The Role Of Communication In Gallipoli

Are the outcomes of war determined by the commanding officers, or other outside factors? Aging generals and poor communication were large factors at Gallipoli and may have been the difference between victory and defeat in many cases. Another component of the war at the peninsula was the hostile terrain. Nasty cliffs and plants were the least of the worries for soldiers at the Gallipoli peninsula. Traditional, archaic generals, inefficient methods of dealing with wounded, and ruthless terrain would spell disaster for British, French, and Australian troops at the invasion of Gallipoli. With generals retired since the 1880’s, command was very aged and unprepared for World War One in 1915. The average age for officers at Gallipoli was well over
In the heat of battle, without effective delivery from officers, soldiers would have no idea what to do, and many lives were wasted in the hiccup between command and the front lines. With ships out at sea providing artillery support to the soldiers on the ground, calculations and positions had to be exact, or the ships would be bombing their own men. “Eventually I found a battalion signaler...this pathetic little ‘flag-waggler’...the ship’s guns mercifully lifted their sights soon after.”(Van Emden 167) Radio and signaling were very crude on the battlefields of WW1. Morse code was the main source of communication, being sent by a number of different devices. ‘Begbie Lamps’ were large, kerosene lamps used to pass morse code by series of flashes, and were mostly used at night and between ships at sea. Flag-Signaling was used as well, but not as prevalently because of its complex interpretation and use. The biggest asset to the troops on the front lines was the ‘trench phone’ or telephone: “Telephones were placed in different units and connected by wires to the same switchboard. This allowed soldiers on different parts of the battlefield to communicate with each other, but the system could easily fail if the wires snapped or were broken by the enemy.”(BBC Schools WW1) It wasn’t uncommon for radio wires to be broken. Wires were usually strewn along the ground in haste to
As soldiers landed from their boats, they were suddenly faced with sheer precipices up to 200 feet high, with only a few narrow trails leading up. This in itself was an incredible feat, but to add to the endeavor, waves of enemy gunfire ravaged through the ranks of British, French, and Australian troops that landed on these beaches. Nasty drop offs and ravines were rampant along the shore of Gallipoli: “I burst through the scrub and found myself on the edge of a steep ravine...landed like a sack of spuds...as I stopped, the earth I dislodged came tumbling after me.”(Van Emden 94) Troops had to be careful about their steps or could risk falling up to 80 feet into a steep valley. Inland, conditions only got worse with vile plants equipped with spines and snaking roots. Searing heat and dust were also a toil for soldiers in the trenches. When it did rain, because the few trees and shrubs had been rooted out due to artillery, the ground would turn to mud and slosh, making way for diseases like trench foot: “The weather affected the soldiers by the continued dampness...caused the injuries to become more infected as they didn’t have a dry environment to heal in.”(Trench Warfare) The rain combined with the chalky soil of the peninsula created hell on earth for the soldiers on the front lines. The harsh terrain of Gallipoli was a heavy factor in the results of the fighting