100 Events of the Gallipoli Campaign
November–December 1915
4 November 1915
Lord Kitchener, refusing initially to accept the advice to evacuate, dismissed General Monro and appointed Lieutenant-General Sir William Birdwood as commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Kitchener then left London to see Gallipoli for himself.
12 November 1915
On 12, 13 and 14 November Lord Kitchener inspected positions at Helles, Anzac and Suvla.
15 November 1915
Winston Churchill, one of the main architects of the Gallipoli campaign, resigned from the British Government and went to serve with the British army in France.
Four calendar months since we landed on Gallipoli and not much progress made yet.
17 November 1915
A gale smashed landing piers at Helles and Anzac. Captain Pawson, the Military Landing Officer at Helles, wrote:
All along the beach above the roar of the waves could be heard the crash of the great barges as the sea hurled them again and again against the shore.
22 November 1915
Lord Kitchener advised that Gallipoli should be evacuated. This would involve taking off more than 93,000 troops, 200 guns and more than 5,000 animals as well as vast quantities of stores and ammunition.
27 November 1915
On 27 and 28 November, severe rain and thunderstorms, which turned into blizzards, hit Gallipoli. More than 280 men died and there were 16,000 cases of frostbite and exposure.
7 December 1915
Although local planning had been proceeding since 22 November, the British government finally gave approval for the evacuation of the Anzac and Suvla positions. Helles was to be retained for the moment.
19 December 1915
On the night of 19–20 December, the last Anzac and British troops were evacuated from Suvla and Anzac. The evacuation of these positions over the preceding two weeks had taken place virtually without casualties.
23 December 1915
Gunner James Twamley, 22, Royal Field Artillery, died of wounds at Helles. On his grave in Lancashire Landing Cemetery his family placed this inscription:
Only a boy but a British boy
The son of a thousand years.