Today is Anzac Day. And while waiting for press coverage of Mary honoring that day at the military HQ in Copenhagen, Kastellet. (Mary knows the place very well as it is relatively close to Amalienborg and she is sometimes seen jogging there. Not to mention when she and the rest of the DRF honor Danish fallen there).
I thought I would give a brief background info on Gallipoli and why it is so important and I hope resident Australians and New Zealanders will forgive any mistakes I make. - Not to mention Britons, French, Indians and not least Turks who fought there as well.
In 1915 the war in France had come to a stalemate. The casualties were mounting, without any real gains and there were no real prospects of any progress.
At the same time the war in Russia was going badly. Russia was in desperate need of supplies not least weapons. Murmansk wasn't at that point the best choice as a port to bring in supplies, nor was Vladivostok. The Russian infrastructure simply wasn't efficient enough to transport huge amounts of supplies that long.
Churchill, who was Minister of the Navy at that time, then proposed to open a third front in Turkey. Preferably to knock Turkey out of the war, but also to ensure that supplies could be shipped through the Dardanelles and into the Black Sea and then on to Russia. A secondary aim was to divert German and Austrian resources from the Eastern and Western fronts to Turkey.
The first attempt was for a fleet to blast their way through the Dardanelles, because Turkey had forts in place there to protect the strait.
That didn't work. The Germans had send advisors to Turkey and under their guidance the forts had been reinforced, strengthened and better led. Combined with sea mines the French-British fleet suffered crippling casualties and had to withdraw.
Reluctantly it was then decided to send in an army to take the forts and eventually Constantinople and thus secure the Dardanelles on land.
Australian and New Zealand troops were among those especially selected for the job. Because Australians and New Zealanders were used to the climate and the distance to transport them was shorter and a lot safer, than from Britain. But also British and French troops were used, including troops from the various colonies.
In 1915 they waded ashore to establish the initial bridgehead at Gallipoli, that even today is a pretty godforsaken place. From here the offensive against the forts would be launched. They met with little and sometimes no resistance. And here the curse of inexperienced leadership set in. The front commanders didn't know what to do, and did nothing. In the meantime the very few Turkish forces in the area got time to reorganize a solid albeit thin defense. And here the father of modern Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, distinguished himself. He among others managed to hold the line until reinforcements arrived. And now no breakthrough was possible.
Just as on the Western Front soldiers were poured into Gallipoli for months without being able to accomplish much. Barbed wire and machine guns made movement next to impossible and not least decease took a horrific toll among the Allied troops in particular.
The Allies clinghed on to a very thin stretch of land along the bridgehead, constantly harassed by artillery fire, snipers and not least flies, with hardly any place at all being safe. Exposed to a blistering heat and at some point a freezing torrential rain where many drowned in their foxholes, the conditions were atrocious.
Eventually it was decided to pull out. And when the last bridgehead was evacuated it happened in the dead of night without casualties. In military terms an almost unheard feat!
Winston Churchill resigned as Minister and joined the fighting on the Western Front.
This was the first large war where Australia and New Zealand joined "the Mother-country" as nations and as practially all Australians and New Zealanders knew someone (or several!) who fought and/or died at Gallipoli that campaign become formative for the national characters of these two countries. For Briton and France, Gallipoli was more like "just another bloody campaign".
It also became the beginning of modern Turkey. By 1914 the Ottoman Empire was weak, in practically every way and also oldfashioned. Gallipoli was one if the campaigns that broke the Ottoman Empire and from the ashes rose Turkey. A modern secular Turkey with drive, led by Kemal Atatürk.
Anzac, for those who don't know, was an abbreviation for Australian New Zealand Army Corps. A term Australian and New Zealand forces have used with pride ever since.
Happy Posting! 
Not that I know of. She might have gone to the Australian embassy but I can't recall that ever being mentioned.
