Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears, your sons are now lying in our bosoms and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they become our sons as well.

Kemal Ataturk, 1934

Galipoljska bitka jedna je od najkrvavijih bitaka Prvog svjetskog rata. Vodila se od 25. travnja 1915. do 6. siječnja 1916. Odluku da se desantom osvoji Galipoljski poluotok saveznički zapovjednici su donijeli nakon niza uzaludnih pokušaja bombardiranja s mora po vanjskim utvrdama koje su štitile ulaz u tjesnac Dardaneli.

Osvajanjem poluotoka Saveznici bi sebi omogućili pristup Carigradu, s konačnim ciljem njegovog zauzimanja, čime bi se iz daljnjeg toka rata izbacilo Osmansko Carstvo i ponovno otvorila ruta za opskrbu Rusije.

Snage Antante su mahom sačinjavale trupe Britanskog Carstva izvan Engleske (Irska, Australija i Novi Zeland) koje su činili dobrovoljci i neredovna vojska, što se ranije smatralo za jedan od glavnih razloga katastrofalnog poraza Saveznika. Danas se smatra da razlog potpune propasti invazije leži u nizu grešaka koje su načinili zapovjednici operacije.

Tursku vojsku je predvodio Kemal Atatürk, kasniji utemeljitelj turske republike te njen prvi predsjednik, koji je svoj vojni ugled stekao upravo na bojnom polju kod Galipolja.

Danas Galipolje u Australiji i Novom Zelandu predstavlja simbol velikog, nepotrebnog i uzaludnog stradanja, te se u tim zemljama 25. travnja svake godine obilježava Anzac Day, spomen na žrtve Galipolja.

Osim pod nazivom Galipoljska bitka ova se bitka još zove, prema turskim izvorima, Çanakkale Savaşları, "Bitke kod Čanakkale" (prema gradu Çanakkale na južnoj azijskoj strani Dardanela) te Dardanelles Campaign, "Dardanelski pohod", prema američkim izvorima.

O bitci je snimljeno nekoliko filmova, od kojih je Galipolje, australskog redatelja Petera Weira, zasigurno najpoznatiji.

Imaš li podatke koje su to greške načinili zapovjednici Antante da su ih koštale ovog poraza?

The tragic failure of the Gallipoli campaign was due to improper planning and management. London's failure to commit unreservedly led to a compromise between inaction and effecting a proper campaign: this meant that there was insufficient reconnaissance of geography and defences on the peninsula. The combination of this and insufficient resources meant that as one section of a plan failed a new plan would be devised to compensate: procedure was formulated almost as events themselves unfolded. This is a reflection of how rushed and unplanned this first ever amphibious attack was: Barnett states in no uncertain terms "... everything about the campaign was too improvised, too unrehearsed, for it to have a chance of success..." This is largely an indication of the mismanagement of the campaign – commanders constantly gave and withdrew their support, troops, and ideas, and there was no single overall commander willing to take responsibility. Barnett states this as the lack of an "experienced and combined headquarters" that allowed the campaign to go so wrong. This view is shared by Steel in his modern evaluation of the operation: "The British lost the Gallipoli campaign not on the beaches... but in London." The terrible conditions at Gallipoli were not instrumental in the failure of the campaign, however, if troops had not been in such depleted numbers and in such low morale, the front could perhaps have been sustained rather than lost. The issue of the success of the landings presents a paradox: the incomplete naval campaign meant that the military advances could never succeed as the Turkish forts were far too well defended to be taken by troops alone, and the incomplete military campaign meant that the Navy could not advance as the forts continued to fire upon the minesweepers. This represents the essence of why the Gallipoli campaign failed: the command could not cooperate to coordinate an attack due to inadequate planning, therefore the German reinforced Turkish defence did not have any difficulty in repelling disorganized attacks. The severe mismanagement of the initial stages led to the failure of the campaign.