In 1914 the 1st Battalion moved to Karachi, then in British India, now in Pakistan where their second son, Julian E.L.Willis was born on 2nd June, 1914.  Later in the year the 1st Battalion sailed via Aden on their way home to Nuneaton Barracks in Warwickshire landing on a cold January day after 8 years service in India.  Maude Willis also sailed back home from India and took a bungalow in the Thames Valley. On the 4th August 1914 Germany invaded Belgium; in response, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. Military operations began on three major European fronts: the Western, or Franco-Belgian Front; the Eastern, or Russian Front and the Southern, or Serbian Front.

In November 1914 Turkey entered the war on the side of the Central Powers against the Allies, and fighting was soon to take place between Turkey and Great Britain at the Dardanelles and in Turkish-held Mesopotamia.

      Map of the Dardanelles region

The Dardanelles strait is the narrow channel of water that separates Asia Minor (Turkey) from the Gallipoli Peninsula of European Turkey, and links the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean with the Sea of Marmara leading up the Bosphurus to the Black Sea. The ancient name is Hellespont and it is the stretch of water that Byron, one of the romantic poets, famously swam across in 1812.

A combined British Empire and French operation was mounted with the overall aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, now Istanbul. The attempt failed, with an estimated 505,000 soldiers killed and 262,000 wounded.

In Turkey the campaign is referred to as the Çanakkale Savaslari. In the United Kingdom it is called the Dardanelles Campaign, and in France, Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland it known simply as "Gallipoli".

Events leading up to the Dardanelles Campaign included the stagnation which soon set in on the Western Front's lines of trench warfare.  A proposal to attack Turkey was suggested by a French minister in November 1914, but it was not supported by the Allies. A counter suggestion by British Naval Intelligence to bribe the Turks over to the Allied side was also not taken up.

The proposed landing was later agreed because the Straits linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Sea of Marmara.  This not only gave ready access to the Turkish capital, Constantinople and much of the Turkish Empire's industrial powerhouse, but also provided a lane to the Black Sea. Just as importantly access to the Sea of Marmora would give Britain and France a supply route to their Eastern ally, Russia.  It was thought to be quite feasible and should Britain and France gain the Straits they would not only eliminate Turkey from the war but also draw Greece and Bulgaria into the war against the Central Powers.

Thus it was that later in November, 1914 Winston Churchill, now First Lord of the Admiralty, put forward his initial plans for a naval attack on the Dardanelles.  Churchill is widely credited as the man who committed British, French, Australian and New Zealand forces to the ill-fated campaign.  This is not quite true but certainly it was Churchill's renowned drive and aggressiveness, which resulted in the campaign actually taking place.

Early in 1915 permission for the landings was finally approved by the British cabinet and in January 1915 the British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, appointed General Sir Ian Hamilton to command the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that was to carry out the mission. Dick, now 39 years of age, was about to go into action for the second time in his life. This time he was a husband and father and a seasoned professional soldier engaged in the biggest conflict known to man, an event that resulted for him personally in the loss of many comrades at arms and the award of the Victoria Cross - the highest recognition for valour "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces, of any rank in any service, and civilians under military command.



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