On this day, August 7th, in 1915, the Battle of Chunuk Bair began.  This was the only success the Allies had against the Ottoman Turks in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in WWI.

The Allies had been pinned down in trench warfare by the Turks on the Gallipoli peninsula since April 1915.  Amidst extremely heavy losses on both sides, the Australian and New Zealand ANZAC troops, and British troops, desperately tried to break out and move up the peninsula.

Their initial attempt in this battle was successful, and the ANZAC's took Chunuk Bair during the night following a day of heavy artillery bombardment.  But it was a pyrrhic victory, as 711 of the 760 men who reached the summit were killed or wounded in the fighting.  The Turks, under Lieutenant Colonel Kemal Ataturk, counter-attacked, and pushed the Allies back to their original trenches.  In this one small battle, in four days of fighting, over 5,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded.  Over the course of the Gallipoli campaign, over 130,000 Allied soldiers were killed.   Turkish losses were even higher.

The Gallipoli pensinula was by no means of central import in WWI, just as Iraq is not of central import in the jihad today.  But the political and military leaders stubbornly insisted that the campaign continue no matter the cost, in order to protect British prestige.  In the end, the Allies were forced to make a maritime retreat in January 1916.  Although the land campaign had been a disaster, the evacuation was well planned and well executed, and the Allies took zero casualties, despite predictions of a 50% casualty rate.  By extracting herself from the distracting tar-pit of Gallipoli, the British managed to survive the slight blemish to her prestige, and the Allies went on to win the larger war and defeat Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

Some might think that religious jihad played no part in WWI.  Certainly, Westerners would not think of WWI in terms of religious war.  But the Ottoman Caliphate, the last Islamic caliphate, disagreed.  In November 1914, Sultan Mehmed V, in the role of Caliph, pronounced a fatwa declaring jihad against the Christians infidels who were invading Muslim-controlled lands, lands in Eastern Europe that the Ottomans had conquered during their six centuries of offensive warfare against the Christians.  They appealed to Islamic concepts (that it is fard eyn for all Muslims to resist infidels who invade Dar al-Islam) to muster and motivate their troops.  The Turks cast the war as a religious struggle between Believer and Infidel.  They unapologetically described it as jihad, and they were not referring to a peaceful internal struggle.

At the end of WWI, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved, the caliphate was abolished, and Kemal Ataturk took over the country and created a modern, secular Turkey.  Today, the changes he made are being rolled back by Islamic forces in Turkey;  they would like nothing more than to reinstate the caliphate.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Aug 6: Benazir Bhutto Resigns

Aug 5: Iran Rejects Nuclear Offer

Aug 4: Uganda Expels Asians

Aug 3: John Garang

Aug 2: Iraq Invades Kuwait