Dardanelles campaign

In World War I, unsuccessful Allied naval operations 1915 against the Turkish‐held Dardanelles, a narrow channel between Asiatic and European Turkey, forming a passage between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmora and thence to the Black Sea. After a series of unsuccessful naval attacks January–March 1915, the idea of a purely naval attack was abandoned, and instead planning began for a military action against the Gallipoli peninsula. The only real impact of the naval attack was to alert the Turkish army so that they had time to reinforce and fortify the area before the Gallipoli landings.

Winston Churchill first suggested attacking the Dardanelles in order to defend Egypt at the War Cabinet 25 November 1914. On 2 January 1915 the Russian government asked for some military diversion to relieve pressure on the Eastern Front, but Kitchener said he had no troops available. Instead a naval attack was mounted 19 February 1915 by eight warships, which fired at the various coastal defence batteries and put landing parties ashore to wreck some of the forts. On 18 March an attempt was made to run warships through the channel but four were lost to gunfire and mines and others damaged. The Allies lost some 750 sailors while the Turks lost fewer than 200.