The Battle of Canakkale Through The Eyes of Three Anzac Painters

Abstract

An important front during the First World War was Canakkale. Canakkale battles took place between November 3, 1914 and January 9, 1916. The Allied Powers, after being defeated by the strong Ottoman defense on March 18, 1915, began to prepare a landing army, as they realized that the strait could not be crossed by naval forces without land support. Britain started propaganda efforts to recruit soldiers from its colonies, Australia and New Zealand, for this landing. This collection of soldiers were nicknamed Anzac, for the English initials of the Australian and New Zealand Corps (Australian & New Zealand Army Corps). These Anzac troops included the painters Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones, Frank Rossiter Crozier, and George Washington Thomas Lambert, whose lives and paintings will be discussed in this paper. Two of the painters took part in the war, and one was sent to Canakkale after defeat. Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones, one of the soldiers active in the battle, found it sufficient to document the war visually instead of commenting on it verbally. In the illustrations of Frank Rossiter Crozier, who served as a stretcher bearer in the war, themes such as homesickness and despair are seen. The paintings of the official war painter George Washington Thomas Lambert, who came with special permission after the defeat in 1919 and depicted war scenes and portraits, are interesting in terms of showing the Anzacs' view of the region after defeat. Lambert's paintings reflect the grave consequences of the Anzac occupation for his country. Each of these three Anzac painters who depicted the Battle of Canakkale in Gallipoli Peninsula reveal different attitudes about the conflict.