At this moment, one hundred years ago, Feb / March 1915 - the Allies were involved in a naval
assault against Turkey at the Dardanelles. The intention was to force a passage through
to the Sea of Marmora. Once there, they would sail to
Constantinople (now Istanbul) and threaten the
very heart of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The envisioned result was
that the Turks would surrender and withdraw from the war.
This plan was the result of a number of factors which were
to give birth to the Gallipoli Campaign:
-Russia
was under immense pressure in their fighting against the Germans and
Austro-Hungarians (Central Powers).
- In the Caucasus region, Turkey
was also pressuring Russia,
who appealed to Britain
for help.
- Opening up the Dardanelles would allow Russia access to the rest of the world via their
warm water ports in the Black Sea.
-The Allies considered the Ottoman
Empire an easier opponent to fight than the other members of the
Central Powers.
- Britain
had the most powerful navy in the world, but it was restricted in its attempts
to engage the Germans, who were avoiding contact. So the Royal Navy eagerly awaited an opportunity to
be employed more fully.
- Greece,
Bulgaria and Romania were at present sitting on the fence, so
an Allied victory over Turkey
had the highly possibility of enticing them to join the Allies to fight the
Central Powers.
British First Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Jackie Fisher, was
champing at the bit to get his ships into action. He had a plan for a direct naval
attack on Germany, with
Russian divisions being landed via the Baltic Sea.
There was also a plan for the navy to aid a landing in Belgium to
outflank the German trenches on the Western Front.
But then Winston Churchill (Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty) had the idea to attack the Dardanelles.
As early as 1906 the British General Staff had considered
operational strategies to attack Turkey by means of a combined Army
and Naval assault; but the plan was not recommended.
Now in 1915, the idea of a
combined assault was dismissed because of a lack of man-power. The majority of
troops were needed for the fighting in Europe, and only garrison forces were
available for the Mediterranean.
Churchill was dead-set on using the Navy to carry out the
task, and was convinced that his big ships with big guns could reduce the
Turkish forts in the Dardanelles. Most Naval
men abhorred the idea of an attack by sea alone, but eventually Churchill’s
persistence and enthusiasm won a few followers.
Eventually even Lord Kitchener
thought it worth a go; especially as it meant not robbing any of his troops
from the Western Front. If troops were required to fill any occupation role he
considered General Birdwood’s Anzacs, who were already in Egypt.
Lord Fisher’s plan was shelved.
So on the 19th of February 1915, the combined
British and French Navies commenced operations to penetrate the Dardanelles.
