Henceforth the navy played a subordinate though not insignificant
part in the campaign. "By our navy we went there and were kept
there," writes Mr. John Masefield in _Gallipoli_, "and by our navy
we came away. During the nine months of our hold on the peninsula
over 300,000 men were brought by the navy from places three, four,
or even six thousand miles away. During the operations some half
of these were removed by our navy, as sick and wounded, to ports
from 800 to 3000 miles away. Every day, for 11 months, ships of
our navy moved up and down the Gallipoli coast bombarding the Turk
positions. Every day during the operations our navy kept our armies
in food, drink and supplies. Every day, in all that time, if weather
permitted, ships of our navy cruised in the Narrows and off
Constantinople, and the seaplanes of our navy raided and scouted
within the Turk lines."
On May 12 the predreadnought _Goliath_ was torpedoed by a Turkish
destroyer; and on May 25-26 the German submarine _U 23_, which
had made the long voyage by way of Gibraltar, sank the _Triumph_
and the _Majestic_. It was upon a forewarning of this attack that
Admiral Fisher, according to his own statement, resigned as a protest
against the retention of the _Queen Elizabeth_ and other capital
units in this unpromising field. British and French submarines, on
the other hand, worked their way into the Sea of Marmora, entered
the harbor of Constantinople, and inflicted heavy losses, including
two Turkish battleships, 8 transports, and 197 supply vessels.
So almost unprecedented were the problems of a naval attack on the
Dardanelles that it appears rash to condemn either the initiation
or the conduct of an operation that ended in failure when seemingly
on the verge of success. Clearly, the campaign was handicapped
by lack of unanimous support and whole-hearted faith on the part
of authorities at home. It was not thoroughly thought out at the
start, and was subjected to trying delays. No advantage was ever
taken of the invaluable factor of surprise. Even so, it was not
wholly barren of results. It undoubtedly relieved Russia, kept
Bulgaria neutral for at least five months, and immobilized 300,000
Turks, according to Lord Kitchener's estimate, for nine months'
time. Nevertheless, the final failure was a tremendous blow to
Allied prestige. Upon the withdrawal, in January of 1916, some
of the troops were transferred to Salonika; and it is noteworthy
that in Macedonia, as at Gallipoli, the army was dependent on the
navy for the transport of troops, munitions, and in fact virtually
everything needed in the campaign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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