Description

At the beginning of 1915, the Allied command of the Entente decided to conduct a naval operation in the Dardanelles Strait. The author of the plan was the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, and the goal was to capture the Dardanelles and break through to Istanbul. According to the initial plan, this goal was to be achieved solely through the use of warships. These vessels were expected to destroy the fortifications and coastal batteries, which would compel the Turkish ground forces to retreat inland. However, everything did not go according to plan, and in April 1915, the Allies were forced to start a landing operation. At the cost of significant losses, they managed to capture a small piece of land in the strait, but the strong resistance from the Turkish army did not allow them to develop further success. By the end of August 1915, it became clear that the operation had failed, and a decision was made to evacuate the Allied ground units. The last military units were evacuated in the winter of 1916. The British Empire’s losses in this campaign amounted to 113,000 soldiers, while the Turkish army lost about 250,000 soldiers.