Monro and Birdwood give up their commands

The British chronology of the war records under 9 January 1916 that General Charles Monro ceased to command the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and General William Birdwood the Dardanelles Army. Early that morning the last troops had left Cape Helles, and with it the whole Gallipoli peninsula. Both generals had accomplished the task for which they had been given new posts at the end of November: Monro as commander-in-chief of the British forces in the eastern Mediterranean, and Birdwood as commander of the troops on the peninsula, who carried out the evacuation.

The changes had been prepared in advance. According to the British official history of the operations in Egypt, the Cabinet had only been waiting for the withdrawal from Suvla and Anzac to extend the reorganisation of commands to the Mediterranean as well. On 21 December Monro learned that, his work being done, he would return to France and take over the First Army, vacant after General Douglas Haig had become commander-in-chief of the British forces in France. The headquarters of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was to move from Lemnos to Egypt. Its new commander was to be General Archibald Murray, who in December had been replaced as Chief of the Imperial General Staff by General William Robertson. Murray was to command the troops assembling and resting in Egypt and to be responsible for the defence of the Suez Canal. Monro left Mudros as early as 1 January, when the plan for the evacuation of Helles was ready, and sailed for Egypt. “As I can do nothing more here, I am leaving for Alexandria tomorrow,” he telegraphed to Robertson. Murray arrived in Egypt on 9 January and took over command from Monro the next day. On 9 January he also learned that the British troops at Salonika would come under the orders of the French general Maurice Sarrail for operations, leaving him only the supervision of their administration.

The Dardanelles Army, formed in November from all the troops on the peninsula, ceased to exist after the evacuation. Its divisions were sent to Egypt. Birdwood, who since May 1915 had in effect also commanded all the Australian forces, again took charge of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). On 13 January Murray sent his corps commanders to the canal to take over the work on its defences. Birdwood’s corps was given the central sector, from Kabrit to Ferdan, with headquarters at Ismailia. The southern sector was taken over by IX Corps under General Julian Byng, who had earlier held Suvla, while VIII Corps under General Francis Davies, the last to leave Helles, assembled in the camp at Tell el-Kebir.

Both generals still had long service ahead of them. Monro took over the First Army in France at the beginning of February 1916, and in the autumn became Commander-in-Chief in British India, responsible also for the war in Mesopotamia. In February 1916 the Australian and New Zealand forces in Egypt were divided into two corps, and in March Birdwood sailed with I ANZAC Corps to France. By 1918 he was commanding the British Fifth Army. His place in history was, however, secured largely by the evacuation of Gallipoli, the only undisputed success of the whole campaign.