{"id":316796,"date":"2022-04-22T16:03:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T06:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=316796"},"modified":"2022-04-22T21:52:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T11:52:11","slug":"how-australia-ended-up-at-gallipoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/04\/22\/how-australia-ended-up-at-gallipoli\/","title":{"rendered":"How Australia Ended Up At Gallipoli"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch members Les Henning and Barry Krosch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 22, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

How a driver’s wrong turn on a Sarajevo street allowed a young Bosnian Serb nationalist to assassinate the heir to the Hapsburg Empire, sparking the carnage of World War I, was explored in a talk in Kingaroy on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The rising tensions between Serbia and the failing Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controlled Bosnia, could have remained a local conflict.<\/p>\n

But Russia, France, Germany, England and Turkey stumbled into the war after Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in an open car while they were visiting Sarajevo.<\/p>\n

Their driver had taken a wrong turn, placing them directly in the path of Princip.<\/p>\n

Author Dr Les Henning led the audience in the Kingaroy Town Hall Supper Room through the machinations which led to the failed landings at Anzac Cove on Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“They all thought they were fighting a defensive war forced on them by someone else,” Dr Henning said.<\/p>\n

England’s involvement automatically drew Australia into the conflict.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s involvement followed the shelling of the then-Russian Black Sea port of Odessa by German-manned Turkish naval boats.<\/p>\n

Dr Henning said the failure of the Gallipoli landings at Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay could be blamed on poor planning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The military campaign was an afterthought after a British and French naval advance through the Dardanelles narrows towards Constantinople was foiled by sea-mines; the delays gave Turkey time to reinforce their coastal defences.<\/p>\n

The history morning was hosted by the Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch.<\/p>\n

Dr Henning’s talk was followed by a presentation by Sub-Branch Committee member Barry Krosch on the\u00a0war memorials and statues around the region, focussing on the Kingaroy area.<\/p>\n