On this day in history, January 8 in 1916, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Arms Corps) withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsula (in present day Turkey) after Ottoman forces successfully defended access to Contantople during WWI.  

Gallipoli was a strategic point where the Triple Entente nations (Britain, France and Russia) sought to stop Ottoman access to the rest of Asia. Winston Churchill, then a 40-year-old First Lord of the Admiralty, initiated and championed the battle strategy. ANZAC troops, serving as part of the British Empire, fought eight months to secure the Dardanelles Straits under Entente control. With victory seeming impossible, ANZAC forces retreated. In the end, 250,000 casualties were sustained including 100,000 deaths.[1] Churchill was demoted. [2]

The battle at Gallipoli was one of Great Britain’s most deadly and disastrous military campaigns. Its failure would cast a shadow over Churchill the rest of his life. While he went on to serve in political posts for decades to follow, on many occasions Churchill’s political foes would delight in shouting “Remember the Dardanelles” to chasten him in the House of Commons.[3] 

In 1940, Churchill was appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII. Many parlimentarians during the time were calling for appeasement and compromise of Hitler’s advances; however, Churchill to took an opposite stance and called the British people to: “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.” [4]

Although his rhetoric was stirring, many believed Churchill was just full of hot air and chided him that he was doomed to repeat the failures at Gallipoli. Churchill proved them wrong. He used his diplomatic skills to great effect to unite the US President Franklin Roosevelt and USSR dictator Joseph Stalin to ally with Great Britain for their common war aims. He also used his tremendous oratory skills to rally and inspire the British nation. As one journalist said, “He took the English language and sent it into battle.” [5] The rest, as they say, is history. Great Britain did achieve victory and Churchill is widely remembered as one of its greatest leaders. 

Churchill would later reflect that,  “I felt…that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.” [6] Churchill was remarkably able to learn from and overcome the failure of Gallipoli, the demotion, the ridicule from his colleagues, and his own inner doubts to lead Great Britain to victory in its darkest hour[7] and in its gravest trial. 

While our lives will likely not have the dramatic failures and victories of Churchill, we all desire that same ability to overcome and conquer past failure, present critics, and nagging inner doubt. 

For followers of Jesus Christ, we can trust in the resurrected King who conquered the grave to bring about that victory in our lives for His glory and our good. 

And we have the promise of Romans 8: 31-37 to stand upon:

 “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” 

Jesus is our greatest victor. He bore the greatest cost. He defeated the greatest terror. He endured the long and hard road to the cross. And He won the war against sin, Satan and death on the cross. Whatever the failure, foe, or fear; victory is found in Christ alone. 

 

 

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Footnotes:

1. https://www.history.com/news/winston-churchills-world-war-disaster
2. https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gallipoli-campaign
3. https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gallipoli-campaign
4. https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/blood-toil-tears-and-sweat.html
5. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-churchill-led-britain-to-victory-in-the-second-world-war
6. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-churchill-led-britain-to-victory-in-the-second-world-war
7. Reference to the recommended film about Churchill: “The Darkest Hour”