With Constantinople as Its Objective

Richard Prior and Trevor Wilson

• Lord Kitchener and Winston Churchill: The Dardanelles Commission Part I, 1914-15
  Stationery Office, 218 pp, £6.99, April 2000, ISBN 0 11 702423 6
• Defeat at Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Commission Part II, 1915-16
  Stationery Office, 319 pp, £6.99, September 2000, ISBN 0 11 702455 4

In the course of 1915, British naval and military forces, assisted by units from France and the British dominions, sought to gain mastery of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. Their ultimate object was to knock Germany’s ally Turkey out of the Great War. The operation was conducted in two phases. First, an attempt was made to rush a naval force through the Dardanelles to bombard or overawe Constantinople. Then a campaign was launched to seize the Gallipoli Peninsula in order to facilitate the progress of the fleet. Both actions failed comprehensively, and at the end of 1915 the whole costly undertaking was abandoned. In mid-1916 the House of Commons indicated its dismay by appointing a committee of inquiry. The committee reported early in 1917, and its reports have been reissued in these two paperbacks.