Gallipoli’s Deep Secrets

On his latest underwater quest the discoverer of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard, explores one of the greatest turning points of the 20th century. In what was to become one of the bloodiest and most futile battles of the modern era, Ballard wants to find out why it went so horribly wrong. But the answers lie not on the battlefields but beneath the waves.

Ballard reveals the story of Gallipoli as it has never been told before. Notorious as a land campaign, Ballard is looking for evidence at the bottom of the sea. There he finds shipwrecks from a David and Goliath contest where the might of an Allied fleet was outwitted by a weakened Ottoman Empire, unleashing a terrible carnage where hundreds of thousands of young lives would be wasted. Early 1915 and the war on the western front was deadlocked. In the fields of France, millions were dying. To break the stalemate an audacious plan was proposed by the British Admiralty, headed by a young and ambitious Winston Churchill. If successful it would have shortened the war saving millions of lives. But it was to fail almost ending Churchill’s career.

First, Ballard finds the ship that started it all, the former German ship, the Breslau. At the start of the war, Turkey was neutral but when they accepted the Breslau into their Navy, Britain declared war on them. A few months later the Gallipoli campaign would begin. In the straits of the Dardanelles, Ballard discovers a battleship that was part of a large Allied fleet that attempted to bowl the Turks over. But the naval battle ended in just one catastrophic day, 3 Allied battleships would be on the bottom of the sea and 3 more crippled. How did a depleted Turkish force defeat the might of an Allied fleet led by the mighty British Navy? As Ballard examines the wreck of HMS Irresistible the answers are revealed.

Joining Ballard for the first time is his 15-year-old son, Ben. It’s a proud moment but also a poignant one as so many lives lost at Gallipoli were young boys including the youngest ever to have served in the Australian forces aged only 14. At the most famous site at Gallipoli Anzac Cove, Ballard discovers a small but significant wreck that helps to unlock the failure of the subsequent land campaign. But amongst the tragedy, Ballard discovers tales of heroism including a lone Australian submarine that achieved what no Allied ship could do - break through the narrows of the Dardanelles. But its success was a double-edged sword. On hearing the news the troops were encouraged to dig in and fight harder. The result was the campaign dragged on for a further 7 months killing hundreds of thousands. By the end of his journey, Ballard has uncovered that every catastrophic turn of the Gallipoli campaign can be traced back to events at sea.

2010 - Broadcaster: History Channel Australia