#dardanelles

[mapsontheweb]

Prelude to the Gallipoli campaign, WWI: Allied naval bombardment of the Turkish shore batteries, the Dardanelles, 19 February 1915

[whencyclopedia]

Gallipoli Campaign: Churchill's Folly in World War I

The Gallipoli Campaign took place in Turkey in 1915-16 during the First World War (1914-18). This major expedition involved British, French, Australian, and New Zealand (ANZAC) troops and was launched to break through the Dardanelles into the Black Sea, thereby providing a new supply route to Russia. The Ottoman defences remained robust, and an eight-month-long trench battle of attrition ultimately ended in an Allied withdrawal. Infamous as a costly failure, the campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties, and its staunchest promoter, Winston Churchill, was sacked from his role in the British Admiralty.

Campaign Objectives

In the First World War, the Entente powers of Britain, France, and Russia (plus their allies) fought against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (and their allies). As the main theatre of action on the Western Front in France and Belgium became bogged down in trench warfare, the Allies searched for an alternative weak spot where the interests of the enemy could be damaged. One such spot could be the Gallipoli peninsula (which connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea), then controlled by the Ottoman Empire and a vital route for shipping. This route is a narrow passage just 30 miles (48 km) long and less than a mile (1.6 km) wide at its narrowest point. It has attracted many ambitious armies over the centuries, right back to the disaster of the Battle of Adrianople, when the Roman emperor Valens (reign 364-378) was killed. Indeed, this part of the eastern Mediterranean was fought over even in legend and is the site of the Trojan War.

It was hoped that the Gallipoli Campaign would ultimately secure Constantinople (modern Istanbul), which would then permit supplies to be freely sent to Russia. Indeed, the Russian Empire had requested its allies to open up a new front in the Dardanelles. Another advantageous outcome would be Germany removing troops from the Western Front to bolster its Ottoman ally. A more vague ambition was that by controlling this region, the Ottoman Empire might even collapse. Even more ambitiously, such a collapse would enable the Allies to open up a new front against Germany, possibly breaking the stalemate on the Western Front.

The plan for an attack in the Dardanelles was promoted by such prominent figures as Winston Churchill (1874-1965), then First Lord of the Admiralty, and Lord Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916), Secretary of State for War, as a way to both alter the Western Front and better involve the Royal Navy in the war. A joint British-French naval expedition of 20 Allied ships, the Dardanelles Operation (19 February to March 1915), was dispatched to capture the forts in the straits. This expedition failed to force its way through the Dardanelles due to intense fire from the main Turkish fortresses, which included very hard-to-hit mobile artillery guns, and the unexpected density of the mines that had been laid in these waters. Nine battleships were sunk or crippled in the expedition, and a Royal Marines attack on the Kum Kale fort ended in a costly failure.

What was now required, it was thought, was an amphibious landing using a much larger body of troops. This plan was fine on paper, but when it came to putting it into practice, it was let down by several operational deficiencies, the biggest being that not enough men were made available for an operation specifically designed, rather too hopefully, to achieve big results with small means. With the Ottoman guns all still intact and their gunners fully alerted to an incoming invasion by the failed naval assault, the Gallipoli expedition was launched on 25 April 1915.

Read More

⇒ Gallipoli Campaign: Churchill's Folly in World War I

[hippography]

Title: Horses and Men of the L.T.C., Dardanelles

Artist/Maker: Dr. William Robertson (Scottish, 1818 - 1882)

Date: 1855–1856

Place: Turkey (Place Created)

Culture: Scottish

Object Number: 84.XA.619.12

Description: Two men dressed in traditional garments pose with two horses, which they hold by the reins.

Inscription(s): (Recto, mount) center, below image, in black ink: "Horses and men of the L.T.C., Dardanelles."; Below image, at lower right corner, in black ink: "W.R.";

Previous Attribution: Attributed to W.R. [Sir William Howard Russell] (Irish, 1820 - 1907)

Getty Museum Collection

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Gold Oak Wreath with a Bee and Two Cicadas.

Culture: Greek

Period: Hellenistic

Date: 350-300 BC.

Place of origin: Turkey, Marmara Region: Çanakkale (province), Dardanelles

Medium: Gold

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Perhaps one of the most evocative images of the Titanic disaster is that of the young newsboy outside the White Star Line offices at Oceanic House in Cockspur Street, London, S.W., holding an Evening News poster announcing "Titanic Disaster Great Loss of Life."

That boy was Ned Parfett, and his short life was no less spectacular. His death just as tragic, as that of the Titanic.

Six and a half years after this poignant photograph was taken, Ned was killed during a German bombardment while serving with the British army in France, just days before the Armistice. He was 22.

According to his great-nephew Dominic Walsh, young Ned enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1916, first serving as a dispatch rider before reassignment to reconnaissance duties.

Youth did not prevent bravery; he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Medal for his gallant conduct during a series of missions at the front.

Ned was one of four brothers from Cornwall Road, Waterloo, to enlist "For King and Country."

One brother served in the disastrous Dardanelles campaign of 1915, surviving to become part of the occupation army in defeated Germany.

Another brother served in the bloody battle of the Somme in 1916, only to be wounded and gassed at the third battle of Ypres in Belgium.

The third brother also survived. Only Ned failed to see out the war.

He died on 29 October 1918, less than two weeks before the end of the war.

Ned was killed near Valenciennes when a shell landed on the quartermaster's stores, just as he was collecting some clothes before going on leave.

After his death, the officer who recommended Ned for special recognition wrote to one of his brothers:

"On many occasions, he accompanied me during severe shelling, and I always placed the greatest confidence in him."

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Dracula Daily: July 18

Voyage of the Demeter

Captain's Log

July 6: all of Dracula's boxes of dirt have been stowed on the ship Demeter, but the Count himself ia not listed as one of the passangers. Curious.

July 11: the Demeter leaves the Black Sea and enters Ottoman waters, passing by Constantinople (now Istanbul; don't ask why the old name got the works, it's nobody's business but the Turks) and through the Turkish straits

July 12: the ship leaves the straits and enters the Greek archipelago in the Aegean Sea

July 13: the ship rounds Greece and enters the Mediterranean proper

Throughout the journey, all the crew have been on edge. Something feels off, but nobody can put their finger on exactly what. A crewmate disappears and some deck hands say they saw a tall thin man lurking in the shadows, but when the captain orders a full sweep of the ship, the first mate says it's a ludicrous waste of time. They search everywhere except the boxes of dirt; why would anyone possibly want to hide in one of those?

Methinks something wicked is aboard the Demeter. You can "Count" on that.

[fugengulsen]

''Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.''

Albert Camus

[herprivateswe]

A transport approaching a French battleship CHARLEMAGNE, engaged in the operations at the Dardanelles, at anchor off Mudros.