So far on this thread there is not one single mention of the British and other Allied lives that were lost in this campaign - they far outnumbered the Australian and New Zealand losses. The battle at Achi Babba was the greatest loss of life suffered in one single day throughout the First World War for my own home town. The loss is remembered on the 12th of July every year. The address read out on the first anniversary in 1916 eleven days after the opening of the Battle of the Somme (worst casualties ever suffered by the british army in one day) gives an extremely stark rebuttle of claims that people were conned into fighting and lied to.

The Dardanelles Campaign on two occasions came close to success and in concept in 1915, had it succeeded, it would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The worst Australian casualties were the result of attacks planned and executed by Australian Officers NOT British.

Bogle's song "And the Band played Waltzing Matilda" written with the advantage of 20x20 hindsight is riddled with inaccuracies and errors but played to popular misconceptions rather than fact - he did rather well out of it.

"It's well I remember that terrible day,
When our blood stained the sand and the water.
And how in that hell we called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter"

Now some facts for the readers of this thread:

1. The landing at Suvla Bay on the 6th August 1915 was virtually unopposed. The few that did die were as a result of drowning and by mine.

2. NOT ONE Australian life was lost at Suvla as ALL the troops involved were British.

3. Total Allied casualties for the Gallipoli Campaign were 187,959 – 64% of them were British compared to 15% Australian and 4% New Zealand

4. Total number killed during the Gallipoli Campaign was 56,707 – 60% of them were British

5.Total number wounded during the Gallipoli Campaign was 123,598 – 64% of them were British.

6. To read this thread it would appear that only the Australians and the Kiwis fought in Gallipoli, whereas the truth was, on the Allied side, troops from Great Britain, France, India and Newfoundland also fought there.

Our next door neighbour 'Pops' Collier fought at Gallipoli with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and then went on to fight in Palestine during the First World War. He became my surrogate Grandfather when my own paternal Grandfather died when I was four years old, a gentler and kinder man you could not wish to meet. He talked about his experiences and was full of admiration for the courage and tenacity of the Turkish troops he fought against, but good though they were he also ended his tales with "They couldn't stop us. We beat them in the end".