A child soldier guarding the Dardanelles, points to a sinking folded paper boat. He stands on the northern, European side; a Turkish flag flies on the southern, Asian side. He wears a Turkish fez and what may be a German naval blouse. German officers, sailors, and artillery crews supplemented the Turkish defenders of the Dardanelles. On March 18, 1915, the Turks sank or badly damaged some of the French and British warships trying to break through to Constantinople, leading the Allies to end their attempt to force the Dardanelles.

Dardanellenwacht



Kriwub



Dardanelles Watch



Reverse:

Verlag Novitas, G.m.B.H., Berlin SW 68

Logo; No. 256



Message postmarked August 21, 1916

Other views: Larger, Back

Thursday, March 18, 1915

"The scheme was to attack in three squadrons successively. The first blow was given by the four most powerful ships — Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible, Lord Nelson, and Agamemnon — which poured heavy shell at long range into the forts at Chanak and Kilid Bahr, while the Triumph and Prince George bombarded Fort Dardanus on the Asiatic coast, and Fort Soghandere, opposite it upon the Peninsula. . . . At about 12.30 the second squadron, consisting of the four French ships [Bouvet, Suffren, Gaulois, and Charlemagne] came up into action . . .

[The third squadron of six British ships then advanced as the French line withdrew to allow the strongest and first line to go forward. The Turkish forts, which had been silent, resumed fire.]

Most of the ships suffered, and as the Bouvet moved down channel with her companion ships, she was struck by three big shells in quick succession. The blows were immediately followed by a vast explosion. It was disputed whether this was due to a shell bursting in her magazine, or to a torpedo fired from the Asiatic coast or, as the Admiralty report said, to a mine drifting down the current.

. . . At 4 o'clock the Irresistible drew away with a heavy list. . . . A quarter of an hour after she sank, the Ocean was struck in a similar manner (6.50 p.m.) and sank with great rapidity. . . . Many of the other ships were struck by shell. The Inflexible and Gaulois suffered especially, and only just crawled back to be beached, . . ."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from an account of the Allied naval campaign in the Dardanelles by Henry Woodd Nevinson, a British writer describing some of the events of March 18, 1915, the last day the Anglo-French fleet tried to 'Force the Straits' to seize Constantinople. The French pre-Dreadnought battleship Bouvet had actually struck a mine, one of a line unknown to the Allies, that had been laid across an inlet, rather than across the Strait. Bouvet sank in minutes; 639 men were lost with her. The failure of the naval assault would lead to the April invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on the north side of the Dardanelles.

Source

The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. III, 1915, pp. 89, 90, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920

Tags

1915-03-18, 1915, March, Bouvet, fleet Dardanelles forts, naval assault, The Allied naval campaign in the Dardanelles, Ocean, Suffren, Queen Elizabeth, Vengeance, Swiftsure, Majestic, Albion, Gaulois