By late 1914 trenches cut through Europe, from the Switzerland border to the English channel, the western front had reached a stalemate. Allied forces were interested in opening supply routes to Russia to relieve pressure on the western front, no safe land passage was available as the roads to Russia were blocked by the Central Powers. The only other trade route was by sea, the White Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk were too far from the Eastern Front, the Baltic Sea was controlled by German Naval forces and the only entrance to the Black sea was through Ottoman controlled Dardanelles which until their entrance into the war trade was able to be sent through to Russia.
Map of Dardanelles
British naval power seemed to be the answer as the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill who suggested the attack on the Dardanelles. Churchill's’ aim was to gain a supply route to Russia by sea and a quick end to the war. Creating another front in Turkey would cause the Germans to split their troops to be able to fight on both fronts significantly weakening their armies power in the Eastern and Western fronts, also supplying food and weapons to the Russian army who didn't have enough for their large army.
On the 3rd on November 1914 Churchill ordered a naval bombardment of Gallipoli and forts placed along the Dardanelles before war against the Ottomans was announced.After these attacks the Turks improve defenses to prepare the Dardanelles for British naval attack by laying minefields, placing wire along the beaches and preparing strategies for future attack. When the stalemate in Europe continued Churchill pushed for an attack on Gallipoli to encourage Italy to enter the war on Allied side and to prevent an eastern attack on Austria-Hungary from the Balkans, the war council approved an attack on Gallipoli on the 15th of January 1915.
In February Churchill ordered 2 unsuccessful naval attacks on the Dardanelles on the 19th and 25th of February 1915, Turkish improved defenses proved a threat to naval attack with 3 ships being lost to the minefields. After the naval attacks failure the war council decided that a land campaign was needed to eliminate the Ottomans man powered defense of minefields guarded by machine guns and mobile field guns to make way for large ships and artillery to gain control of Constantinople and the Dardanelles.
Sir Ian Hamilton
Sir Ian Hamilton was appointed to command the Mediterranean expeditionary force consisting of over 75,000 men from France, United Kingdom and several parts of the British Empire, among this force was the combined New Zealand and Australian forces called ANZAC.