Gallipoli Stereotypes

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The Gallipoli campaign failed for the Anzacs even if the overall objective of taking out the Ottoman Empire was ultimately achieved. It was one of the biggest allied disasters of the First World War. The Central Powers were meant to be taken out, and shipping lanes through the Dardanelles were meant to be opened up for the Russians. 200,000 Allied Power officers and men lost their lives between April 2015 and January 2016, and these losses severely affected the Australians as a young nation. The ground-breaking campaign began with an attempt to force the Dardanelles via naval power unaccompanied but early assaults on the coastal harbors failed and on 18 March 1915, three Allied battleships were lost to Turkish mines. General Sir Ian Hamilton…show more content…
It put Australia’s stance on the Earth as something we can be proud of. Usually, soldiers would have stereotypical features that are the same found in the civilization in which they are from. This arises a number of stereotypes for soldiers of each nation. The Australians are known as the ‘digger’ which came about from the events at Gallipoli. Digger is the term used to describe the stereotype of a patriotic Australian family man who has momentarily become a solider and has spent his civilian life in a rural area (The Anzac Legend, n.d, P.01). There were typically five ‘digger-like’ qualities that set the ANZACs apart from soldiers of other nations which include the ability to remain cheerful in the most difficult of times, being resourceful even when lacking supplies, the spirit of mateship in which a solider would risk his own life for his mate’s, Australian courage was shown on the very first landing at Anzac Cove where the soldiers never stopped charging up the beach straight into the Turkish fire, and the notion that everyone deserves the same amount of respect (The Anzac Legend, n.d, P.01). The Australian soldiers found that these strong characteristics and stereotypes arose during the Gallipoli campaign in the most difficult of…show more content…
Many historians have had their say on the Gallipoli campaign. Australian Professor at The University of Adelaide Trevor Wilson believed that, if looked at on a broad scale, the Gallipoli Campaign had almost no chance of success. “The Gallipoli peninsular, with its narrow beaches, sheer cliffs, commanding ridges and high peaks, happens to be a defender’s dream”. The only way he believed the campaign would have succeeded was if the Turks were taken by surprise or were highly demoralized. Another historian perspective was one from the Turkish side, through A. Mete Tuncoku of Middle East Technical University. He, backed up by a diary entry by Mustafa Kemal, believed the Turkish troops won the battle because reinforcements were brought immediately when the few soldiers were trying to fight back at the ANZACs. “Because the Australians, when they saw that the Turks were fighting from up in the hills, they thought that there were a great number of Turks there so they hesitated and they stopped. That was a mistake on their part”. Mustafa Kemal’s famous orders before the attack were ‘I’m not ordering you to attack, I’m ordering you to die’. Which meant that you will either win or die, there isn’t a third alternative. Tuncoku went on to say that dying for
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