sobre la batalla de Galípoli (1915), una de las más sangrientas de la Primera Guerra Mundial, cantada desde el punto de vista de los jóvenes soldados turcos caídos. Buen ángulo: la misma batalla que en Australia/Nueva Zelanda dio origen al mito ANZAC tiene su propio duelo musical, casi desconocido fuera de Turquía, contado desde el otro bando.
The Battle of Gallipoli was one of the most prominent, bloody, and defining military disasters of World War I.
Fought between February 1915 and January 1916, it pitted the Allied Powers (mainly Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand) against the Ottoman Empire (backed by Germany).
The campaign was heavily championed by Winston Churchill (The Roaring Lion (Y. Karsh, 1941)), who was then the First Lord of the British Admiralty.
The goal was bold: force open the Dardanelles Strait, heavily fortified by the Otomans, capure Istanbul (İstanbul (Not Constantinople) (The Four Lads, 1954)) the Ottoman capital, and knock the empire out of the war, and open a sea route to Russia to send vital supplies and military aid to the Eastern Front.
In March 1915, Allied warships tried to force their way through the strait but were devastated by Ottoman naval mines and hidden artillery cliffs. Several battleships were sunk.
On April 25th 1915 the Allies launched instead amphibious troop landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Led by general Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Ottoman troops held the high ground, and pinned the Allies down on the narrow beaches.
For over eight months, the campaign devolved into horrific trench warfare similar to the Western Front. Soldiers faced extreme heat, swarms of flies, dysentery, rotting corpses, and later, freezing winter blizzards.
By late 1915, the Allies admitted defeat and proceed a stealthy evacuation in December 1915 and January 1916 without any casualty.
Around 500.000 people died, spliting almost equally between both sides.lties split almost equally between both sides.
For Turkey, it was a heroic defense of the homeland which laid the foundations for the Turkish War of Independence and the birth of the Republic of Turkey (Suzerain (2000)).
For Australia and New Zealand (ANZACs) it fostedes a national identity separated from the British Empire. They honor their fallen soldiers on April 25th.
For Britain it was a political catastrophe. Winston Churchill was humiliated and forced to resign from his government post (though he would eventually rebuild his career decades later against Hitler during WWII: The Roaring Lion (Y. Karsh, 1941)).