No one can ever think of World War One as anything but a human tragedy, and the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915 would be arguably one of the worst of the worst.

Frustrated by the lack of movement in the trench gridlock on the Western Front, some Allied leaders considering doing an end run through Turkey. Winston Churchill was convinced that knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war would be a devastating blow to the Axis and would almost certainly end the war much sooner. As a result, British and Franch ships began an assault on the Dardanelles – a narrow strip of water dividing Europe from Asia. This assault was met with large losses due to Turkish mines which had been laid in the strait beforehand. Despite this, land forces were then committed to the Gallipoli peninsula, with some 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops hitting the beaches in the first two days.The British meanwhile tried landing around the Cape Helles area and managed to hold only three of the five landing areas before calling for reinforcements. Everything stalled almost immediately, as the Turks were strongly entrenched in defensive positions around all the beachheads, and the long delays and dithering by high command permitted them time to feed massive amounts of additional troops in to keep the British and their allies bottled up.Even with further troops being fed into the maelstrom regularly, the Allies were basically stuck, and made little to no headway before finally pulling out completely in early 1916.Some 214,000 casualties were incurred and no gains of any significance were achieved in all that time.

I became a major fan of ICM models when they started their wonderful series of World War One armies, timed to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the conflict. I was immediately bedazzled by the excellent molding and fine detail, and as the figures were actually slightly large for 1/35^th scale, they matched my already large collection of metal figures which I’d been accumulating up until then.

Dardanelles Campaign 1915 is actually a collection of three separate releases from this range, plus a colorful (albeit fairly questionable) cardboard backdrop meant to show all of the figures together. The sets include two of their earlier releases – British Infantry 1914 and WW1 British Vickers MG Crew, as well as a later release of Turkish Infantry 1915-1918. All three sets of figures include a detailed accessory sprue suitable for modifications for the figures supplied.

The British Infantry 1914 set includes four figures – three troopers and an officer, advancing toward the enemy. All wear the early billed cap used by British forces at that time in the war. The accessory sprue offers helmets, although these weren’t used in the Dardanelles campaign that I’ve been able to determine. The fit overall is excellent, the poses realistic and the outfitting thoroughly complete along with excellent weapons.

The WW1 British Vickers MG Crew comes with two figures plus the Vickers gun, which offers two different barrels and two different tripod mounts for different stances. All the necessary bits are included such as ammo bin, ammo belt and water can. The figures are sculpted similarly to the British Infantry, with caps and early kit. The same superlatives apply here as well.

The last batch, the Turkish Infantry 1915-1918was a much later product than the previous two. This set includes a crouching officer in a fez, and three soldiers in various assault poses. It also comes with a superb sprue of additional equipment. On the debit side, these figures were obviously created by a different sculptor and it shows. Unlike the others, the figures in this group are more of a true 1/35^th scale – somewhat smaller - and the detail isn’t quite as good. Still, they’re the only plastic WW1 Turkish infantry on the market, are quite usable and are as good or better than most figures available.

As these sets were clearly not going to realistically fit on the provided backdrop, I decided to build them as models in their own rights. I assembled several of the British Infantry set, modifying one with an Aussie hat from their Gallipoli figure set just to see how it would look. The results speak for themselves.

Looking at the Vickers MG crew, I started thinking about a previous ICM review I’d made of their armored Ford car and began wondering if the figures supplied might be utilized. Amazingly, the gunner was a virtually perfect fit for the gun cabin, and the ammunition wielder easily turned into a spotter by adding binoculars to the one hand.

Finally, I assembled a couple of Turkish infantry while I was at it, and was generally satisfied with their appearance. Like I said, not as crisp as the British figures but certainly usable. I went ahead and photographed them against the supplied backdrop.

All in all, what you get here are three extremely useful (and so far, unique) figure sets representing two antagonists from the First World War – a total of ten figures plus a highly detailed Vickers machine gun. With all the extra equipment provided, there’s really no end to the conversions you can do with these figures, and they will no doubt end up in a proud spot in your collection. Absolutely recommended!

As always, thanks to ICM for providing this excellent review set, and to IPMS/USA for letting me take a shot at them. Stay safe, everyone, and happy modeling!