Text announcing requirement to enrol, and the consequences of failure to do so. Employers were forbidden to employ those who had not enrolled; nor were they permitted to employ deserters.
Inscriptions: Recto - bottom right: Malcolm Fraser, Government Statistician.
1 color photo-mechanical print | Letterpress work, 765 x 504 mm.
Mavi Boncuk |
New Zealand troops made their first major effort of the First World War during the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The Allies hoped to seize control of the strategic Dardanelles Strait and open the way for their naval forces to attack Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire.
Allied forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April. British (and later French) forces made the main landing at Cape Helles on the southern tip of Gallipoli, while the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed midway up the peninsula. Sent 2 km north of their intended landing place, they encountered determined Ottoman forces in the rugged country above the beach (soon known as Anzac Cove). Unable to make any significant advance, the Anzacs spent the next few days desperately holding onto their small beachhead.
The naval attack began on 19 February 1915. While the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles fell within a week, the Ottoman defences inside the straits proved tougher to crack. Attempts by British and French warships to clear the underwater mines and knock out the coastal batteries ended in disaster – a final attack on 18 March saw three battleships sunk by mines. These minefields remained a barrier to Allied progress.
Rather than concede defeat, the Allies despatched a ground force which was to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula and capture the prominent Kilid Bahr plateau, west of the Narrows. From there, they could destroy Ottoman defensive positions on both sides of the straits, which would allow the naval operation to proceed. Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the new Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF), assumed responsibility for organising and planning the invasion.
Hamilton assembled his forces in Egypt. As well as a single British division sent out from England – the 29th – the forces at Hamilton’s disposal included the Anzac troops in Egypt, a makeshift Royal Naval Division of sailors and Royal Marines, a French colonial division from North Africa, and a small Indian expeditionary force. Of the 75,000 men in the MEF, almost half were serving in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), which consisted of the 1st Australian Division (commanded by Major-General William Bridges) and the composite New Zealand and Australian Division (Major-General Sir Alexander Godley). The New Zealanders and Australians had been training in Egypt since December 1914, in preparation for service on the Western Front. The decision to invade the Gallipoli Peninsula changed all that.
Hamilton spent the next month finalising his plan for the landing – not an easy task, given the rough nature of the peninsula’s coastline. He decided to focus his attack on Cape Helles at the southern tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, where British forces would land at five separate beaches. At the same time, French colonial troops would launch a diversionary attack at Kum Kale on the Asiatic side of the straits.
The ANZAC, under the command of Lieutenant-General William Birdwood, would make a separate landing midway up the peninsula near Gaba Tepe (Kabatepe). Their job was to secure key points in the Sari Bair Range and then capture Mal Tepe, a hill overlooking the main road running from north to south down the peninsula. This would allow them to prevent Ottoman reinforcements reaching Helles. Only the New Zealand Infantry Brigade (led by Brigadier-General Francis Johnston) would be involved in this attack – the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (Brigadier-General Andrew Russell) remained in Egypt.
Defending the Gallipoli Peninsula were six infantry divisions (around 80,000 men) and support units of the Ottoman Fifth Army. Turkish troops made up the majority of the Ottoman units, but Arab infantry regiments also played a significant role in the defence of the peninsula.
The invasion would be a tough task for Hamilton’s force. Under-strength and under-equipped, the ad hoc MEF had had little time to prepare for the landings. While senior British generals such as Lord Kitchener still had doubts about the MEF’s military capabilities, they felt it would be good enough against a ‘second-rate’ opponent like the Ottomans.
Originally scheduled for 23 April, the invasion was delayed for two days by bad weather. On Sunday 25 April, the MEF launched its invasion of the Dardanelles. First ashore was the ANZAC, which had moved forward to the nearby Greek island of Lemnos from Egypt in mid-April. From Lemnos, warships and merchant ships transported the troops to the landing zone, where they were loaded into ships’ longboats that were towed inshore by steamboats before rowing to the beaches. The ANZAC landing site was Z Beach (later known as Brighton Beach), a 2700-m front north of the Gaba Tepe headland.
EXCERPT SOURCE
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