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The Importance of the Dardanelles
If any single piece of real estate was believed to hold the key to winning the war, it was the lands surrounding the Dardanelles, the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia in northwestern Turkey. Control of the only waterway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea was crucial both economically and militarily. Turkey’s entrance into the war in November 1914 placed the Dardanelles squarely in German hands, physically separating the Russian and Allied naval forces and effectively preventing them from cooperating. German control of the strait also meant that Russian wheat could not be shipped to Britain and that British military equipment could be shipped only by means of a treacherous northern route to the Russian ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
Britain and France’s Failed Assault on the Dardanelles
From the time that Turkey entered the war in November 1914, Winston Churchill, first lord of the British Admiralty, began working on a plan to reopen the Dardanelles. The British military leadership believed that this goal could be achieved without ground forces, using naval power alone. Given the significant losses the British army suffered defending France against the Germans, this idea of a navy-only campaign for the Dardanelles was politically important. On November 3, two days after Turkey entered the war, British and French ships made a brief military demonstration by firing on the forts guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles—a symbolic attack that did little actual damage.
After months of planning, but with significant disagreement remaining about objectives, Britain and France launched a naval attack on the Dardanelles on March 18, 1915. A fleet led by 16 British and French battleships attempted to force its way into the strait, with the goal of opening it by bombarding the dozens of Turkish coastal forts along the way. Although minesweeping ships had been sent ahead to clear a path, five battleships were either sunk or disabled by mines. With about one-third of the British and French battleships lost before the attack was even under way, the remaining ships were pulled back. Allied military commanders changed their objectives and decided instead to send ground forces to take over the Gallipoli Peninsula bordering the northern side of the strait.
The Invasion of Gallipoli
After a delay of more than a month, Allied troops—including major contingents from Australia and New Zealand—launched their plan to seize Gallipoli using ground forces. The invasion began on April 25, 1915, and the landing proceeded with relative ease. The first Turkish regiments the Allied forces encountered quickly fled the scene, making it seem as if the invasion would be an easy one.
As it turned out, the invasion was anything but easy. Turkish forces returned in overwhelming numbers and pushed the Allied troops back to the beaches, where they were trapped with their backs to the sea. They remained entrenched on the beaches until January of the next year, when Britain finally pulled out in defeat. Battle raged for the entire time, with neither side making significant headway, and with losses on both sides in the hundreds of thousands.
Mesopotamia
Meanwhile, a second struggle between the British and the Turks ensued at the opposite end of the Ottoman Empire, this time for control of the oil fields of Mesopotamia. On November 5, 1914, a force of British and Indian soldiers launched an attack on the major Ottoman port of Basra. They quickly secured not only the port but also the oil fields and pipeline at Abadan, which had been one of the key objectives of the invasion.
A few months later, in early 1915, while battle raged at Gallipoli, a British and Indian force launched a campaign up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers aimed at taking Baghdad. On June 15, 1915, they captured the Turkish garrison of Amara without a fight, though they only were able to take Nasiriya on July 24 after a difficult fight in the marshes of the Euphrates. Though they were able to reach and occupy Kut on September 28, they were forced to retreat only 20 miles from Baghdad, at Ctesiphon. Turkish forces besieged the retreating British at Kut, who held out for five months before all 10,000 survivors of the British-led force surrendered—the largest surrender of British troops in history up to that time.
A Two-Front War for Britain
At the start of World War I, British leaders were aware that the Ottoman Empire was slowly falling apart and thus did not regard Turkey as a serious opponent. As a result, Britain expected quick victories in both the Dardanelles and in Mesopotamia—victories that Britain needed badly in light of the gridlocked trench warfare on the western front. When Turkey also became a quagmire, it was a heavy blow for Britain and sent shockwaves through the government and military leadership, even costing Winston Churchill his job as first lord of the British Admiralty. Though British military leaders did have the advantage of being able to recruit forces from the many nations in its empire, the situation in Turkey and Mesopotamia left Britain facing a war on multiple fronts.
Events Timeline
November 5, 1914
British forces launch attack on Basra, Mesopotamia
March 18, 1915
Britain and France attack the Dardanelles
May–June
British forces in Mesopotamia advance up the Tigris
July 24
British forces begin attack on Nasiriya
April 25
Invasion of Gallipoli begins
September 28
British forces occupy Kut
November 22
British forces attack Ctesiphon
November 25
British forces retreat after major defeat at Ctesiphon
December 10
British begin evacuation of Gallipoli
January 9, 1916
Last British troops leave Gallipoli
April 29
British forces surrender to Turks after being driven back to Kut
Key People
Winston Churchill
First lord of the British Admiralty; demoted and eventually resigned after British invasion of Turkey became a quagmire
