The Dardanelles and Gallipoli

In January 1915 Russia asked its Allies (France and Britain) for help to fight the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey) who were attacking them on three Eastern fronts.

The Allies were reluctant to commit troops to the East as this would mean taking them away from the Western Front.

Lord Kitchener suggested a naval attack was the only solution and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, suggested the Dardanelles waterway next to the Gallipoli peninsula, at the entrance to the Black Sea, as a possible target.

British ships began shelling Turkish forts in February 1915.

Naval disaster at the Dardanelles

Albert Tidman of Eynesbury, who was serving with the Royal Navy at the Dardanelles, wrote home to say that he had helped to rescue sailors who had survived the torpedoing of HMS Goliath, when 570 of the 700 strong crew died. Goliath had been providing cover for the soldiers landing on the beaches at Gallipoli.

1/5th Beds at the Dardanelles

The failure of the naval bombing campaign at the Dardanelles led to the decision to send troops to the Gallipoli peninsula.

On the 10th September the St Neots Advertiser published a letter from Sergeant-Major Milton reporting the many challenges of the fighting at Gallipoli; the heat, the dust, the lack of water, the steep hilly terrain, the insects and the Turkish snipers – including women – who could look down on the approaching Allied soldiers and pick them off as they advanced. The death of well-known local man, Captain Rudolph Smythe at the Dardanelles was also announced.