The Gallipoli Campaign, which started on the 25th of April, 1915, was a battle between Australia and New Zealand’s armies against the Turkish forces of the Ottoman Empire in the Gallipoli peninsula. The Allied Forces needed control of the Dardanelles Strait in the Gallipoli peninsula to both attack the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, and to transport supplies and soldiers to the Russian Empire in order to attack and to put strain on Germany. The Australian forces landed in what is now known as Anzac Cove on the 25th of April, and two days later, Turkish soldiers started their assault which lasted for more than eight months, with attacks consisting of constant machinegun fire and many sea-to-land and land-to-sea strikes. During this unending onslaught, Australian soldiers were ordered to dig trenches at the front of the battlefields, to slowly advance towards the Turkish army. Soldiers would lie down and dig the trenches at the same time to avoid being shot. These soldiers would later become known as ‘Diggers’, some of the true heroes of Gallipoli. After hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides, Australian soldiers were completely evacuated from Gallipoli over the course of a few days, in what is considered the biggest failure of the Allied Forces. …show more content…
The Diggers’ persistence and ability to perform when it is required was shaped into the culture and the identity of the Australian people. This became the Anzac Legend. The battle of Gallipoli established the newly-federated nation on an international scale, and also gave Australian citizens something to have pride in: the qualities of the soldiers in the war and their reflection on the