The Anglo-French March 18, 1915 naval bombardment of the Turkish forts on the European and Asian sides of the Dardanelles significantly reduced the forts. The loss of the French battleship Bouvet, which hit a mine and sank, and the severe damage to the British Irresistible and Inflexible, deterred further attempts.
Das Dardanellengebiet am 18 März 1915Mit Genehmigung der Illustri[e]rten Zeitung, LeipzigDardennellen EngeEuropäische SeiteKlein-AsienStrandbatterienA 246E.P. & Co. A.-G.,L.The Dardanelles area on March 18, 1915With the permission of the Illustrated Newspaper, LeipzigDardanelles straitEuropean sideAsia MinorShore batteriesA 246E.P. A.-G. & Co., L.Reverse, handwritten:Lille, 26 XI 1915 (November 26)
February 19 to March 18, 1915
Gallipoli Front
The Allied naval attempt to force a fleet through the Dardanelles was the first part of the Allied Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns. The campaigns were an attempt to drive Turkey out of the war by seizing the Turkish capital of Constantinople and overthrowing the government, replacing it with one that would bring Turkey back into the war on the side of the Entente powers, or keep it neutral.
Many participating in the debate, in both the army and navy, and in both France and Britain, insisted that the navy's role in an attack on Constantinople would be to transport an invasion force, and to provide support for it. Others, including Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, argued that a purely naval assault could succeed, that it could “force the Straits”, with French and British ships out-duelling the Turkish forts on the European and Asian sides of the Dardanelles, sweeping the Turkish minefields that formed a second line of the Turkish defense, passing though the Dardanelles to cross the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople itself, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, at the mouth of the Bosporus leading to the Black Sea, and subdue it, overthrowing the government, and putting in place one that would join the Allies or remove a neutral Turkey from the war.
Churchill argued forcefully for the Navy waging the battle alone, and his plan carried the day. Although there were reports of German submarines in the Mediterranean, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy had both battleships and submarines, French and British warships commanded the sea, and blocked the Dardanelles. Still, reaching Constantinople by sea was likely to be costly. The naval forces first needed to out-duel the Turkish forts on the European and Asian sides of the Dardanelles, then sweep the Turkish minefields that formed a second line of the Turkish defense. They would face additional forts approximately 20 miles into the Dardanelles at the Narrows before continuing to Gallipoli, a city of 30,000 at the entrance to the Sea of Marmora. Constantinople itself lay across the Sea, at the mouth of the Bosporus leading to the Black Sea. The naval force would then have to besiege or otherwise take the capital of the Ottoman Empire, subdue it, overthrow the government, and put in place one more sympathetic to the Allies.
The Navy was of two minds. Ships were simply too valuable to risk in such an attack: they were expensive and building them took a long time. On the other hand, the goal was worth the risk to the ships and their men. The reports of German submarines in the Mediterranean compounded the Navy's fears.
Churchill was able to bring others around including First Sea Lord John Fisher and the cabinet. Those in favor of the naval assault won out, and the attempt to force the strait was launched.
Throughout the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, the Allies operated on outdated information. The Turkish forts had been improved with German guns in recent years, and more had been added not only at the forts, but also along the Strait. The German military mission headed by Liman von Sanders had improved weaponry and the army itself. Many Turkish units were commanded by German offices.
The first attack took place on February 19, 1915 when Allied warships shelled the outer forts putting some of them out of commission. As the Turks abandoned the forts, the Allies landed demolition parties to reduce them further.
Inclement weather minimized further attacks, but on March 18, 1915 the ships and weather aligned for a major Allied attack. The plan called for an initial line of British ships that would begin the assault, then give way to a second line of French ships. A third British line would relieve the French later in the day. Minesweepers would clear the minefields throughout the attack.
At 10:30 AM the first line of British ships - Agamemnon, Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible, Lord Nelson, Triumph, and Prince George - advanced into the Dardanelles on their way to their battle station about 10 miles into the Strait. Their targets were the forts of the Narrows. The ships made steady progress under fire of the forts lining the strait.
At 11:25, the British ships opened fire on the forts that lay eight miles beyond. The guns of the forts did not have the range to respond to the British attack, and were silent.
Shortly after noon, the French line of Gaulois, Charlemagne, Suffren, and Bouvet, flanked by the British ships Majestic and Swiftsure, advanced into the Dardanelles. All the Allied ships bombarded the forts till shortly before 2:00 PM when the French battleships turned to withdraw to be replaced by the third line of British warships. Turning in a bay along the Strait, the Bouvet struck a mine, one of a recently laid line parallel to the shore rather than across the strait, and unknown to the Allies, and sank in two minutes losing her captain and 639 men. At 4:11, the Inflexible struck a mine. Soon after, Irresistible struck one. The Allied fleet withdrew.
Keyes, second in command of the British fleet, was eager to renew the battle the next day, but those who had opposed the plan, now that their fears of losing ships had been realized, prevailed. There was no renewal of the battle for surface ships to shell their way to Constantinople, and planning began for an invasion that would become the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Although there were no more surface attempts to reach Constantinople, British and French submarines successfully navigated the Dardanelles, sank ships in the Sea of Marmora, and shelled Constantinople.
Passage through the Dardanelles was treacherous. The Turks sank a steel net across the Narrows. The first British submarine to hit it did so repeatedly and broke through the barrier. The Narrows were naturally treacherous: currents flowed in opposite directions, with a warmer surface current flowing east to the Black Sea over a colder lower current flowing west. Where these currents met, the water was turbulent. The minefields that had sunk Bouvet and other Allied ships, posed a threat to the submarines, but only one was directly lost to mines. Allied submariners shared their knowledge, and roamed relatively freely, though they never crossed the Bosporus and into the Black Sea.
Britain lost four submarines in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns of 1915, and a fifth late in the war. On April 15, 1915, the British submarine E 15 was stranded on Kephez Point in the Dardanelles, and was torpedoed to prevent her falling into enemy hands. Two weeks later on April 30, AE 2 was sunk by Turkish gunships in the Sea of Marmora. On September 4, 1915, E 7 was sunk by enemy fire, and on November 6, 1915, E 20 was sunk, both in the Dardanelles. On January 8, 1918, E 14 was sunk by enemy gunfire off Kum Kale, the point at the mouth of the Dardanelles on the Asian shore.
The French lost four submarines in 1915 in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns. On January 17, 1915, Saphir was wrecked trying to avoid minefields in the Dardanelles. The Joule struck a mine and sank in the Sea of Marmora on May 1, 1915. A German submarine sank the French submarine Mariotte in the Dardanelles on July 26, 1915. On October 31, Turquoise was sunk by Turkish vessels in the Sea of Marmora. Salvaged by the Turks, Turquoise entered the Turkish navy as Mustedieh-Ombashi. It was restored to France after the war.
Start Date: 1915-02-19
End Date: 1915-03-18
