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“The World Crisis” (6) Lessons of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli
Hillsdale Dialogues: The World Crisis
Continued from The World Crisis (5)
The Hillsdale Dialogues are weekly broadcasts of discussions between Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn and commentator Hugh Hewitt. In 2023-24 they held an extended discussion of Churchill’s The World Crisis, his classic memoir of the First World War. This accompanying essay describes what Churchill learned from the Dardanelles and Gallipoli: factors that influenced his future conduct of war. (Parenthetic page references are from The World Crisis, vol. 2, 1915 (New York: Rosetta Books, 2013.) To search for all World Crisis essays published to date, click here. We strongly recommend listening to the relevant discussions:
Audio (World Crisis Dialogue 18): The Dardanelles and Gallipoli Strategy in Retrospect
Audio (World Crisis Dialogue 20): What Churchill Learned from 1915
“To All Who Tried”
Winston Churchill always learned from misfortune, and avoided making the same mistake twice. He certainly regarded the Dardanelles – Gallipoli affair as his worst experience. “I was ruined for the time being in 1915 over the Dardanelles,” he wrote. “[A] supreme enterprise was cast away, through my trying to carry out a major and cardinal operation of war from a subordinate position. Men are ill-advised to try such ventures. This lesson had sunk into my nature.”31
He never did that again. When the Second World War found him at the pinnacle, he appointed himself Minister of Defence. This newly conceived position ensured that he could direct military operations with plenary authority.
As Defence Minister, Churchill asked pointed questions over detailed operations, even exercises. He demanded succinct answers before granting his approval.32 But which leadership qualities did he apply?
Churchill dedicates Volume 2 of The World Crisis “To All Who Tried.”33 Here is a crucial lesson for his readers: A risk-free mission of war does not exist. We must do the best we can—that is all anyone can do. War, he writes, “is a business of terrible pressures, and persons who take part in it must fail if they are not strong enough to withstand them.” (126) The World Crisis offers four attributes of success in war: action, ownership, perseverance and compassion.
Action
Throughout the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns Churchill emphasized the need for decisive action. He lamented the delays and indecision of both the British Admiralty and the Army but did not wallow in setbacks. He continued to seek solutions, pursuing victory despite disappointments and failures:
Nothing leads more surely to disaster than that a military plan should be pursued with crippled steps and in a lukewarm spirit in the face of continual nagging within the executive circle…. Every war decision must be forced to a clear-cut issue, and no thought of personal friendship or political unity can find any place in such a process. The soldiers who are ordered to their deaths have a right to a plan, as well as a cause (378-79).
Where there is appreciation for the sanctity of human life, decisions to send soldiers into war bear great gravity. Debates delay action, costing precious opportunities. Churchill continually prodded the Triple Entente—Britain, France, Russia—to take swift action.
By the end of 1914, the Great War was at a stalemate on both the Eastern and Western fronts. The British navy had made little progress the seas, while German submarines remained a serious threat. Churchill began to seek a naval offensive that would advance the Entente position.
At first, Churchill suggested launching a powerful naval attack against the North German coast. The Admiralty resisted, preferring to wait for the German High Seas Fleet to sally forth for a crucial battle. Churchill shifted focus to the Ottoman Empire, settling on a naval offensive against Turkey. When land forces were added, this became Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaign.
“Not to persevere—that was the crime”
Many have condemned the Dardanelles operation as reckless. While it certainly involved risk, it also had great potential. It could ease pressure on Russia, separate the Turks from their German-Austrian allies. Potentially it might garner new allies in Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
Admiral Fisher, Churchill’s First Sea Lord, initially supported the campaign, but quickly soured, preferring to wait for larger forces. Churchill later rejected that approach. “Searching my heart,” he concluded, “I cannot regret the effort. It was good to go as far as we did. Not to persevere—that was the crime.” (129)
Churchill also wrote of a great “number of persons who were in favour of the Dardanelles operations and claimed to have contributed their initiation.” (147) Alas, hesitation impeded progress at every step. Churchill feared that delays would cost lives and jeopardize the entire operation. He concluded that delays doomed the campaign. Decisive action is critical in war.
Ownership
Effective leadership demands ownership of a battle plan. After the landings on Gallipoli in April 1915, distrust and disagreements grew within the government. Fisher now insisted that he had been opposed to the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns from their conception and ordered that the ships return to Britain.
But as Churchill informed Prime Minister Asquith, Fisher had agreed to every executive telegram, and would have received credit for any success. “I wish now to make it clear to you,” Churchill wrote, “that a man who says, ‘I disclaim responsibility for failure,’ cannot be the final arbiter of the measures which may be found to be vital to success.” (275)
Fisher resigned from the Admiralty and left government—an action Churchill would not consider taking himself. “To withdraw now cannot be contemplated,” he declared. (282)
Even after being dismissed from the Admiralty, Churchill did what he could to support the Dardanelles and Gallipoli actions. He received relentless criticism, yet accepted responsibility and tried to work through past mistakes. Accepting ownership, whatever the result, left him better equipped to serve the nation in the future.
Perseverance
Throughout The World Crisis, Churchill exhibited an ability to persevere and sacrifice. Despite the apparent failings of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, and critics’ subsequent attacks, fear of failure did not cripple him. While he saw some point in it, he continued to serve within the government. He expressed confidence and hope: “We are passing through a bad time now, and it will probably be worse before it is better, but that it will be better, if we only endure and persevere, I have no doubt whatever.” (283) He had learned that success demands sacrifice, but perseverance endures.
Compassion
Periodically Churchill is condemned for being inhumane and unmerciful in war, charges that are hard to defend in view of his repeated stress on the sanctity of human life. Lord Fisher once suggested that the British kill one German prisoner for every civilian killed by German bombs. Churchill responded vividly:
I, on the other hand, felt sympathy for these helpless people—“puppets of fate” as one of them mournfully described himself—and had from the very beginning of the war urged publicly a merciful attitude towards them. Shooting them in droves or threatening to do so would not make the slightest difference to the German action and would only stain our reputation. (42)
Where there is a value for human life, military decisions have greater weight. Soldiers will die, families will lose their protectors and providers. Citizens will hold their leaders responsible. Leaders often disagree on the proper course of action; yet they should act so as to preserve as many lives as possible. For Churchill, the desire to spare life extended to the enemy. This was not too common a characteristic—then or now.
Ruthlessness and mercy are not in opposition, Churchill’s official biographer Martin Gilbert observes: “One essential feature of Churchill’s war leadership was his ability to act with decision and, if necessary, with ruthlessness.” Yet, Gilbert adds, his “ruthlessness was tempered with compassion.”34 Writing his memoirs of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, Churchill added a marginal note, a Turkish saying: “History is ruthless to those who lack ruthlessness.”35
Conclusion
While Churchill dedicated his second volume of The World Crisis “To All Who Tried,” he did not write for the victors of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli operations. Victory is never certain, and in this case it was denied; yet defeat is not final. Churchill wrote instead for those who fought and sacrificed for a mission greater than themselves.
Sacked from the Admiralty in May 1915, Churchill wrote the Prime Minister: “I will accept any office—the lowest if you like—that you care to offer me, and will continue to serve in it in this time of war until the affairs in which I am deeply concerned are settled satisfactorily, as I think they will be.”36
He meant that, and accepted a sinecure position for a few months. Eventually realizing he had done all he could in the government, he resigned and joined his Regiment in Flanders.
Despite defeat, Churchill knew that the ultimate mission still stood. His duty unfinished, like a good soldier, he kept marching.
Endnotes
31 Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour (London: Cassell, 1949), 15.
32 For a striking example see Churchill’s queries on the 1941 invasion exercise “Victor” in Eliot Cohen, “Churchill and His Military Commanders,” Hillsdale College Churchill Project, 2016.
33 Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 2, 1915, (New York: Rosetta Books, 2013), 4. Further page references to this work are in parentheses.
34 Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill’s War Leadership (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 84.
35 Ibid.
36 Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1991), 320.
The author
Keara Gentry, ’25 is a Winston Churchill Fellow studying history and military history and grand strategy at Hillsdale College. Currently living in Phoenix, Arizona, Keara enjoys hiking, exploring museums and road trips with friends.
Continued in The World Crisis (7)