Due to this failure, naval commanders accepted that control of the straits could not be achieved without seizing the land above them.
Accordingly, the War Office had assembled a new land force under General Sir Ian Hamilton.
Known as the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, it included British, French, Australian, and New Zealand troops, which was tasked to launch a series of amphibious assaults on the Gallipoli Peninsula to destroy Turkish defences and secure the ridgelines above the coast.
As part of this larger plan, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were led by Lieutenant-General William Birdwood and were ordered to land north of Gaba Tepe and capture the Sari Bair heights.
During the planning stage, British officers had often relied on incomplete and outdated maps, and intelligence reports had underestimated both the strength and preparedness of the Ottoman defenders.
According to the operational plan, the ANZACs would land on a relatively open stretch of coastline and advance inland to occupy the key ridges.
In reality, the area was rugged and steep, with dense scrub across the slopes that gave a major advantage to defenders familiar with the terrain.
The ridges rose sharply up to 100 metres from the shore and were covered with gorse and thorny scrub, which restricted movement and blocked clear sight.
As the final days of April approached, ANZAC troops had waited aboard transport ships anchored offshore.
Many of them had believed they would face little opposition once they landed.
Their commanders had assured them the landing would be swift and the Turkish resistance disorganised, and as they came ashore those expectations would vanish within minutes of their arrival.
What happened during the ANZAC Day landings?
At first light on 25 April, the initial assault force began its approach in small boats towed by small steam boats.
Due to a navigational error, the boats drifted slightly north of their planned landing zone and instead approached a rugged inlet that later took the name ANZAC Cove.
The beach lay beneath steep ridges and cliffs, which the Ottoman defenders had already fortified with trenches and hidden rifle pits.
The ANZAC boats came ashore roughly 1.6 kilometres north of their intended target, Brighton Beach, which made the operation harder.
Moments after the first boats reached the shore, Turkish sentries opened fire.
Bullets splashed into the sea, and men fell into the water before they could reach dry land.
Since they carried heavy packs and equipment, many soldiers struggled through the surf and collapsed on the sand.
The beach offered little cover either. The ANZACs pressed inland along narrow gullies such as Shrapnel Gully and Monash Valley, and they climbed toward ridges that were already swept by Ottoman fire.
Throughout the morning, confusion plagued the landing. Units became separated. Officers were killed early or lost contact with headquarters.
Even so, small groups managed to reach the heights of Plugge’s Plateau and Baby 700.
They could not hold those positions for long. Turkish forces were directed by Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal and quickly mounted counterattacks.
He ordered the 57th Infantry Regiment to charge without waiting for reinforcements, and he declared, "I do not order you to attack, I order you to die."
By taking this step, he ensured that the ANZACs could not consolidate their gains.
His 19th Division played a pivotal role in halting the advance.
As more ANZAC troops came ashore, the beach became increasingly crowded.
Wounded men lay among the driftwood, unable to be evacuated under fire.
Ammunition and supplies piled up without coordination. Turkish artillery opened fire on and off during the day, but their forward observation, which was limited at first, reduced their accuracy.
As the day wore on, more batteries found their range and inflicted rising casualties.
Even with such conditions, ANZAC troops continued to fight along a shallow front, and they pushed into hollows and ridgelines in small groups, often without clear orders or support.
By evening, the advance had stalled. The ANZACs held a fragile perimeter no more than a few hundred metres deep.
The higher ground remained in Turkish hands. Some officers expressed concern about the ability to hold the position, but no formal request for immediate withdrawal was made.
General Hamilton rejected the idea and ordered the troops to dig in. Trench lines began to take shape that night as both sides prepared for a prolonged struggle.
The first day of the Gallipoli campaign ended in blood and exhaustion rather than victory.
How many people died during the landings?
During the landing on 25 April 1915, ANZAC forces sustained approximately 2,000 casualties.
This included over 600 men killed in action, with many more wounded or missing.
Among the first ashore, the 3rd Brigade suffered the heaviest losses. The 11th Battalion was drawn largely from Western Australia and lost at least a quarter of its men before midday, and possibly closer to a third.
The 9th and 10th Battalions endured similarly intense fire as they advanced toward Plugge’s Plateau, and the 12th Battalion also formed part of the brigade and endured the same fire with them.
Dozens probably drowned after jumping from the boats under fire. Others died while trying to scale ridges that were swept by bullets and shrapnel.
Medical support had often proved insufficient due to serious planning failures.
Stretcher bearers operated under fire. Many wounded men remained untreated for hours, exposed to the sun and Turkish snipers.
Temporary casualty stations which medical teams hastily established near the beach filled quickly.
Supplies had run short. Some doctors worked with bare hands and improvised tools.
Communication lines had collapsed, and evacuation procedures had broken down, and due to this, even the retrieval of the dead became impossible in many areas.
New Zealand troops came ashore at similar times to the Australians and encountered the same conditions.
As they attempted to move up to support the Australians, they faced intense fire from Turkish positions that held the heights above Chunuk Bair and The Nek.
Several platoons were cut down before reaching their assembly points. Others lost their way in the steep gullies and never reached their objectives.
Ottoman losses on the first day were probably in the thousands. Mustafa Kemal’s 57th Regiment suffered devastating losses and ceased to operate as an effective fighting unit.
Turkish commanders committed wave after wave of reinforcements in a desperate attempt to contain the landing, and they did so with remarkable speed.
Their artillery had been positioned inland but later zeroed in on the beach, and it inflicted heavy damage on supply lines and medical teams.
Even with the high casualties, the defenders held the ridges and succeeded, and they trapped the invaders in a narrow coastal strip.
By nightfall, the beach had become a makeshift hospital and graveyard, with supplies dumped along the sand.
Blood stained much of the sand, and bodies lay sprawled across the gullies. The sea washed over the dead as more boats unloaded the living.
For the ANZACs, the Gallipoli landing became the opening chapter of a drawn-out campaign of slow, exhausting fighting that was fought under impossible conditions and at staggering cost, instead of the start of triumph.