Turkish tragedy

John Glazebrook’s claims that the Allied invasion of Turkey in 1915 was unwarranted and the campaign was a comprehensive defeat and that most Australians did not support the WWI effort are quite untrue.
It was Turkey that declared war on the Allies and not the reverse.
In the course of the Gallipoli campaign Turkey suffered over three quarters of a million casualities.
Allied casualties were about half this figure.
And whereas the Allies were able to absorb their losses and fight on to victory, the Turkish Army stumbled on to eventual disintegration and defeat.
In 1914 almost all Australians supported the Allied cause but inevitably as time went on an increasing number felt that Australia had done enough.
Nevertheless in 1917 the great majority still supported Australia’s participation – the issue was over whether this should extend to sending conscripts overseas to fight.
The Allied failure at Gallipoli was a tragedy all round for had Turkey been defeated in 1915 the war would have ended at least a year earlier and Turkey would have been spared a further three years of war.
Richard Bailey,
Dandenong.