Gallipoli campaign
Event in History
Gallipoli campaign has come up in 3 episodes across 1 podcast in TMT, including The Rest Is History. 2 people have made recorded remarks about it.
What people said
Dominic SandbrookBritish historian, author and co-host of The Rest Is History
Sandbrook argues that even a successful Gallipoli operation would have achieved little, since the fleet could not have taken Constantinople.
“But the mad thing is, even if the Gallipoli campaign had worked. So what? So what?”
The Rest Is History: 676. The First World War: Churchill’s Calamity (Part 6) (Jun 3, 2026) · Listen from 58:50
Sandbrook contends that blaming the Gallipoli generals is too harsh because politicians placed them in an impossible situation.
“I think blaming the generals for this is too harsh. They're in an impossible situation and it's, you know, it's Churchill's fault”
The Rest Is History: 676. The First World War: Churchill’s Calamity (Part 6) (Jun 3, 2026) · Listen from 32:45
Sandbrook says the planners of D-Day were shaped by the lesson of Gallipoli's failure.
“Gallipoli is at the back of their minds all through D-Day because it was such a shambles”
The Rest Is History: 675. The First World War: Slaughter at Gallipoli (Part 5) (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 57:41
Sandbrook defends Sir Ian Hamilton, saying he was not a donkey though critics could call him a dilettante.
“I mean, he's definitely not a donkey. If you were being very critical of him, you'd say he was a bit of a dilettante”
The Rest Is History: 675. The First World War: Slaughter at Gallipoli (Part 5) (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 44:04
Tom HollandEnglish actor cast as Telemachus
Holland argues that Mustafa Kemal's Gallipoli reputation gave him the credibility later needed to cut Turkey's losses.
“People accept this is a guy who defended the homeland and threw the great imperial power back into the sea”
The Rest Is History: 676. The First World War: Churchill’s Calamity (Part 6) (Jun 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:06:15
Holland argues that the campaign was strategically pointless, since even pushing the Turks off Gallipoli would achieve little.
“But it seems to me madness. Because even if you push the Turks, the Turk, sorry, off Gallipoli, so what?”
The Rest Is History: 676. The First World War: Churchill’s Calamity (Part 6) (Jun 3, 2026) · Listen from 24:26
Holland concedes that Churchill was right that breaking the stalemate might require unconventional thinking.
“if you're going to break the stalemate, perhaps you do need some left field thinking, some blue sky thinking”
The Rest Is History: 675. The First World War: Slaughter at Gallipoli (Part 5) (May 31, 2026) · Listen from 10:02
Coverage over time
Podcasts
- The Rest Is History · 3 episodes
Episodes
676. The First World War: Churchill’s Calamity (Part 6)The Rest Is History · Jun 3, 2026 · 1 h 17 min
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook conclude the Gallipoli campaign, covering Churchill's fall, the failed August Offensive, the evacuation, and the birth of the Anzac legend.
675. The First World War: Slaughter at Gallipoli (Part 5)The Rest Is History · May 31, 2026 · 1 h 17 min
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook recount the origins of the Gallipoli campaign, Churchill's Dardanelles scheme, and the bloody Allied landings of 25 April 1915.
674. The First World War: The Spy Who Took on the Germans (Part 4)The Rest Is History · May 27, 2026 · 1 h 8 min
Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland recount the life, resistance work, trial and 1915 execution of British nurse Edith Cavell in German-occupied Belgium, and her posthumous legend.