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==Background==
The First World War, began in the Autumn of 1914 when the German army invaded first Belgium and then France. The pushed on to the River Marne, only a short distance from the French capital and probably victory. The German advance was halted by the French army at the First Battle of the Marne. The entire might of the French army was required to beat back the German advance<ref> Keegan, John, The First World War (MacMillan, London, 1998), p. 134 </ref>. The Allied counterattack also came to a halt and by the winter of 1914, the war on the western front had become a bloody stalemate. The situation on the eastern front was somewhat similar. In the autumn of 1914, the Russian army had invaded Prussia from the Baltic States. Two huge armies poured into the east of Prussia. The German army under Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg defeated these two Russian armies at the Battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lake. The Germans pushed the Russians back but they could not deliver a decisive blow </ref> Keegan, p. 143</re>. The result was that by 1915, the eastern front was a mirror of the western front, when huge armies fought a war of attrition, with huge casualty figures. The Ottoman Empire was the dominant power in the Middle East, but it had been virtually pushed out of the Balkans and was widely seen as a power in irreversible decline. It The Ottoman government had allowed German ships to pass through the strategic Dardanelles and into the Black Sea. This was seen as an act of war and the Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire. In response, the Ottoman Sultan declared a Jihad or a Holy War against the western allies and Russia. A Russian invasion of the eastern provinces of Turkey was defeated but the Turks could not press home their advantagesuccess<ref> Keegan, p. 153</ref>. They also managed to limit the British advances in the Persian Gulf. However, the Ottoman Empire battle conflict with the allies had reached a stalemate by early 1915.
[[File: Gallipoli 1.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Turkish gun at Gallipoli]]
==Strategy of the Allies==
The British and the French were appalled by the bloody battles on the western front. They wanted a way that would allow them to attack the Central Powers and in this way to provide some relief for the hard-pressed British and French troops in Flanders and Northern France. The British suggested that the allies use their naval superiority to inflict a decisive defeat on the Ottoman Empire. The idea of seizing the Dardanelles Straits was soon mooted after the Ottoman Turks joined the war on the side of the Central Powers <ref> Moorehead, Gallipoli. (Ware, Wordsworth, 1987), p. 56</ref>. The British believed that their navy, by far the strongest in the world would be able to land a decisive blow against the Turks. The British navy argued that the allies land a large force of soldiers on the Straits. They would then be in a position to launch an attack on the Ottoman Capital of Constantinople. The stated objectives of the campaign were to secure a sea route to Russian and to protect its southern Black Sea flank. It would also allow the western allies to supply the Russian army with badly needed arms and equipment.
