Image map for War Main menu for Pictures of Health Main page for Aif Voyage from Australia Training in Egypt Gallipoli Middle East Campaigns Vivid Memories

Gallipoli Shortcomings in Base Hospital Facilities

Military planning for the Gallipoli landings overall was hasty and confused, with relatively little consideration given to medical support. The site initially chosen for the allied operational base was the island of Lemnos, despite the fact that it had poor water supplies and was exposed the heavy gales through the Mediterranean spring. It was then decided to shift the operational base to Alexandria, some 16,000 kilometres from the front line. Lemnos was to be used solely to assemble troops prior the assault on the peninsula.

Senior medical officers were gravely disturbed by the distance between Lemnos and Alexandria, especially given that provisions for hospital facilities on the island were set below what was recommended under established guidelines for half the number of men who would be sent into battle. If heavy casualties were incurred, they reasoned, there would be grave congestion on Lemnos, and great strain on available ship-based medical facilities. It also appeared clear that too few transports would be available for the transfer of wounded to base hospitals in Egypt.

Further, hospital facilities in Egypt were well below what the campaign required. The decision of November 1914 to situate and train Australian troops in Egypt greatly confused medical arrangements. For at the outset of the war it had been agreed that the British war office would assume responsibility for the treatment of dominion troops after their evacuation from the field of conflict. However, the decision to keep these men in Egypt meant that the Australian and local British military were obliged at short notice to assume virtually full responsibility for health care.

Despite concerted efforts by senior British and Australian medical officers to expand and fit out hospital facilities in Egypt, medical support was far below the level needed to receive casualties from the assault on Gallipoli.

mod1
mod2
mod3
mod4
mod5

Reading room
Glossary
Timeline
Communication
Workshop
Search

previous top next Voyage from Australia Training in Egypt Gallipoli Middle East Campaigns Vivid Memories

Return to the top
AIF : Voyage from Australia Training in Egypt Gallipoli Middle East Campaigns Vivid Memories

ÿ