The campaign had been a stalemate for eight months and the deterioration of the weather as winter approached convinced the Allied high command that it was time to evacuate. Winter storms in November saw several men freeze to death and 16,000 men were medically evacuated from Suvla, Anzac and Helles with frostbite and exposure. A visit by Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, the UK Secretary of State for War during the middle of November sealed the whole campaign’s fate. On Kitchener’s advice the British War Cabinet made a formal decision for evacuation on 8 December, but this had been anticipated and plans were already being enacted at both Anzac and Suvla as early as 7 December. These plans included a variety of deception operations to make the Turks believe the peninsula was actually being reinforced. The evacuation is widely regarded among historians as the best planned part of the whole campaign thanks to the work of Major General Birdwood’s Chief of Staff, Brigadier General CBB White. Between 8 and 20 December 90,000 men came off Suvla and Anzac, with the majority of Australians departing during the final five days. The last Australians left on a small boat from a pier at North Beach at 4.10 am on 20 December. Among other ruses, self-firing rifles were set up in the trenches to disguise the night withdrawal and finally, unused stores were burnt on the beach. British and French forces at Cape Helles completed their evacuation on 8 and 9 January 1916 thereby ending a campaign that had achieved none of its strategic aims and at enormous cost.
