The Gallipoli campaign, the Dardanelles campaign, the Defence of Gallipoli or the Battle of Gallipoli was a military campaign in the First World War on the Gallipoli peninsula from 19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916. The Entente powers, Britain, France and the Russian Empire, sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the Ottoman straits. This would expose the Ottoman capital at Constantinople to bombardment by Entente battleships and cut it off from the Asian part of the empire. With the Ottoman Empire defeated, the Suez Canal would be safe and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits would be open to Entente supplies to the Black Sea and warm-water ports in Russia.
A collection of photographs from the campaign. From top and left to right: Ottoman commanders including Mustafa Kemal (fourth from left); Entente warships; V Beach from the deck of SS River Clyde; Ottoman soldiers in a trench; and Entente positions
Panoramic view of the Entente fleet in the Dardanelles
French troops land at Lemnos, 1915.
Australian troops, Port Mudros, Greece, 20 April 1915
A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps.
A Priest 105mm self-propelled gun of British 3rd Infantry Division, 1944
Members of the Australian 6th Division at Tobruk, 22 January 1941
Headquarters of 11th Infantry Division of Bangladesh Army near Bogra
British soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division engage Iraqi Army positions with their 81mm mortar in Iraq, 26 March 2003.
