To ensure security, the troops were told their units were heading to Lemnos for a rest. But as stores disappeared, rumours of evacuation were widespread. James McWhirter of the Auckland Battalion wrote that ‘fine weather & secrecy were required for our success. How secrecy was kept was a mystery to us all, as the fact was known for some time previous, & yet as events transpired, it is almost certain the enemy never had an inkling of what our next move was going to be. …’

On 15 December 1915, the evacuation of Anzac began. 36,000 Allied troops were shipped out over four nights. Support troops and reserves departed first and fighting units were thinned out until by 19 December, only 10,000 men remained. In a coordinated withdrawal from the front-line trenches, the last men left Anzac Cove at 4.10 a.m. on 20 December. 

The departure was emotional for many New Zealand troops. Not only did it mean that the campaign was a failure, but that the soldiers would be leaving their dead mates behind. Edwin McKay, of the Auckland Mounted Rifles described the emotion of the departure. ‘We moved slowly and noiselessly away from the grave of all our hopes; hopes so nearly realised by the selfless valour of those who had gone there before us. I stood on deck, looking back with mixed feelings at the broken skyline... Someone said, “we won those ridges then we lost them, and now we’re leaving our cobbers behind. It’s damnable.”’ Troops at Suvla evacuated the same night, but British and French forces remained at Helles until early January 1916.