Naval Operations in the Dardanelles Campaign

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 1

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign

Naval Operations in the Dardanelles CampaignPart of Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War

The last moments of the French battleship Bouvet, 18 March 1915

Date 19 February 1915 – 9 January 1916

Location Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire

Result Ottoman victory

Belligerents  British Empire

•  United Kingdom•  Australia•  New Zealand

 France

Ottoman Empire  German Empire

Commanders and leaders Sackville Carden John de Robeck Émile Guépratte

Otto Liman von Sanders Fuad Pasha[citation needed]

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Cevat Çobanlı Cihan Çildan Pasha Pasha[citation needed]

Strength1 battleship3 battlecruisers30 pre-dreadnoughts24 cruisers25 destroyers8 monitors14 submarines50+ transports

Various mines and forts; otherwise unknown

Casualties and losses

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1 battlecruiser damaged6 pre-dreadnoughts sunk3 pre-dreadnoughts damaged1 destroyer sunk8 submarines lost700 killed (ship crews on March 18)

2 pre-dreadnoughts1 minelayer40 killed78 wounded (land crews on March 18)

The naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign of the First World War were mainly carried out by the RoyalNavy with substantial support from the French and minor contributions from Russia and Australia. The DardanellesCampaign began as a purely naval operation. When that failed to overcome Ottoman defences, an invasion of theGallipoli peninsula was launched in which naval forces were heavily involved. Throughout the campaign, attemptswere made by submarines to pass through the Dardanelles and disrupt Ottoman Empire shipping in the Sea ofMarmara.

PreludeAt the outbreak of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was an unaligned power. While Britain had a longhistory of interest in the region, Germany had been most active in cultivating a relationship with the Ottomans. Atthe outbreak of war, the British confiscated two battleships constructed for the Ottoman Empire which were still inBritish shipyards.[1] In response, Germany made a gift of two ships, the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the lightcruiser SMS Breslau, as replacements. While still operated by their German crews, these ships, renamed YavûzSultân Selîm and Midilli, respectively, became the backbone of the Ottoman navy. Through possession of the YavûzSultân Selîm, the Ottoman Empire controlled the most powerful ship in the Black Sea in 1914.[2]

Closure of the DardanellesIn October 1914, the Ottomans closed the Dardanelles to Allied shipping. This followed an incident on 27September, when the British Dardanelles squadron had seized an Ottoman torpedo boat. The actual decision to closethe strait seems to have been taken by German military advisors stationed in the Dardanelles without reference to theOttoman government.[3] On 28 October, the Ottoman fleet, led by Yavûz Sultân Selîm, began raiding Russian assetsin the Black Sea. Odessa and Sevastopol were bombarded, a minelayer and gunboat were sunk. The real aim of theattack—putting the Russian Black Sea fleet out of commission—was not accomplished. Russia declared war on theOttoman Empire on 2 November, and the British followed suit on 6 November. An unsuccessful Ottoman attack onRussia through the Caucasus Mountains was launched in December (Battle of Sarikamish), leading the Russians tocall for aid from Britain in January 1915.[4]

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 3

Brownsville Herald (Saturday, Feb 20, 1915)

Winston Churchill, then First Lord ofthe Admiralty, had entertained plans ofcapturing the Dardanelles as early asSeptember 1914. In a new year reviewsubmitted to the prime minister,Herbert Asquith, he had outlined twopossible new fronts against theGermans, intended to break thestalemate and accompanying enormousloss of life which had rapidly set in onthe western front. The first possibility,which was then his favoured option,was an invasion of Schleswig-Holsteinby sea, allowing Denmark to join theallies and give Russia a supply routevia the Baltic sea. The other was anattack on the Dardanelles, which again would give Russia a supply route and might encourage Bulgaria and Romaniato join the allied side. The Russian plea for assistance, coupled with a perception of the Ottoman Empire as a weakenemy ("the sick man of Europe"), made the prospect of a campaign in the Dardanelles seem appealing.[5]

Divided responsibilities

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchilland First Sea Lord Fisher, 1914.

Matters were complicated for Churchill by the choice of First SeaLord, who was the most senior admiral in charge of running the navy.Churchill had appointed Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1912. He wasobliged to replace Battenberg because of public feeling againstGermans— Battenberg had become a British citizen when he joinedthe navy at the age of 14, but he spoke with a German accent.[6] Hischoice was to recall the 73-year-old admiral John Fisher, who hadretired as First Sea Lord in 1910. Fisher was regarded as brilliant, butsomewhat in decline from advancing age. More immediately a problemfor Churchill, he was a forceful personality accustomed to directing theAdmiralty himself, and being supported in his decisions by the politicalFirst Lord rather than taking orders from him.[7]

Fisher was appointed at the end of October 1914 and favoured a newcampaign in northern Europe, which perhaps reflected the navy'straditional concern of controlling Channel waters.[8] He reluctantlyagreed to advance the plan for a naval action in the Dardanelles, butafterwards maintained that he had never supported it,[9] and had alwaysbelieved a naval action would have to be accompanied by a land force.Churchill and Fisher continually quarreled throughout the campaign,and Fisher finally resigned on 15 May 1915 after repeated threats to do so. Fisher wrote about Churchill: "He isalways convincing me".[10] Fisher's relationship with Churchill had always been complex and his abrupt resignationwas no exception. Fisher's resignation, on top of poor progress in the campaign, precipitated the fall of thegovernment and Churchill's replacement as First Lord, so neither man gained control of the Admiralty. Ironically,although they could not agree, both respected the other and would not have wished that outcome.[citation needed]

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On 11 January, at Churchill's request, the commander of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Squadron, Vice AdmiralS.H. Carden proposed a plan for forcing the Dardanelles using battleships, submarines and minesweepers. OnJanuary 13, the British War Council approved the plan, and Carden was supplied with additional pre-dreadnoughtbattleships, the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth and the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible. France supplied a squadronwhich included four pre-dreadnought battleships, while Russia provided the light cruiser Askold.The operation was originally intended to be purely naval due to a lack of available troops and the independence ofLord of the admiralty Winston Churchill but, by early February, it was decided that more regular infantry wasneeded. Contingents of Royal Marines were to be supplemented by the last unallocated regular division, the British29th Division. It was dispatched to Egypt, to join Australian and New Zealand troops which were alreadyundergoing training. At the outset of the operation, the expected role of the infantry was to be the occupation ofConstantinople; the taking of the straits was to be accomplished by the Entente naval forces.

Forcing the straitsOn 3 November 1914, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the opening ofhostilities between Ottoman and Russian empires. The British attack was carried out by battlecruisers of Carden'sMediterranean Squadron, HMS Indomitable and Indefatigable, as well as the obsolete French battleships Suffren andVérité. This attack actually took place before a formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against theOttoman Empire.The intention of the attack was to test the fortifications and measure the Ottoman response. The results weredeceptively encouraging. In a 20-minute bombardment, a single shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd el Bahrat the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, displacing (but not destroying) 10 guns and killing 86 Ottoman soldiers. Totalcasualties during the attack were 150, of which 40 were German. The most significant consequence was that theattention of the Ottomans was drawn to strengthening their defences, and they set about expanding the mine field.[11]

The Dardanelles defences in February/March 1915, showing minefields,anti-submarine nets and major gun batteries.

The Dardanelles were defended by a systemof fortified and mobile artillery arranged asthe "Outer", "Intermediate" and "Inner"defences. While the outer defences lay at theentrance to the straits and would provevulnerable to bombardment and raiding, theinner defences covered the Narrows, thenarrowest point of the straits nearÇanakkale. Beyond the inner defences, thestraits were virtually undefended. However,the foundation of the straits defences were aseries of 10 minefields, laid across the straitsnear the Narrows and containing a total of370 mines.

What was to become the Battle of Gallipoli,a 10-month battle of attrition, began at 07:30on 19 February 1915. Two destroyers weresent in to probe the straits. The first shot wasfired from Kumkale by the Orhaniye Tepebattery's 240 mm (9.4 in) Krupp guns at07:58. The battleships HMS Cornwallis and

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 5

Vengeance moved in to engage the forts and the first British shot of the campaign proper was fired at 09:51 byCornwallis. The day's bombardment lacked the spectacular results of the 3 November test.

HMS Canopus fires a salvo from her 12 in (300 mm) guns againstOttoman forts in the Dardanelles. Photo by Ernest Brooks.

Another attempt was made on 25 February. This timethe Ottomans evacuated the outer defences and the fleetentered the straits to engage the intermediate defences.Demolition parties of Royal Marines raided the Sedd elBahr and Kum Kale forts, meeting little opposition. On1 March, four battleships bombarded the intermediatedefences.Little progress was made clearing the minefields. Theminesweepers, commanded by Carden's chief of staff,Roger Keyes, were merely un-armoured trawlersmanned by their civilian crews who were unwilling towork while under fire. The strong current in the straitsfurther hampered the sweeping process. This lack of

progress by the fleet strengthened the Ottoman resolve which had wavered at the start of the offensive. On 4 March,raids on the outer defences were resisted, leaving 23 British marines dead.

Queen Elizabeth was called on to engage the inner defences, at first from the Aegean coast near Gaba Tepe, firingacross the peninsula, and later from within the straits. On the night of 13 March, the cruiser HMS Amethyst led sixminesweepers in an attempt to clear the mines. Four of the trawlers were hit and Amethyst was badly damaged with19 stokers killed from a single hit.

On 15 March, the admiralty informed Carden that they agreed to his plan for a further all out attack by daylight, withthe minesweepers operating under the direct protection of the entire fleet. Carden was taken ill the same day, and hadto be replaced by Rear Admiral John de Robeck. A gunnery officer noted in his diary that de Robeck had alreadyexpressed misgivings with the likelihood of being able to silence the Ottoman guns by bombardment, and that thisview was widely held on board the ship.[12]

The Battle of March 18The event that decided the battle took place on the night of 8 March when the Ottoman minelayer Nusret laid a lineof mines in Eren Köy Bay, a wide bay along the Asian shore just inside the entrance to the straits. The Ottomans hadnoticed the British ships turned to starboard into the bay when withdrawing. The new line of between 20 and 26mines ran parallel to the shore, were moored at 15 ft (4.6 m) and spaced about 100 yd (91 m) apart. The clear watermeant that the mines could have been seen through the water by spotter planes.[13]

The British plan for 18 March was to silence the defences guarding the first five minefields, they would be clearedovernight by the minesweepers. The next day the remaining defences around the Narrows would be defeated and thelast five minefields would be cleared. The operation went ahead without the British or French becoming aware of therecent additions to the Ottoman minefields.The battleships were arranged in three lines, two British and one French, with supporting ships on the flanks and twoships in reserve.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 6

Battle lines of 18 MarchGrey background: Severely damaged, Red background: Sunk

Line A HMS Queen Elizabeth Agamemnon Lord Nelson Inflexible

French Line B Gaulois Charlemagne Bouvet Suffren

British Line B HMS Vengeance Irresistible Albion Ocean

Supporting ships HMS Majestic Prince George Swiftsure Triumph

Reserve HMS Canopus Cornwallis

The first British line opened fire from Eren Köy Bay around 11:00. Shortly after noon, de Robeck ordered the Frenchline to pass through and close on the Narrows forts. The Ottoman fire began to take its toll with Gaulois, Suffren,Agamemnon and Inflexible all suffering hits. While the naval fire had not destroyed the Ottoman batteries, it hadsucceeded in temporarily reducing their fire. By 13:25, the Ottoman defences were mostly silent so de Robeckdecided to withdraw the French line and bring forward the second British line as well as Swiftsure and Majestic.But the Allied forces had failed to properly reconnoiter the area and sweep it for mines. Aerial reconnaissance byaircraft from the seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal had discovered a number of mines on the 16th and 17 March butfailed to spot the line of mines laid by the Nusret in Eren Köy Bay.[14] On the day of the attack civilian trawlerssweeping for mines in front of line "A" discovered and destroyed three mines in an area thought to be clear, beforethe civilian crews withdrew under fire. This information was not passed on to de Robeck [15] and thus, thecatastrophe began to unfold. At 13:54, Bouvet—having made a turn to starboard into Eren Köy Bay—struck a mine,capsized and sank within a couple of minutes, killing 639 crewmen. The initial British reaction was that a shell hadstruck her magazine or she had been torpedoed.

HMS Irresistible abandoned and sinking.

The British pressed on with the attack. Around 16:00,Inflexible began to withdraw and struck a mine nearwhere Bouvet went down, killing 30 crewmen. Thebattlecruiser remained afloat and eventually beached onthe island of Bozcaada (Tenedos).

Irresistible was the next to be mined. As she began todrift helplessly, the crew were taken off. De Robecktold Ocean to take Irresistible under tow but the waterwas deemed too shallow to make an approach. Finallyat 18:05, Ocean struck a mine which jammed thesteering gear leaving her likewise helpless. Theabandoned battleships were still floating when theBritish withdrew. A destroyer commanded byCommodore Roger Keyes returned later to attempt either to tow away or sink the stricken vessels but despitesearching for four hours, there was no sign of them. Keyes reported:

The fear of their fire was actually the deciding factor of the fortunes of the day. For five hours the [destroyer]Wear and picket boats had experienced, quite unperturbed and without any loss, a far more intense fire fromthem than the sweepers encountered... the latter could not be induced to face it, and sweep ahead of the shipsin 'B' line.[15] ...I had the almost indelible impression that we were in the presence of a beaten foe. I thought hewas beaten at 2 pm. I knew he was beaten at 4 PM — and at midnight I knew with still greater clarity that hewas absolutely beaten; and it only remained for us to organise a proper sweeping force and devise some meansof dealing with drifting mines to reap the fruits of our efforts.[16]

By contrast, Commander Isham Worsley Gibson wrote:

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This is just what one might expect, & what we really did more or less. Every book on war ever written alwaysstates the fact that politicians interfering with Commanders in the field always lead to disaster but still theythink they are born strategists & know alls & do it again & again.[17]

Aftermath18 March was a significant victory for the Ottoman Empire. For just 118 casualties, they sunk three battleships anddamaged another with mines and inflicted 700 casualties on the British-French fleet. Nevertheless, there were callsamongst the British, particularly from Churchill, to press on with the naval attack. De Robeck advised on 20 Marchthat he was reorganising his minesweepers, suggesting he intended to resume the attack, and Churchill respondedthat he was sending four replacement ships. With the exception of Inflexible, the ships that were lost or damagedwere old, ill-equipped for modern naval combat and had been chosen for the expedition precisely because they wereexpendable. It is not correct that the ammo of the guns are low, they could repulse 2 more attacks.[18] However, thecrews of the sunken battleships had replaced the civilians on the trawler minesweepers, making them much morewilling to keep sweeping under fire, and the fleet had several modern destroyers fitted with 1.5 in (3.8 cm)minesweeping hawsers that could have handled the task with ease[citation needed]. The U.S. Ambassador toConstantinople, Henry Morgenthau, reported that Constantinople expected to be attacked and that the Ottomans feltthey could only hold out for a few hours if the attack had resumed on the 19th.[19] Further, he thought that Turkeyitself might well disintegrate as a state once the capital fell.[20]

The main minefields at the narrows, over 10 layers deep, were still fully intact. Furthermore, they were very wellprotected by the smaller shore guns that had not seen any action on 18 March. These and other defenses further inthe strait had not exhausted their ammunition and resources yet. It was not a given that one more push by the fleetwould have resulted in passage to Marmara Sea.

Sir Roger Keyes, Vice-Admiral De Robeck, SirIan Hamilton, General Braithwaite.

Churchill had anticipated losses and considered them a necessarytactical price. In June 1915, he discussed the campaign with the warcorrespondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, who had returned to London todeliver uncensored reports. Ashmead-Bartlett was incensed at the lossof ships and lives but Churchill responded: That is not the point! Theyought to have gone on. What did it matter if more ships were lost? Theships were old and useless.[21] To place the losses into perspective, theNavy ordered 600 new ships during the period Admiral Fisher wasFirst Sea Lord, approximately corresponding with the length of theDardanelles campaign.[10]

De Robeck was reported to be distraught from the losses.[22] He wrote on 18 March: "After losing so many ships Ishall obviously find myself superseded tomorrow morning".[19] He had been in charge of a fleet that had suffered themost serious loss to the Royal Navy since Trafalgar and felt that losing further ships was the worst thing a sailorcould do. On 23 March, he telegraphed the admiralty that it would be necessary to have the support of land forcesbefore proceeding. He later told the Dardanelles Commission investigating the campaign that his main reason forchanging his mind was concern for what might happen in the event of success: that the fleet might find itself atConstantinople or on the Marmara sea fighting an enemy which did not simply surrender as the plan presupposed,without any troops available to secure captured territory.[23]

With the failure of the naval assault, the idea that land forces could advance around the backs of the Dardanellesforts and capture Constantinople gained support as an alternative. On 25 April, the Gallipoli Campaign waslaunched. Significant naval forces were devoted to support of that operation.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 8

Further attemptsFollowing the unsuccessful results of the land campaign up to May, De Robeck suggested that it might be desirableto again attempt a naval attack. Churchill supported this idea, at least as far as restarting attempts to clear mines, butthis was opposed by Fisher and other members of the Admiralty Board. Aside from difficulties in the Dardanelles,they were concerned at the prospect that more ships might have to be diverted away from the Grand Fleet in theNorth Sea. This disagreement contributed to the final resignation of Fisher, followed by the need for Asquith to seekcoalition partners to shore up his government and the consequential dismissal of Churchill also. Further naval attackswere shelved.[24]

Keyes remained a firm supporter of naval action, and on 23 September submitted a further proposal to pass throughthe Dardanelles to de Robeck. De Robeck disliked the plan, but nonetheless passed it to the Admiralty. Risk to shipshad increased since March, due to the presence of German submarines in the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara,where the British ships would be inviting targets if the plan succeeded. On the other hand, minesweeping was nowbetter equipped and some of the ships had nets or mine bumpers which it was hoped would improve their chancesagainst mines. The Ottoman Empire now had better supply routes from Germany whereas demands on the navy formore ships to support the attempt had to be added to continuing commitments of ships for the land action, and theongoing campaign at Salonica attempting to support Serbia. Kitchener made a proposal to take the Isthmus of Bulairusing 40,000 men, thereby allowing British ships in the Marmara Sea to be resupplied across land from the Gulf ofXeros. Admiralty opinion was that another naval attack could not be mounted without support of land forcesattacking the Dardanelles forts, which was deemed impractical for lack of troops. Kitchener visited the area toinspect the positions and talk to the commanders concerned, before reporting back advising a withdrawal. The WarCommittee, faced with a choice either of an uncertain new campaign to break the existing stalemate, or completewithdrawal, recommended on 23 November that all troops should be withdrawn.[25]

The British cabinet as a whole was less keen to abandon the campaign, because of political repercussions of a failureand damaging consequences for Russia. De Robeck had been temporarily replaced by Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss inNovember 1915 for reasons of ill health. In contrast to De Robeck, Wemyss was a supporter of further action andconsiderably more optimistic of chances of success. Whereas de Robeck estimated losses at 12 battleships, Wemyssconsidered it likely to lose no more than three. It was suggested that abandoning the action at Salonica, where thetroops involved never managed to aid Serbia and did little fighting, could provide the reinforcements, but this wasvetoed by the French. Wemyss continued a campaign promoting the chances of success. He had been present whende Robeck assumed command from Carden and was more senior, but had been commanding the base at Mudroswhereas de Robeck was with the fleet. Churchill had preferentially chosen de Robeck.[26] On 7 December, it wasdecided by Cabinet to abandon the campaign.[27]

Submarine operations

The Ottoman battleship Mesûdiye.

The British submarine attacks hadcommenced in 1914, before the campaignproper had started. On 13 December, theBritish submarine HMS B11 had entered thestraits, avoiding five lines of mines, andtorpedoed the antiquated Ottoman battleshipMesûdiye, built in 1874, which wasanchored as a floating fort in Sari SighlarBay, south of Çanakkale. Mesûdiye capsizedin 10 minutes, trapping many of the

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 9

Australian submarine HMAS AE2.

673-man crew. However, lying in shoalwater, the hull remained above the surfaceso most men were rescued by cutting holesin the hull. Thirty-seven men were killed.

The sinking was a triumph for the RoyalNavy. The captain of B11,Lieutenant-Commander Norman Holbrook,was awarded the Victoria Cross—the firstRoyal Navy VC of the war—and all 12other crew members received awards.Coupled with the naval bombardment of theouter defences on 3 November, this successencouraged the British to pursue thecampaign.

The first French submarine operationpreceded the start of the campaign as well. On 15 January 1915, the French submarine Saphir negotiated theNarrows, passing all 10 lines of mines, before running aground at Nagara Point. Various accounts claim she waseither mined, sunk by shellfire or scuttled, leaving 14 crew dead and 13 prisoners of war.

On 17 April, the British submarine HMS E15 attempted to pass through the straits but, having dived too deep, wascaught in a current and ran aground near Kepez Point, the southern tip of Sarı Sıĝlar Bay, directly under the guns ofthe Dardanos battery. Seven of the crew were killed, and the remainder were captured. The beached E15 was avaluable prize for the Ottomans and the British went to great lengths to deny it from them, finally managing to sink itafter numerous attempts.The first submarine to succeed in passing through the straits was the Australian HMAS AE2, which got through onthe night of 24/25 April. The army began landing soldiers at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove on the peninsula at dawnon the 25th. Although AE2 sank one Ottoman cruiser, the submarine under the command of Lieutenant-CommanderStoker, was thwarted by defective torpedoes in several other attempts to sink promising targets. On 29 April, inArtaki Bay near Panderma, the AE2 was sighted and hit by the Ottoman torpedo boat Sultanhisar. Abandoning ship,the crew became POWs. The wreck was found in 1997, and in 2007, the Turkish and Australian governments beganstudies to determine the feasibility of raising and preserving the submarine.The second submarine through the straits had more luck than AE2. On 27 April, HMS E14, commanded byLieutenant-Commander Edward Boyle, entered the Sea of Marmara and went on a three-week rampage that was oneof the most successful actions achieved by the Allies in the entire campaign. While the quantity and value of theshipping sunk was relatively minor, the effect on Ottoman communications and morale was significant. On hisreturn, Boyle was immediately awarded the Victoria Cross. Boyle and E14 made a number of tours of the Marmara.His third tour began on 21 July, when he passed through the straits despite the Ottomans having installed ananti-submarine net near the Narrows.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 10

The crew of HMS Grampus cheering E11 after asuccessful operation.

Another British submarine to have a successful cruise of the Marmarawas HMS E11, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander MartinNasmith, who was awarded the VC and promoted to Commander forhis achievements. He sank or disabled 11 ships, including three on 24May at the port of Rodosto on the Thracian shore. On 8 August, duringa subsequent tour of the Marmara, E11 torpedoed the BarbarosHayreddin.

A number of demolition missions were performed by men or partieslanded from submarines. On 8 September, First Lieutenant H.V. Lyonfrom HMS E2 swam ashore near Küçükçekmece (Thrace) to blow up arailway bridge. The bridge was destroyed but Lyon failed to return.Attempts were also made to disrupt the railways running close to the

water along the Gulf of İzmit, on the Asian shore of the sea. On the night of 20 August, Lieutenant D'Oyly Hughesfrom E11 swam ashore and blew up a section of the railway line, earning the Distinguished Service Order for hisefforts. On 17 July, HMS E7 bombarded the railway line and then damaged two trains that were forced to halt.

French attempts to enter the Sea of Marmara continued. Following the success of HMAS AE2 and HMS E14, theFrench submarine Joule attempted the passage on 1 May, but she struck a mine and was lost with all hands. The nextattempt was made by Mariotte on 27 July. However, Mariotte failed to negotiate the anti-submarine net that E14 hadeluded and was forced to the surface. After being shelled from the shore batteries, Mariotte was scuttled. On 4September, the same net caught E7 as it attempted to commence another tour.The first French submarine to enter the Sea of Marmara was Turquoise. However, it was forced to turn back and, on30 October, when attempting to pass back through the straits, ran aground beneath a fort and was captured intact.The crew of 25 were taken prisoner and documents detailing planned Allied operations were discovered. Thisincluded a scheduled rendezvous with HMS E20 on 6 November. The rendezvous was kept by the German U-boatU-14 which torpedoed and sank E20 killing all but nine of the crew. Turquoise was salvaged and incorporated (butnot commissioned) into the Ottoman Navy as the Onbasi Müstecip, named after the gunner who had forced theFrench commander to surrender.The Allied submarine campaign in the Sea of Marmara was the one significant success of the Gallipoli Campaign,forcing the Ottomans to abandon it as a transport route. Between April and December 1915, a total of nine Britishand four French submarines sank one battleship, one destroyer, five gunboats, 11 troop transports, 44 supply ships,and 148 sailing vessels at a cost of eight Allied submarines which were sunk in the strait or in the Sea ofMarmara.[28]

In 1993, a coal mining operation revealed the wreck of the German submarine UB-46 near the Kemerburgaz coast.After carrying out missions in Black Sea, on its way back, UB-46 hit a mine near Karaburun and sank with all hands.It is now on display at Besiktas Naval Museum in Istanbul.[29]

Supporting the armyThe Mediterranean Expeditionary Force had been established on 12 March under the command of General Sir IanHamilton and comprised some 70,000 soldiers. At a conference on 22 March, four days after the failed attempt bythe navy, it was decided to use the infantry to seize the Gallipoli peninsula and capture the forts, clearing the way forthe navy to pass through into the Sea of Marmara. Preparations for the landing took a month, giving the Ottomandefenders ample time to reinforce.The British planners still underestimated the ability of the Ottomans and, at the outset, it was expected that the invasion would be over swiftly. A British force—landing at Cape Helles—would advance 6 mi (9.7 km) on the first day, and on the second would seize the Kilitbahir plateau, overlooking the Narrows. As it happened, in eight months

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 11

of fighting, the British never advanced much more than 5 mi (8.0 km), and their first day objectives of Krithia andthe hill Achi Baba remained out of reach.The Gallipoli landings were the largest amphibious operation of the war. The initial landings were made at CapeHelles by the British 29th Division and at Gaba Tepe by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. In the lattercase, the landing miscarried and the troops went ashore too far north at a place now known as Anzac Cove. In bothlandings, the covering force went ashore from warships with the exception of V Beach at Helles where the SS RiverClyde was used as an improvised landing craft for 2,000 men.

Map of the landing of the covering force from battleships (red) anddestroyers (orange) at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915.

In the landing at Anzac Cove, the first wave wentashore from the boats of three Formidable-classbattleships; HMS London, Prince of Wales and Queen.The second wave went ashore from seven destroyers. Insupport were HMS Triumph, Majestic and the cruiserHMS Bacchante as well as the seaplane carrierHMS Ark Royal and the kite-balloon ship,HMS Manica from which a tethered balloon was trailedto provide artillery spotting.

The landing at Cape Helles was spread over fivebeaches with the main ones being V and W Beaches atthe tip of the peninsula. While the landing at Anzacwas planned as a surprise without a preliminarybombardment, the Helles landing was made after the beaches and forts were bombarded by the warships. Thelanding at S Beach inside the straits was made from the battleship Cornwallis and was virtually unopposed. The WBeach force came from the cruiser HMS Euryalus and the battleship HMS Implacable which also carried the troopsbound for X Beach. The cruiser HMS Dublin and battleship Goliath supported the X Beach landing as well as asmall landing to the north on the Aegean coast at Y Beach, later abandoned.

The role of the navy was to support the landing, using naval guns instead of field artillery, of which there was asevere shortage in 1915. However, with a few spectacular exceptions, the performance of naval guns on land targetswas inadequate, particularly against entrenched positions. The guns lacked elevation and so fired on a flat trajectorywhich, coupled with the inherently unstable gun platform, resulted in reduced accuracy.The battleship's guns did prove effective against exposed lines of troops. On 27 April, during the first Ottomancounter-attack at Anzac, the Ottoman 57th Regiment attacked down the seaward slope of Battleship Hill within viewof Queen Elizabeth which fired a salvo of six 15 in (380 mm) shells, halting the attack completely. On 28 April, nearthe old Y Beach landing, Queen Elizabeth sighted a party of about 100 Turks. One 15 in (380 mm) shrapnel shellcontaining 24,000 pellets was fired at short range and killed the entire party. For the rest of the campaign, the Turkswere very wary of moving within view of battleships.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 12

The last moments of HMS Majestic, torpedoed byU-21 on 27 May.

Also on 27 April, a kite-balloon ship had spotted an Ottomantransport ship moving near the Narrows. Queen Elizabeth,stationed off Gaba Tepe, had fired across the peninsula, at a rangeof over 10 mi (8.7 nmi; 16 km), and sank the transport with herthird shot. For much of the campaign, the Ottomans transportedtroops via rail, though other supplies continued to be transportedby ship on the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles.

It quickly became evident that the battle for Gallipoli would not bea swift or easy operation. At Helles, which was initially the mainbattlefield, a series of costly battles only managed to edge the frontline closer to Krithia. Through the early battles, the Royal Navycontinued to provide support via bombardments. However, in Maythree battleships were torpedoed: Goliath in Morto Bay on 12May; Triumph off Anzac on 25 May; and Majestic off W Beachon 27 May. Goliath was sunk by the Ottoman torpedo boatMuâvenet-i Millîye while the other two were sunk by U-21.Following these losses, the permanent battleship support waswithdrawn with the valuable Queen Elizabeth recalled by the

Admiralty as soon as the news of the loss of Goliath arrived. In place of the battleships, naval artillery support wasprovided by cruisers, destroyers and purpose-built monitors which were designed for coastal bombardment.

Once the navy became wary of the submarine threat, losses ceased. With the exception of the continued activity ofAllied submarines in the Dardanelles and Sea of Marmara, the only significant naval loss after May was theLaforey-class destroyer HMS Louis which ran aground off Suvla during a gale on 31 October and was wrecked. Thedestruction of the stranded ship was accelerated by Ottoman gunfire.

Notes and references[1] Carlyon pp. 41–42.[2] Carlyon p.42–44[3][3] Carlyon p.45[4][4] Carlyon p.48[5] Jenkins p.254–255[6][6] Jenkins p.216[7][7] Jenkins p.258[8][8] Jenkins p. 256[9][9] Jenkins p.270[10][10] Jenkins p.260[11][11] Carlyon p.47[12][12] Carlyon p.61-62[13][13] Carlyon p. 66.[14][14] Layman p.151[15][15] IWM p. 12.[16][16] Carlyon p. 70.[17][17] IWM p. 15.[19][19] Carlyon p. 72.[21][21] Carlyon p. 320.[22] Who's Who: Sir John de Robeck (http:/ / www. firstworldwar. com/ bio/ derobeck. htm), Firstworldwar.com 31 March 2002.[23][23] Marder p. 252 quoting Dardanelles commission report[24][24] Marder p. 275.[25] Marder pp. 314–20.[26][26] Jenkins p. 265.[27] Marder pp. 320–24.

Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign 13

[28] O'Connell 2010, pp. 76–78.[29] http:/ / www. dzkk. tsk. mil. tr/ muze/ Turkish/ Fsergi_alanlari. htm

Bibliography• Carlyon, Les, Gallipoli, 2001, ISBN 0-385-60475-0, Transworld publishers• Jenkins, Roy, Churchill, 2001 ISBN 0-333-78290-9, Macmillan• Arthur Marder (1961–1970). From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. Vol II: The War years to the eve of Jutland.

London: Oxford University Press.• IWM (http:/ / www. iwm. org. uk/ upload/ package/ 2/ gallipoli/ pdf_files/ Galnaval. pdf) Account of the battle

from the Imperial War Museum website (accessed Nov 2006)• Morgenthau (http:/ / net. lib. byu. edu/ estu/ wwi/ comment/ morgenthau/ Morgen18. htm) events as described by

the American ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, expressing his opinion the British could have taken İstanbul by 20March

• Nykiel (1) (http:/ / www. navyingallipoli. com/ text03. html) Minesweeping operations in the Dardanelles Feb25-March 17, 1915, Piotr Nykiel (First published in 'The Turkish Yearbook of Gallipoli Studies', ÇanakkaleOnsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Atatürk ve Çanakkale Savaslari Arastirma Merkezi, Issue: 2, March 2004, p. 81-115(including summary in Turkish).

• Turgut Ōzakman, Diriliş, Çanakkale 1915, 2008, ISBN 978-975-22-0247-4, Bilgi Yayınevi• Was it possible to renew the naval attack on the Dardanelles successfully the day after the 18th March?, Piotr

Nykiel (First published in: The Gallipoli Campaign International Perspectives 85 Years On, Conference Papers24–25 April 2000, Çanakkale 2001)

• Layman, Richard D, HMS Ark Royal 1914-1922, Cross and Cockade, Volume 14, No. 4, 1987.• O'Connell, John (2010). Submarine Operational Effectiveness in the 20th Century: Part One (1900–1939). New

York: Universe. ISBN 1450236898.

External links• War in the Mediterranean - 1915 (http:/ / www. naval-history. net/ WW1AreaMed1915. htm) includes naval

operations in the Dardanelles Campaign• Feature-length drama about the mystery of Sandringham Company, which disappeared in action at Gallipoli in

1915 (http:/ / www. imdb. com/ find?s=tt& q=all+ the+ king's+ men) (accessed Aug 2007)• Ottoman Naval History (http:/ / www. denizmuzeleri. tsk. tr/ en/ idmk/ ), extensive source of Ottoman Naval

History

Article Sources and Contributors 14

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