What if the British government decided that Gallipoli was simply too big of risk to take and decided not to allow the venture to take place? Would they try a landing somewhere else or would the resources simply go into reinforcing the other fronts?
Australia and New Zealand continue to hold the Empire in high regard. It was the casualties that ANZAC suffered during the Gallipoli campaign that really started national consciousness and damaged British prestige in the eyes of their colonies.
Australia and New Zealand both suffered far higher casualties on the western front than Gallipoli, if it wasn’t Gallipoli it’d be Passchendaele or any one of a dozen other battles that would be principally remembered instead; Gallipoli was just the first.
You're right about that. But Gallipoli really shook their confidence in the Empire, both Australia and New Zealand. Yes, they had horrible casualties in the Western Front, but Gallipoli really showed them that the Empire wasn't infallible.
Loss of Singapore and Britain's single minded focus on Europe, despite the Japanese risk
Not really surprising as Nazi Germany was a direct threat to Britain's very survival which Japan wasn't.
Gallipoli worked out very badly, but it wasn't foredoomed to failure. The Turks placed a few mines in the Dardanelles at the last minute...
Whether it was the first step for Australlia and NZ to re-evaluate the idea of the British empire is probably the most important outcome of the entire affair.
So, The consequence of no Gallipoli might have been less animosity in Aus and NZ,but then it would have been somethign else having triggered it (Paschendale as mentioned above).
As mentioned before, there was no significant in Australia and New Zealand with the British Empire after the First World War. Conscription caused more disunity.
Sure, but at that point in time Britain was the centre of empire with clear mutual obligations to the various members of the Empire, who incidentally had delivered consistently upon their side of the bargain. NZ and Australia for example had sent the the vast majority of their deployable forces to the European theatre by 1940. The barrell was pretty much nearly empty by the time the Japanese threat was recognised
Also, the current 21st century version of the nation state is a little different from the 1939 version. The notion of British identity as a shared identity between those in Britain and those in NZ, Australia, Canada etc was standard
Well, i do believe that the original plan had been to land at Alexandretta, then probably the Ottoman Empires most important rail junction, instead of Gallipoli. Probably a far more sensible option in hindsight.
There was no question that the Fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the U-Boat War, and the Battles in North Africa indicated where the danger lay at first. But once the Japanese occupied Indo-China, putting them in air range of Singapore, the danger there became obvious to anyone. Anyone but Winston Churchill. Throughout Churchill's life, he had developed strong personal ties of one kind or another to all parts of the English-speaking world. Except Australia and New Zealand! His war planning right through VJ-Day revealed this.
Despite the loss of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, the Solomons, and most of New Guinea, Churchill refused to countenance the sending to Australia of a single British warship, RAF fighter squadron, or British Army division. He even refused to release the ANZAC troops fighting in North Africa,* and spent his time reinforcing India, under remote threat, rather than Australia, under comparatively severe threat.
In April of 1942 the British Indian Ocean fleet retreated all the way to Kenya, but when Admiral King one month later asked that ONE of the three carriers off Africa be sent to Australia the British refused.Yet Churchill insisted on sending 5 carriers to go fight the Japanese off Formosa in 1945.
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*-It took the direct intervention of Prime Minister Curtin to get just two divisions, the 6th and 7th Australian Infantry, to Australia. And twice during their journey Churchill tried to re-route the convoy to Rangoon! Even though the convoy wasn't combat-loaded.![]()