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171-644: The agreement was based on the premise that the Triple Entente would achieve success in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I and formed part of a series of secret agreements contemplating its partition. The primary negotiations leading to the agreement took place between 23 November 1915 and 3 January 1916, on which date the British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot , initialled an agreed memorandum. The agreement

342-763: A jihad (holy war) later that month. The Caucasus campaign , an Ottoman attack on Russia through the Caucasus Mountains began in December, leading the Russians to call for aid from Britain in January 1915. The Mesopotamian campaign began with a British landing to occupy the oil facilities in the Persian Gulf . The Ottomans prepared to attack Egypt in early 1915, to occupy the Suez Canal and cut

513-571: A railway bridge. The bridge was destroyed but Lyon failed to return. Attempts were also made to disrupt the railways running close to the water along the Gulf of İzmit , on the Asian shore of the sea. On the night of 20 August, Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly-Hughes from E11 swam ashore and blew up a section of the railway line. On 17 July, HMS  E7 bombarded the railway line and then damaged two trains that were forced to halt. French attempts to enter

684-405: A 4-hour search. In 1934, Keyes wrote that The fear of their fire was actually the deciding factor of the fortunes of the day. For five hours the [destroyer] Wear and picket boats had experienced, quite unperturbed and without any loss, a far more intense fire from them than the sweepers encountered... the latter could not be induced to face it, and sweep ahead of the ships in 'B' line.... I had

855-650: A Russo-Japanese agreement and a Japanese guarantee for France's strategically vulnerable possessions in Indochina. Britain encouraged the Russo-Japanese rapprochement. Thus was built the Triple Entente coalition that fought World War I. At the start of World War I in 1914, all three Triple Entente members entered it as Allied Powers against the Central Powers : Germany , Austria-Hungary ,

1026-553: A democratic peace without annexation and without indemnities, based on the principle of the independence of nations, and of their right to determine the nature of their own development themselves". Peace negotiations with the Quadruple Alliance—Germany, Austria–Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey—started at Brest–Litovsk one month later. On behalf of the Quadruple Alliance, Count Czernin , replied on 25 December that

1197-535: A doubt as to whether our pledges to King Hussein as head of the Arab nation are consistent with French intentions to make not only Syria but Upper Mesopotamia another Tunis. If our support of King Hussein and the other Arabian leaders of less distinguished origin and prestige means anything it means that we are prepared to recognize the full sovereign independence of the Arabs of Arabia and Syria. It would seem time to acquaint

1368-413: A few hours if the attack had resumed on 19 March. Further, he thought that Turkey itself might well disintegrate as a state once the capital fell. The main minefields at the narrows, over ten layers deep, were still intact and protected by the smaller shore guns that had not seen any action on 18 March. These and other defences further in the strait had not exhausted their ammunition and resources yet. It

1539-494: A flat trajectory which, coupled with the inherently unstable gun platform, resulted in reduced accuracy. The battleships' guns did prove effective against exposed lines of troops. On 27 April, during the first Ottoman counter-attack at Anzac, the Ottoman 57th Infantry Regiment attacked down the seaward slope of Battleship Hill within view of Queen Elizabeth which fired a salvo of six fifteen in (380 mm) shells, halting

1710-601: A gale on 31 October and was wrecked. The destruction of the stranded ship was accelerated by Ottoman gunfire. Another important aspect of the allied naval operations was transporting thousands of soldiers to and from the Dardanelles over the Mediterranean Sea. The major threats were attacks by German and Austrian-Hungarian submarines and mines. The worst loss during the Dardanelles Campaign was

1881-661: A joint memorandum containing what was to become known as the Sykes–Picot Agreement. They had agreed to compromise on the two primary areas of difference—they split the Mosul Vilayet in two at the Little Zab river, with the French taking the northern part ( Mosul and Erbil ) and the British taking the southern part ( Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah ), and Palestine was to be placed under an "international administration,

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2052-741: A marine detachment to operate the modern guns. By mid-September, the German advisers reported that the guns in the Narrows had been refurbished and were serviceable. By October, most of the guns in the main batteries had German crews, operating as training units but able to man the guns in an emergency. Plans were made to build more defensive works in the Intermediate Zone and to bring in mobile howitzers and quick-firers dismounted from older Ottoman ships. Several heavy howitzers arrived in October but

2223-600: A naval attack. Churchill supported this idea, at least as far as restarting attempts to clear mines but this was opposed by Fisher and other members of the Admiralty Board. Aside from difficulties in the Dardanelles, they were concerned at the prospect that more ships might have to be diverted away from the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. This disagreement contributed to the final resignation of Fisher, followed by

2394-571: A plan for forcing the Dardanelles using battleships, submarines and minesweepers . On 13 February, the British War Council approved the plan and Carden was given more pre-dreadnought battleships, the modern battleship HMS  Queen Elizabeth and the battlecruiser HMS  Inflexible . France contributed a squadron including four pre-dreadnoughts and the Russian navy provided the light cruiser Askold . In early February 1915,

2565-479: A secret Ottoman-German Alliance against Russia , although it did not require them to undertake military action. On 2 August, the British requisitioned the modern battleships Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel and Reşadiye which British shipyards had been building for the Ottoman Navy, alienating pro-British elements. The German government offered SMS  Goeben and SMS  Breslau as replacements. In

2736-577: A series of agreements, the Entente cordiale , mostly aimed toward resolving colonial disputes. That heralded the end of British splendid isolation. France and Britain had signed five separate agreements regarding spheres of influence in North Africa in 1904, the Entente cordiale . The Tangier Crisis later encouraged co-operation between the two countries from their mutual fear of apparent German expansionism. Britain, traditionally having control of

2907-532: A shaky set of understandings that withstood various crises and emerged as a fully-fledged alliance after the outbreak of World War I. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Entente was agreed, which attempted to resolve a series of long-running disputes over Persia , Afghanistan and Tibet and end their rivalry in Central Asia , nicknamed The Great Game . and helped to address British fears about

3078-588: A significant interest in Ottoman neutrality. During the Sarajevo Crisis in 1914, German diplomats offered Turkey an anti-Russian alliance and territorial gains, when the pro-British faction in the Cabinet was isolated, due to the British ambassador's absence. On 30 July 1914, two days after the outbreak of the war in Europe, the Ottoman leaders, unaware that the British might enter a European war, agreed to

3249-782: A tentative agreement was reached between British and French Prime Ministers, David Lloyd George and Alexandre Ribot , and the Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Paolo Boselli and Sidney Sonnino ; to settle the Italian interest in the Ottoman Empire—specifically article 9 of the Treaty of London. The agreement was needed by the Allies to secure the position of Italian forces in West Asia. The goal

3420-455: A vague formula for post-war adjustment should the actual post-war allocation not appear to be balanced. The agreement was drafted and negotiated by the countries' diplomats over the coming months, and signed by the allies between 18 August and 26 September 1917. Russia was not represented in this agreement as the Tsarist regime was in the midst of a revolution. The lack of Russian consent to

3591-536: A whole was less keen to abandon the campaign, because of political repercussions of a failure and damaging consequences for Russia. De Robeck had been temporarily replaced by Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss in November 1915 for reasons of ill health. In contrast to De Robeck, Wemyss was a supporter of further action and considerably more optimistic of chances of success. Whereas de Robeck estimated losses at 12 battleships, Wemyss considered it likely to lose no more than three. It

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3762-543: Is about 41 mi (66 km), overlooked by the heights on the Gallipoli peninsula and lower hills on the Asiatic shore. The passage widens for 5 mi (8.0 km) to Eren Keui Bay, the widest point of the strait at 4.5 mi (7.2 km), then narrows for 11 mi (18 km) to Kephez Point, where the waterway is 1.75 mi (2.82 km) wide and then broadens as far as Sari Sighlar Bay. The narrowest part of

3933-593: Is required you can give it." "The main problem to be solved is to discover a middle course which will harmonise with the requirements of the various parties, which are as follows: (a) France requires a settlement which (1) while compensating her for the inconvenience and loss attendant upon the disruption of the Ottoman Empire, will (2) safeguard her historic and traditional position in Syria, (3) assure her of full opportunity of realising her economic aspirations in

4104-454: Is that the Entente is not an alliance. For purposes of ultimate emergencies, it may be found to have no substance at all. For the Entente is nothing more than a frame of mind, a view of general policy which is shared by the governments of two countries, but which may be, or become, so vague as to lose all content". Russia had also recently lost the humiliating Russo-Japanese War , a cause of

4275-486: The 100 guns in the pre-war defences, only 14 were modern long-range pieces, the rest being old-fashioned breech loaders on fixed carriages . The gunners were poorly trained, there was little ammunition and scant prospect of replacement. Night illumination consisted of a searchlight at entrance to the Straits and one at the Narrows. The forts were easily visible, there were few gun shields and other protective features for

4446-624: The Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and received southern Anatolia . The Palestine region , with a smaller area than the later Mandatory Palestine , was to fall under an "international administration". The agreement was initially used directly as the basis for the 1918 Anglo–French Modus Vivendi , which provided a framework for the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in the Levant. More broadly it

4617-653: The Baghdad Railway , which would help German expansion in the Near East . The coming into being of the entente did not necessarily fix a permanent division into two opposing power blocs. The situation remained flexible. The alignment of the Russian Empire with Europe's two largest power centres was controversial on both sides. Many Russian conservatives distrusted the secular French and recalled British past diplomatic manoeuvres to block Russian influence in

4788-645: The Battle of Trafalgar ; on 23 March, de Robeck telegraphed to the Admiralty that land forces were needed. He later told the Dardanelles Commission investigating the campaign, that his main reason for changing his mind, was concern for what might happen in the event of success, that the fleet might find itself at Constantinople or on the Marmara sea fighting an enemy which did not simply surrender as

4959-472: The Central Powers . Russia declared war on Turkey on 2 November and the British ambassador left Constantinople the next day. A British naval squadron bombarded the Dardanelles outer defensive forts at Kum Kale and Seddulbahir; a shell hit a magazine and the explosion knocked the guns off their mounts and killed 86 soldiers. Britain and France declared war on Turkey on 5 November and the Ottomans declared

5130-661: The De Bunsen Committee to consider British options. Zionism was not considered by the report of the committee, submitted in June 1915, which concluded that, in case of the partition or zones of influence options, there should be a British sphere of influence that included Palestine while accepting that there were relevant French and Russian as well as Islamic interests in Jerusalem and the Holy Places. Mark Sykes

5301-615: The Gallipoli peninsula to eliminate the Ottoman artillery along the straits before resuming naval operations. The Allies also passed submarines through the Dardanelles to attack Ottoman shipping in the Sea of Marmara. The mouth of the strait is 2.3 mi (3.7 km) wide with a rapid current emptying from the Black Sea into the Aegean. The distance from Cape Helles to the Sea of Marmara

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5472-648: The Kingdom of Italy . The Triple Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance or the Franco-Russian Alliance itself, was not an alliance of mutual defence. The Franco-Japanese Treaty of 1907 was a key part of building a coalition as France took the lead in creating alliances with Japan, Russia, and (informally) with Britain. Japan wanted to raise a loan in Paris, so France made the loan contingent on

5643-564: The Near East . In turn, prominent French and British journalists, academics, and parliamentarians found the reactionary tsarist regime distasteful. Mistrust persisted even during wartime, with British and French politicians expressing relief when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917. An offer of political asylum for

5814-580: The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria . On September 4, 1914, the Triple Entente issued a declaration undertaking not to conclude a separate peace and only to demand terms of peace agreed among the three parties. Historians continue to debate the importance of the alliance system as one of the causes of World War I . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Prussia and its allies defeated the Second French Empire , resulting in

5985-597: The Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau , the ships escaped when the Ottoman government opened the Dardanelles to them, despite international law requiring a neutral party to block military shipping. In September, the British naval mission to the Ottomans was recalled and Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon of the Imperial German Navy took command of the Ottoman navy. The German naval presence, and the success of

6156-712: The Royal Australian Navy , attempted to force a passage through the Dardanelles Straits, a narrow, 41-mile-long (66 km) waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea further north. The naval operations were defeated by the Ottoman defenders, mainly through use of naval mines . The Allies conducted the Gallipoli campaign , a land invasion of

6327-538: The Russian Revolution of 1905 , and the apparent transformation into a constitutional monarchy. Although it was perceived as useless during the war with Japan , the alliance was valuable in the European theatre to counteract the threat of the Triple Alliance. Tomaszewski describes the evolution of the triple entente relationship from the Russian standpoint during the period 1908 to 1914 as a progression from

6498-755: The UK's promises to Arabs regarding a national Arab homeland in the area of the region of Syria in exchange for supporting the British against the Ottoman Empire. The agreement, along with others, was made public by the Bolsheviks in Moscow on 23 November 1917 and repeated in The Manchester Guardian on 26 November 1917, such that "the British were embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted". The agreement's legacy has led to much resentment in

6669-399: The kite - balloon ship, HMS  Manica , from which a tethered balloon was trailed to provide artillery spotting. The landing at Cape Helles by the 29th Division was spread over five beaches with the main ones being V and W Beaches at the tip of the peninsula. While the landing at Anzac was planned as a surprise without a preliminary bombardment, the Helles landing was made after

6840-468: The "question of State allegiance of national groups which possess no State independence" should be solved by "every State with its peoples independently in a constitutional manner", and that "the right of minorities forms an essential component part of the constitutional right of peoples to self-determination". Triple Entente The Triple Entente (from French entente [ɑ̃tɑ̃t] meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes

7011-415: The Acre-Dar'a line". Palestine was discussed between various members of the British Civil Service. Lord Kitchener , the recently appointed Secretary of State for War had been recalled from his position as Consul-General in Egypt; his secretary Oswald FitzGerald discussed the matter with Ronald Storrs , the Oriental Secretary in Cairo, who wrote on 28 December 1914: "the inclusion of a part of Palestine in

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7182-481: The Anglo-French navies for more ships to support the attempt had to be added to the commitment of ships for the land campaign and operations at Salonica attempting to support Serbia. Kitchener made a proposal to take the Isthmus of Bulair using forty thousand men to allow British ships operating in the Marmara Sea to be supplied across land from the Gulf of Xeros . Admiralty opinion was that another naval attack could not be mounted without support of land forces attacking

7353-412: The Arab cause and which "cannot but prejudice Allied relations and policy in the Hedjaz and may even affect whole future of French relations with the Arabs". After the French response to this, on 31 May 1917, William Ormsby-Gore wrote: The British Government, in authorising the letters despatched to King Hussein [Sharif of Mecca] before the outbreak of the revolt by Sir Henry McMahon, would seem to raise

7524-406: The Arabs regard the prospect of French Administration of any portion of Arab territory. In this lies considerable danger to our future relations with France, because difficult and even impossible though it may be to convince France of her mistake, if we do not endeavour to do so by warning her of the real state of Arab feeling, we may hereafter be accused of instigating or encouraging the opposition to

7695-403: The Arabs. Earlier, in April, the Zionists had confirmed the details of the Agreement with the British government. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had rejected all secret agreements made between the Allies and promoted open diplomacy as well as ideas about self-determination. On 22 November 1917, Leon Trotsky addressed a note to the ambassadors at Petrograd "containing proposals for a truce and

7866-416: The Arctic and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East were icebound in winter and the Baltic Sea was blockaded by the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy). Ottoman belligerence closed the Dardanelles, the remaining supply route to Russia. In November 1914, the French Minister Aristide Briand proposed an attack on the Ottoman Empire but the idea was rejected and an attempt by the British to buy off

8037-532: The Balkans, especially in the wake of the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin , which made Russia feel cheated of its gains made in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78, prevented the League from being renewed in 1887. In an attempt to stop Russia from allying with France, Bismarck signed the secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia in 1887. This treaty assured that both parties would remain neutral if war broke out. The growing rapprochement between Russia and France and Bismarck's exclusion of Russia from

8208-436: The Baltic Sea route to Russia and an attack on the Dardanelles, to control the Mediterranean-Black Sea supply route and to encourage Bulgaria and Romania to join the Allies. The urgency of the Russian appeal and disdain for the military power of the Ottoman Empire made a campaign in the Dardanelles appear feasible. On 11 January 1915, the commander of the British Mediterranean Squadron, Vice Admiral S. H. Carden proposed

8379-421: The British also claimed to want to include Lebanon in the future Arab State and this meeting also ended at an impasse. On Tuesday 28 December, Mark Sykes informed Gilbert Clayton that he had "been given the Picot negotiations". Sykes and Picot entered into "almost daily" private discussions over the six-day period; no documents survive from these discussions. On Monday 3 January 1916, they agreed and initialled

8550-399: The British government agreed to recognize Arab independence after the war in exchange for the Sharif of Mecca launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire . The area of Arab independence was defined to be "bounded on the North by Mersina and Adana up to 37 degrees of latitude , on which degree fall Birijik , Urfa , Mardin , Midiat , Jerizat (Ibn ʿUma) , Amadia , up to

8721-481: The British reserved the right to join whatever country was attacking Germany even if Germany did not start the conflict, dooming the talks to failure. According to German historian Dirk Bönker, "To be sure, the [naval] race was decided early on; political leaders and diplomats learned to bracket it as an issue, and it did not cause the decision for war in 1914. But the naval competition nonetheless created an atmosphere of mutual hostility and distrust, which circumscribed

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8892-485: The British submarine HMS  E15 attempted to pass the straits but having dived too deep, was caught in a current and ran aground near Kepez Point, the southern tip of Sarı Sıĝlar Bay, under the guns of the Dardanos battery. Seven of the crew were killed and the remainder were captured. The beached E15 was a valuable prize for the Ottomans and the British went to great lengths to deny it to them and managed to sink it after numerous attempts. The first submarine to pass

9063-418: The Dardanelles forts, which was deemed impractical for lack of troops. Kitchener visited the area to inspect the positions and talk to the commanders concerned, before reporting back advising a withdrawal. The War Committee, faced with a choice either of an uncertain new campaign to break the stalemate or complete withdrawal, recommended on 23 November that all troops should be withdrawn. The British cabinet as

9234-423: The Egyptian Protectorate [with Jerusalem as a free city could be] a possible solution... [This would make] Jewish infiltration into Palestine... less obvious and annoying to the susceptibilities of the Moslem and even certain elements in the Christian world" After the Constantinople agreement, the French approached the British with a view to working out their mutual desiderata and the British, on 8 April 1915, set up

9405-429: The European side and six on the Asian side with 72 heavy and medium guns. Most of the artillery was obsolescent but there were five long-range 14 in (360 mm) guns with a range of 9.7 mi (15.6 km) and three 9.4 in (240 mm) guns with a 8.5 mi (13.7 km) range. The remainder of the guns in the Inner Defences were mostly obsolete and unable to shoot beyond 5.7 mi (9.2 km). Of

9576-405: The French Government with our detailed pledges to King Hussein, and to make it clear to the latter whether he or someone else is to be the ruler of Damascus, which is the one possible capital for an Arab State, which could command the obedience of the other Arabian Emirs. In a further sign of British discontent with Sykes–Picot, in August, Sykes penned a "Memorandum on the Asia Minor Agreement" that

9747-425: The French government to throw Mosul into the Arab pool, if we did so in the case of Baghdad". A second meeting of the Nicolson committee with Picot took place on 21 December 1915 wherein Picot said that he had obtained permission to agree to the towns of Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus being included in the Arab dominions to be administered by the Arabs. Although the French had scaled back their demands to some extent,

9918-407: The French line to pass through and close on the Narrows forts. The Ottoman fire began to take its toll with Gaulois , Suffren , Agamemnon and Inflexible suffering hits. While the naval fire had not destroyed the Ottoman batteries, it had succeeded in temporarily reducing their fire. By 13:25, the Ottoman defences were mostly silent so de Robeck decided to withdraw the French line and bring forward

10089-424: The French, which the Arabs now threaten and will assuredly give. After discussions, Grey instructed that the French be informed of the situation, although Paul Cambon did not take the agreement that seriously. On 21 October 1915, Grey met Cambon and suggested France appoint a representative to discuss the future borders of Syria as Britain wished to back the creation of an independent Arab state. At this point Grey

10260-431: The German armies, gave the pro-German faction in the Ottoman government enough influence to declare war on Russia. In October 1914, following an incident on 27 September, when the British Dardanelles squadron had seized an Ottoman torpedo boat, the German commander of the Dardanelles fortifications ordered the passage closed, adding to the impression that the Ottomans were pro-German. Hostilities began on 28 October, when

10431-405: The German financial market in 1887 prevented the treaty from being renewed in 1890, ending the alliance between Germany and Russia. After the forced resignation of Bismarck in 1890, the young Kaiser Wilhelm set out on his imperialist course of Weltpolitik ("world politics") to increase the empire's influence in and control over the world. Russia had by far the largest manpower reserves of all

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10602-419: The Germans attempted to link a "naval holiday" with a British promise to remain neutral if Germany should become engaged in a war where "Germany could not be said to be the aggressor." Zara Steiner says, "It would have meant abandoning the whole system of ententes which had been so carefully nurtured during the past six years. There was no German concession to counter the fear of German aggression." Essentially,

10773-439: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence) before returning home on 8 December and finally delivering his report to the War Committee on 16 December. In his introduction to a 2016 Symposium on the subject of Sykes–Picot, law professor Anghie notes that much of the agreement is given over to "commercial and trade arrangements, to access to ports and the construction of railways". Loevy makes a similar point in respect of sections 4 to 8 of

10944-482: The Mediterranean route to British India and the Far East. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener planned an amphibious landing near Alexandretta in Syria in 1914, to sever the capital from Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Vice Admiral Sir Richard Peirse , Commander-in-Chief, East Indies , ordered HMS  Doris to Alexandretta on 13 December 1914 as the Russian cruiser  Askold and the French cruiser Requin were performing similar operations. The Alexandretta landing

11115-433: The Narrows would be defeated and the last five minefields would be cleared. The operation went ahead with the British and French ignorant of the recent additions to the Ottoman minefields. The battleships were arranged in three lines, two British and one French, with supporting ships on the flanks and two ships in reserve. The first British line opened fire from Eren Köy Bay around 11:00. Shortly after noon, de Robeck ordered

11286-509: The Narrows. On 19 February 1915, two destroyers were sent in to probe the straits and the first shot was fired from Kumkale by the 240 mm (9.4 in) Krupp guns of the Orhaniye Tepe battery at 07:58. The battleships HMS  Cornwallis and Vengeance moved in to engage the forts and Cornwallis opened fire at 09:51. The effect of the long-range bombardment was considered disappointing and that it would take direct hits on guns to knock them out. With limited ammunition, indirect fire

11457-412: The Near East. (b) The Arabs require (1) recognition of their nationality, (2) protection of their race from alien oppression, and (3) an opportunity of re-establishing their position as a contributing factor in the world's progress. (c) Great Britain requires (1) to assure her position in the Persian Gulf, (2) opportunity to develop Lower Mesopotamia, (3) (a) commercial and military communication between

11628-404: The Ottoman Empire were denied following the Bolshevik Revolution and the Bolsheviks released a copy of the Sykes–Picot Agreement (as well as other treaties). They revealed full texts in Izvestia and Pravda on 23 November 1917; subsequently, The Manchester Guardian printed the texts on 26 November 1917. That caused great embarrassment to the allies and growing distrust between them and

11799-463: The Ottoman defenders into reducing their obstructionism against the German advisers. The fortress commander, Jevad Pasha, wrote later that he had to improve the defences at all costs. The short bombardment had been extraordinarily successful, destroying the forts at Sedd el Bahr with two shots, that exploded the magazine and dismounted the guns. The Ottoman and German defenders concluded that the Outer Defences could be demolished by ships firing from beyond

11970-431: The Ottoman fleet, including Goeben and Breslau (flying the Ottoman flag and renamed Yavûz Sultân Selîm and Midilli but still commanded by German officers and manned by German crews) conducted the Black Sea Raid . Odessa and Sevastopol were bombarded, and a Russian minelayer and gunboat were sunk. The Ottomans refused an Allied demand that they expel the German missions and on 31 October 1914, formally joined

12141-405: The Ottomans also failed. On 2 January 1915, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia appealed to Britain for assistance against the Ottoman Erzurum Offensive in the Caucasus and planning began for a naval demonstration in the Dardanelles, as a diversion. Winston Churchill , the First Lord of the Admiralty , proposed an invasion of Schleswig-Holstein by sea, drawing Denmark into the war and re-opening

12312-518: The Ottomans and expected that the invasion would be over swiftly. The initial landings were made at Gaba Tepe by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac). The landing miscarried and the troops went ashore too far north at a place now known as Anzac Cove . In both landings, the covering force went ashore from warships with the exception of V Beach at Helles where the SS ; River Clyde

12483-476: The Ottomans sank three battleships, severely damaged three others and inflicted seven hundred casualties on the British-French fleet. There were calls amongst the British, particularly from Churchill, to press on with the naval attack and De Robeck advised on 20 March that he was reorganising his minesweepers. Churchill responded that he was sending four replacement ships; with the exception of Inflexible ,

12654-406: The Ottomans to abandon it as a transport route. Between April and December 1915, nine British and four French submarines sank one battleship, one destroyer, five gunboats , eleven troop transports , forty-four supply ships and 148 sailing vessels at a cost of eight Allied submarines sunk in the strait or in the Sea of Marmara . The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (General Sir Ian Hamilton )

12825-610: The Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean by land, (b) influence in an area sufficient to provide the personnel engaged in Mesopotamia irrigation work with suitable sanatoria, and hill stations, and containing an adequate native recruiting ground for administrative purposes, (4) to obtain commercial facilities in the area under discussion. (d) Lastly, such a settlement has to be worked in with an arrangement satisfactory to

12996-673: The Romanovs was even withdrawn by the British king for fear of popular reaction. Also, France never brought up the subject of asylum with the deposed tsar. Naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign The naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign (17 February 1915 – 9 January 1916) took place against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War . Ships of the Royal Navy , French Marine nationale , Imperial Russian Navy ( Российский императорский флот ) and

13167-699: The Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne agreement was subsequently used by the British at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to invalidate it, a position that greatly incensed the Italian government. Vereté describes how a dispute with the Ottoman Empire over the Eastern boundary of Egypt ended in 1906 when the borders were redrawn along the Rafa-Aqaba line and subsequently the fear of an attack on Egypt led to an increased strategic importance of "The hinterland of Sinai, western and eastern Palestine at least up to

13338-682: The Sea of Marmara and Nasmith was awarded the VC and promoted to Commander for his achievements. E11 sank or disabled eleven ships, including three on 24 May at the port of Rodosto on the Thracian shore. On 8 August, during a later tour of the Marmara, E11 torpedoed the Barbaros Hayreddin . A number of demolition missions were performed by men or parties landed from submarines. On 8 September, First Lieutenant H. V. Lyon from HMS  E2 swam ashore near Küçükçekmece (Thrace) to blow up

13509-428: The Sea of Marmara continued. Following the success of AE2 and E14 , the French submarine Joule attempted the passage on 1 May but she struck a mine and was lost with all hands. The next attempt was made by Mariotte on 27 July. Mariotte was caught in the anti-submarine net that E14 had eluded and was forced to the surface. After being shelled from the shore batteries, Mariotte was scuttled. On 4 September,

13680-524: The Sedd el Bahr and Kum Kale forts, meeting little opposition. On 1 March, four battleships bombarded the intermediate defences but little progress was made clearing the minefields. The minesweepers, commanded by the chief of staff , Roger Keyes , were un-armoured trawlers manned by their civilian crews, who were unwilling to work while under fire. The strong current in the straits further hampered minesweeping and strengthened Ottoman resolve which had wavered at

13851-713: The Straits could have been given to Russia upon the Allied victory. This agreement and the Sykes–Picot Agreement were complementary, as France and Britain first had to satisfy Russia in order to finalize the partitioning of the Middle East. In the Treaty of London of 26 April 1915, Article 9 included commitments regarding Italian participation in any partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The article stated: "If France, Great Britain and Russia occupy any territories in Turkey in Asia during

14022-631: The Triple Alliance. France's main concerns were to protect against an attack from Germany and to regain Alsace-Lorraine. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Britain continued its policy of " splendid isolation ", with its primary focus on defending its massive overseas empire . However, by the early 1900s, the German threat had increased dramatically, and Britain thought it was in need of allies. London made overtures to Berlin which were not reciprocated, so London turned to Paris and St. Petersburg instead. In 1904, Britain and France signed

14193-667: The UK and France both agreed, while putting forward their own claims, to an increased sphere of influence in Iran in the case of the UK and to an annexation of Syria (including Palestine ) and Cilicia for France. The UK and French claims were both agreed, all sides also agreeing that the exact governance of the Holy Places was to be left for later settlement. Were it not for the Russian Revolutions of 1917, Constantinople and

14364-481: The X ;Beach landing as well as a small landing to the north on the Aegean coast at Y Beach , later abandoned. The navy was to support the landing, using naval guns as substitutes for field artillery, of which there was a severe shortage. With a few spectacular exceptions, the performance of naval guns on land targets was inadequate, particularly against entrenched positions. The guns lacked elevation and so fired on

14535-530: The agreement and refers to British and French practicing "Ottoman colonial development as insiders" and that this experience acted as a road map for the later wartime negotiations. Khalidi point to the negotiations between Britain and France in 1913 and 1914 with respect to the Homs –Baghdad railway as well as the pre-war agreements that both empires made with Germany over other regions of the Middle East, as laying "a clear basis" for their later spheres of influence under

14706-551: The agreement with Faisal and Hussein. Hussein was persuaded to agree to a formula to the effect that the French would pursue the same policy in Syria as the British in Baghdad; since Hussein believed that Baghdad would be part of the Arab State, that had eventually satisfied him. Later reports from participants expressed doubts about the precise nature of the discussions and the degree to which Hussein had really been informed as to

14877-708: The agreement. In his doctoral thesis, Gibson discusses the part played by oil in British strategic thinking at the time and mentions the Mosul vilayet as the largest potential oilfield and France's agreement in 1918 to agree to its inclusion in the Iraq Mandate (the Clemenceau Lloyd George Agreement) in exchange for "a share of the oil and British support elsewhere". Hussein's letter of 18 February 1916 appealed to McMahon for £50,000 in gold plus weapons, ammunition and food claiming that Feisal

15048-405: The almost indelible impression that we were in the presence of a beaten foe. I thought he was beaten at 2 pm. I knew he was beaten at 4 pm – and at midnight I knew with still greater clarity that he was absolutely beaten; and it only remained for us to organise a proper sweeping force and devise some means of dealing with drifting mines to reap the fruits of our efforts. For 118 casualties,

15219-415: The attack. On 28 April, near the old Y Beach landing, Queen Elizabeth sighted a party of about one hundred Turks. One 15-inch shrapnel shell containing 13,000 shrapnel bullets was fired at short range and killed the entire party. On 27 April, an observer on a kite-balloon ship had spotted an Ottoman transport ship moving near the Narrows. Queen Elizabeth , stationed off Gaba Tepe, had fired across

15390-408: The attack. Around 16:00, Inflexible began to withdraw and struck a mine near where Bouvet had sunk, thirty crew being killed and the ship taking on with 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) of water. The battlecruiser remained afloat, was eventually beached on the island of Bozcaada ( Tenedos ) and temporarily repaired with a coffer dam. Irresistible was the next to be mined and as it began to drift,

15561-544: The battleship Goliath was sunk by the Ottoman torpedo boat Muâvenet-i Millîye in Morto Bay on 12 May and U-21 torpedoed and sank Triumph off Anzac on 25 May and Majestic off W Beach on 27 May. Permanent battleship support was withdrawn with the valuable Queen Elizabeth recalled by the Admiralty as soon as the news of the loss of Goliath arrived. In place of the battleships, naval artillery support

15732-401: The beaches and forts were bombarded by the warships. The landing at S Beach inside the straits was made from the battleship Cornwallis and was virtually unopposed. The W Beach force came from the cruiser HMS  Euryalus and the battleship HMS  Implacable which also carried the troops bound for X Beach. The cruiser HMS  Dublin and battleship Goliath supported

15903-528: The beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire had a reputation as the sick man of Europe . After the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, the French, British and Germans had offered financial aid. In December 1913, the Germans sent a military mission to Constantinople, headed by General Otto Liman von Sanders . The geographical position of the Ottoman Empire meant that Russia, France and Britain had

16074-428: The bombardment alerted the Ottomans to the importance of strengthening their defences and they began laying more mines. The outer defences lay at the entrance to the straits, vulnerable to bombardment and raiding but the inner defences covered the Narrows near Çanakkale. Beyond the inner defences, the straits were virtually undefended but the defence of the straits depended on ten minefields, with 370 mines laid near

16245-610: The border of Persia; on the east by the borders of Persia up to the Gulf of Basra ; on the South by the Indian Ocean , with the exception of the position of Aden to remain as it is; on the west by the Red Sea , the Mediterranean Sea up to Mersina ", with the exception of "portions of Syria " lying to the west of "the districts of Damascus , Homs , Hama and Aleppo ". Hussein's reply of 1 January to McMahon's 14 December 1915

16416-598: The borders of the Ottoman Empire. Lloyd George set up a new small War Cabinet initially comprising Lords Curzon and Milner, Bonar Law, Arthur Henderson and himself; Hankey became the Secretary with Sykes, Ormsby-Gore and Amery as assistants. Although Arthur Balfour replaced Grey as Foreign Secretary, his exclusion from the War Cabinet and the activist stance of its members weakened his influence over foreign policy. The French chose Picot as French High Commissioner for

16587-485: The conscientious desires of Christianity, Judaeism, and Mohammedanism in regard to the status of Jerusalem and the neighboring shrines." "Preliminary Observations"; Sykes–Picot Joint Memorandum, 3 January 1916 The first meeting of the British interdepartmental committee headed by Sir Arthur Nicolson with François Georges-Picot took place on 23 November 1915. Picot informed the Nicolson committee that France claimed

16758-618: The cooperation of the Arabs is secured, and that the Arabs fulfil the conditions and obtain the towns of Homs, Hama, Damascus and Aleppo, the British Government would not object to the arrangement. But, as the Blue Area extends so far Eastwards, and affects Russian interests, it would be absolutely essential that, before anything was concluded, the consent of Russia was obtained. Picot was informed and five days later Cambon told Nicolson that "the French government were in accord with

16929-706: The course of the war, the Mediterranean region bordering on the Province of Adalia within the limits indicated above shall be reserved to Italy, who shall be entitled to occupy it." While Sykes and Picot were in negotiations, discussions were proceeding in parallel between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca , and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon , British High Commissioner to Egypt (the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence ). Their correspondence comprised ten letters exchanged from July 1915 to March 1916, in which

17100-425: The crew were taken off. De Robeck told Ocean to take Irresistible under tow but the water was deemed too shallow to make an approach. At 18:05, Ocean struck a mine which jammed the steering gear leaving the ship adrift. The abandoned battleships were still floating when the British withdrew but when a destroyer commanded by Commodore Roger Keyes returned to tow or sink the vessels, they could not be found despite

17271-404: The eleven letters below. In the chain of agreements between France, Russia and Britain, the Russian claims were assented to first: France confirmed their agreement on 26 April and Britain on 23 May, with formal sanction on 23 October. The Anglo-French agreement was confirmed in an exchange of letters on 9 May and 16 May. In a meeting in a railway car at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne on 19 April 1917,

17442-492: The end of the Gallipoli peninsula and two on the Asiatic shore. The forts had 19 guns, four with a range of 9 mi (14 km) and the remainder with ranges of 3.4–4.5 mi (5.5–7.2 km). Four field howitzers were dug in at Tekke Burnu (Cape Tekke) on the European side, then for the next 10 mi (16 km), there was a gap until the Intermediate Defences at Kephez Point, with four defensive works on

17613-701: The establishment of the Third Republic. In the Treaty of Frankfurt , Prussia forced France to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire , souring subsequent relations. France, worried about the escalating military development of Germany, began building up its own war industries and army to deter German aggression. Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors , an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance

17784-533: The form of which is to be decided upon after consultation with Russia, and subsequently in consultation with the other allies, and the representatives of the sheriff of Mecca." The memorandum was forwarded to the Foreign Office and circulated for comments. On 16 January, Sykes told the Foreign office that he had spoken to Picot and that he thought Paris would be able to agree. An interdepartmental conference

17955-567: The growing tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary , mainly over the Balkans , where the rise of nationalism and the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire made many former Ottoman provinces struggle for independence. To counter Russian and French interests in Europe, the Dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary was concluded in October 1879 and with Italy in May 1882. The situation in

18126-416: The gun-crews and range-finding, artillery observation and fire-control depended on an telephones linked by wire on telephone poles, vulnerable to artillery-fire. The Ottoman official historian wrote, On mobilisation, the fortification and armament of the Dardanelles was very inadequate. Not only were the majority of the guns of old pattern, with a slow rate of fire and short range, but their ammunition supply

18297-881: The informal understanding between the Russian Empire , the French Third Republic , and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between France and Britain, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. It formed a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of the German Empire , the Austro-Hungarian Empire , and

18468-444: The minefields was increased with small quick-firers and four more searchlights. By March 1915, there were ten lines of mines and 12 searchlights. When the Ottoman Empire went to war on 29 October 1914, the defences of the Straits had been much improved but the Intermediate Defences were still inadequately organised and lacking in guns, searchlights and mines. On 3 November, the outer forts were bombarded by Allied ships, which galvanised

18639-497: The naval bombardment of the outer defences on 3 November, this success encouraged the British to pursue the campaign. The first French submarine operation also preceded the start of the campaign; on 15 January 1915, the French submarine Saphir negotiated the Narrows, passing the ten lines of mines before running aground at Nagara Point . Various accounts claim she was either mined, sunk by shellfire or scuttled, leaving fourteen crew dead and thirteen prisoners of war . On 17 April,

18810-523: The naval forces were supplemented by contingents of Royal Marines and the 29th Division , the last uncommitted regular division, which joined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) divisions training in Egypt. The infantry were intended for the occupation of Constantinople after the straits had been taken by the Entente navies. In August 1914, the Outer Defences were two fortresses at

18981-415: The need for Asquith to seek coalition partners to shore up his government and the consequential dismissal of Churchill also. Further naval attacks were shelved. Keyes remained a firm supporter of naval action and on 23 September submitted a further proposal to pass through the Dardanelles to de Robeck. De Robeck disliked the plan but passed it to the Admiralty. Risk to ships had increased since March, due to

19152-438: The obsolete French battleships Suffren and Vérité , attacked before a formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire. The attack was to test the Ottoman defences and in a twenty-minute bombardment, a shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd el Bahr , dismounting ten guns and killing 86 Ottoman soldiers. Total casualties during the attack were 150, of which forty were German. The effect of

19323-484: The peninsula at a range of over ten  mi (8.7  nmi ; 16  km ), and sank the transport with the third shot. For much of the campaign, the Ottomans transported troops via rail, though other supplies continued to be moved by ship on the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles. At Helles, which was initially the main battlefield, a series of costly battles only managed to edge the front line closer to Krithia. The navy continued to provide support via bombardments but in May,

19494-422: The plan assumed, without any troops to secure captured territory. With the failure of the naval assault, the idea that land forces could advance around the backs of the Dardanelles forts and capture Constantinople gained support as an alternative and on 25 April, the Gallipoli campaign commenced. Following the failure of the land campaign up to May, De Robeck suggested that it might be desirable to again attempt

19665-401: The poor standard of training of the Ottoman gunners, obsolete armaments and the chronic ammunition shortage, which Usedom reported was sufficient only to defend against one serious attack, led him to base the defence of the straits on minefields. Three more lines of mines had been laid before Usedom arrived and another 145 mines were searched out, serviced and laid in early November. Cover of

19836-551: The ports of Haifa and Acre to allow access to the Mediterranean. France was to control southeastern Turkey , the Kurdistan Region , Syria and Lebanon . As a result of the included Sazonov–Paléologue Agreement , Russia was to get Western Armenia in addition to Constantinople and the Turkish Straits already promised under the 1915 Constantinople Agreement . Italy assented to the agreement in 1917 via

20007-720: The possession of land starting from where the Taurus Mountains approach the sea in Cilicia , following the Taurus Mountains and the mountains further East, so as to include Diyarbekir , Mosul and Erbil , and then returning to Deir ez-Zor on the Euphrates and from there southwards along the desert border, finishing eventually at the Egyptian frontier. Picot, however, added that he was prepared "to propose to

20178-416: The presence of German submarines in the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara, where the British ships would be inviting targets if the plan succeeded. The Allied minesweeping force was better equipped and some of the ships had nets or mine bumpers, which it was hoped would improve their chances against mines. The Ottoman Empire had regained land communications with Germany since the fall of Serbia and demands on

20349-581: The promised revolt were being dealt with and there was a rising level of impatience for action to be taken by Hussein. Finally, at the end of April, McMahon was advised of the terms of Sykes–Picot and he and Grey agreed that these would not be disclosed to the Arabs. The Arab revolt was officially initiated by Hussein at Mecca on 10 June 1916 although his sons 'Ali and Faisal had already initiated operations at Medina starting on 5 June. The timing had been brought forward by Hussein and, according to Cairo, "Neither he nor we were at all ready in early June, 1916, and it

20520-752: The proposals concerning the Arab question". Later, in February and March, Sykes and Picot acted as advisors to Sir George Buchanan and the French ambassador respectively, during negotiations with Sazonov. Eventually, Russia having agreed on 26 April 1916, the final terms were sent by Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador in London, to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Edward Grey, on 9 May 1916, and ratified in Grey's reply on 16 May 1916. The formal agreements between Britain, France and Russia comprised

20691-475: The range of the Ottoman reply. The forts were repaired but not reinforced and the main effort was directed to protecting the minefield and Inner Defences. On 3 November 1914, Churchill ordered an attack on the Dardanelles following the opening of hostilities between Ottoman and Russian empires. The battlecruisers of the Mediterranean Squadron, HMS  Indomitable and Indefatigable and

20862-592: The region, among Arabs in particular but also among Kurds who were denied an independent state . In the Constantinople Agreement of 18 March 1915, following the start of naval operations in the run up to the Gallipoli campaign the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Sazonov , wrote to the French and UK ambassadors and staked a claim to Constantinople and the Dardanelles . In a series of diplomatic exchanges over five weeks,

21033-458: The same net caught E7 as it began another tour. The first French submarine to enter the Sea of Marmara was Turquoise but it was forced to turn back and on 30 October, when returning through the straits, ran aground beneath a fort and was captured intact. The crew of twenty-five were taken prisoner and documents detailing Allied operations were discovered, which included a rendezvous with HMS  E20 scheduled for 6 November. The rendezvous

21204-473: The seas, by 1909 saw the German navy as a serious threat to its Royal Navy. Britain was well ahead in terms of Dreadnought technology and responded with a major building program. They built a Royal Navy that Germany could never rival. The British sent war minister Lord Haldane to Berlin in February 1912 to reduce friction stemming from the Anglo-German naval arms race . The mission was a failure because

21375-568: The second British line as well as Swiftsure and Majestic . The Allied forces had failed to properly sweep the entire area for mines. Aerial reconnaissance by aircraft from the seaplane carrier HMS  Ark Royal had discovered a number of mines on 16 and 17 March but failed to spot the line of mines laid by Nusret in Eren Köy Bay. On the day of the attack civilian trawlers sweeping for mines in front of line "A" discovered and destroyed three mines in an area thought to be clear, before

21546-564: The shipping sunk was relatively minor but the effect on Ottoman communications and morale was significant. On his return, Boyle was immediately awarded the Victoria Cross. Boyle and E14 made a number of tours of the Sea of Marmara. His third tour began on 21 July, when he passed the straits, despite the Ottomans having installed an anti-submarine net near the Narrows. HMS  E11 (Lieutenant-Commander Martin Nasmith ) also cruised

21717-532: The ships were expendable. To place the losses into perspective, the Navy had ordered six hundred new ships during the period Admiral Fisher was First Sea Lord, approximately corresponding with the length of the Dardanelles campaign. De Robeck wrote on 18 March, After losing so many ships I shall obviously find myself superseded tomorrow morning. The fleet lost more ships than the Royal Navy had suffered since

21888-439: The ships were expendable. It is not correct that the ammunition of the guns was low: they could have repulsed two more attacks. The crews of the sunken battleships replaced the civilians on the trawler minesweepers and were much more willing to keep sweeping under fire. The US Ambassador to Constantinople, Henry Morgenthau , reported that Constantinople expected to be attacked and that the Ottomans felt they could only hold out for

22059-399: The shore, were moored at fifteen m (49.2 ft) and spaced about 100 yd (91 m) apart. The clear water meant that the mines could have been seen through the water by reconnaissance aircraft. The British plan for 18 March was to silence the defences guarding the first five minefields, which would be cleared overnight by the minesweepers. The next day the remaining defences around

22230-444: The six European powers, but it was also the most backward economically. Russia shared France's worries about Germany. Additionally, the Russians feared that the Ottomans, who had received assistance from the British under Admiral Limpus, et al., the French, and the Germans to reorganize and modernize the Ottoman armed forces, would come to control the Dardanelles , a vital trade artery that carried two-fifths of Russia's exports. There

22401-567: The soon to be occupied territory of Syria and Palestine. The British appointed Sykes as Chief Political Officer to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. On 3 April 1917, Sykes met with Lloyd George, Curzon and Hankey to receive his instructions in this regard, namely to keep the French onside while pressing for a British Palestine. First Sykes in early May and then Picot and Sykes together visited the Hejaz later in May to discuss

22572-581: The south shore and one on the north shore. The fortresses had been built to cover a minefield, which in August 1914 was a line of mines across the strait from Kephez Point to the European shore. Fort Dardanos was the main work which had two new 6-inch naval guns and the rest contained ten small quick-firing guns with shields. At the Narrows, the Inner Defences had the heaviest guns and some mobile light howitzers and field guns. Five forts had been built on

22743-486: The space for peaceful diplomacy and public recognition of shared interests, and helped to pave the twisted road to war in Europe." The Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defense and so Britain was free to make its own foreign policy decisions in 1914. As British Foreign Office Official Eyre Crowe minuted, "The fundamental fact, of course,

22914-483: The start of the offensive; on 4 March, twenty-three marines were killed raiding the outer defences. Queen Elizabeth was called on to engage the inner defences, at first from the Aegean coast near Gaba Tepe , firing across the peninsula and later in the straits. On the night of 13 March, the cruiser HMS  Amethyst led six minesweepers in an attempt to clear the mines. Four of the trawlers were hit and Amethyst

23085-401: The strait is 14 mi (23 km) upstream, from Chanak to Kilid Bahr at 1,600 yd (1,500 m), where the channel turns north and widens for 4 mi (6.4 km) to Nagara Point. From the point, the passage turns north-east for the final 23 mi (37 km) to the Sea of Marmara. The Ottomans used the term "fortress" to describe the sea defences of the Dardanelles on both sides of

23256-530: The straits was the Australian HMAS ; AE2 (Lieutenant-Commander Henry Stoker ) which got through on the night of 24/25 April. The army landings at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove began at dawn on 25 April. Although AE2 sank one Ottoman destroyer, thought to be a cruiser, the submarine was thwarted by defective torpedoes in several other attacks. On 29 April, in Artaki Bay near Panderma, AE2

23427-523: The terms of Sykes–Picot. Italy's participation in the war, governed by the Treaty of London , eventually led to the Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in April 1917; at this conference, Lloyd George had raised the question of a British protectorate of Palestine and the idea "had been very coldly received" by the French and the Italians. The War Cabinet, reviewing this conference on 25 April, "inclined to

23598-527: The time, in defensive mode at a line on the eastern edge of the Sinai at El Arish and 15 miles from the borders of Ottoman Palestine. Lloyd George "at once" consulted his War Cabinet about a "further campaign into Palestine when El Arish had been secured". Pressure from Lloyd George (over the reservations of Chief of the General Staff ) resulted in the capture of Rafa and the arrival of British forces at

23769-447: The trawlers withdrew under fire. This information was not passed on to de Robeck. At 13:54, Bouvet —having made a turn to starboard into Eren Köy Bay—struck a mine, capsized and sank within a couple of minutes, killing 639 crewmen, only 48 survivors being rescued. At first it appeared that the ship had been hit in a magazine and de Robeck thought that the ship had struck a floating mine or been torpedoed . The British pressed on with

23940-406: The view that sooner or later the Sykes–Picot Agreement might have to be reconsidered ... No action should be taken at present in this matter". In between the meetings with Hussein, Sykes had informed London that "the sooner French Military Mission is removed from Hedjaz the better" and then Lord Bertie was instructed to request the same from the French on the grounds that the mission was hostile to

24111-455: The war, gave way on 6 December to David Lloyd George who had been critical of the war effort and had succeeded Kitchener as Secretary of State for War after his untimely death in June. Lloyd George had wanted to make the destruction of the Ottoman Empire a major British war aim, and two days after taking office told Robertson that he wanted a major victory, preferably the capture of Jerusalem , to impress British public opinion. The EEF were, at

24282-437: The waterway from the Aegean approaches to Chanak. In 1914 only the defences from the entrance of the straits and 4 mi (6.4 km) from the north end of Kephez Bay to Chanak had been fortified. Until late October 1914, the nature of the seaward defences of the Dardanelles was known to the British and French but after hostilities commenced, information on improvements to the Ottoman fortifications became harder to obtain. At

24453-562: Was abandoned because it required more resources than France could allocate, and politically France did not want the British operating in their sphere of influence, a position to which Britain had agreed in 1912. By late 1914, static warfare had begun on the Western Front , with no prospect of a quick decisive victory and the Central Powers had closed the overland trade routes between Britain, France and Russia. The White Sea in

24624-419: Was achieved by the end of September. However, by the end of the year, the agreement had yet to be ratified by the French Government. The Balfour Declaration along with its potential claim in Palestine was in the meantime issued on 2 November and the British entered Jerusalem on 9 December, with Allenby on foot 2 days later accompanied by representatives of the French and Italian detachments. Russian claims in

24795-411: Was also Russia's recent rivalry with Austria-Hungary over the spheres of influence in the Balkans and after the Reinsurance Treaty was not renewed in 1890, Russian leaders grew alarmed at the country's diplomatic isolation and joined the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. France developed a strong bond with Russia by ratifying the Franco-Russian Alliance, which was designed to create a strong counter to

24966-427: Was also limited. The Germans secured the appointment of Lieutenant-General Erich Weber as an advisor to the Ottoman GHQ and at the end of August 1914, Vice-Admiral Guido von Usedom , several specialists and 500 men were sent to reinforce the forts on the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. In September, Usedom was made Inspector-General of Coast Defences and Mines and Vice-Admiral Johannes Merten relieved Weber at Chanak with

25137-466: Was anchored as a floating fort in Sari Sighlar Bay, south of Çanakkale. Mesûdiye capsized in ten minutes, trapping many of the 673-man crew. Lying in shoal water, the hull remained above the surface so most men were rescued by cutting holes in the hull but 37 men were killed. The sinking was a triumph for the Royal Navy. Holbrook was awarded the Victoria Cross —the first Royal Navy VC of the war—and all twelve other crew members received awards. Coupled with

25308-421: Was awaiting the arrival of "not less than 100,000 people" for the planned revolt and McMahon's reply of 10 March 1916 confirmed the British agreement to the requests and concluded the ten letters of the correspondence. In April and May, there were discussions initiated by Sykes as to the merits of a meeting to include Picot and the Arabs to mesh the desiderata of both sides. At the same time, logistics in relation to

25479-438: Was badly damaged with nineteen stokers killed from one hit. On 15 March, the Admiralty accepted a plan by Carden for another attack by daylight, with the minesweepers protected by the fleet. Carden was taken ill the same day and was replaced by Rear Admiral John de Robeck . A gunnery officer noted in his diary that de Robeck had already expressed misgivings about silencing the Ottoman guns by naval bombardment and that this view

25650-448: Was convened by Nicolson on 21 January. Following the meeting, a final draft agreement was circulated to the cabinet on 2 February, the War Committee considered it on the 3rd and finally at a meeting on the 4th between Bonar Law, Chamberlain, Lord Kitchener and others it was decided that: M. Picot may inform his government that the acceptance of the whole project would entail the abdication of considerable British interests, but provided that

25821-409: Was dispatched on instructions of the War Office at the beginning of June to discuss the committee's findings with the British authorities in the Near and Middle East and at the same time to study the situation on the spot. He went to Athens, Gallipoli, Sofia, Cairo, Aden, Cairo a second time and then to India coming back to Basra in September and a third time to Cairo in November (where he was apprised of

25992-425: Was established on 12 March with about 70,000 men . At a conference on 22 March, four days after the failed attempt by the navy, it was decided to use the infantry to seize the Gallipoli peninsula and capture the forts, clearing the way for the navy to pass through into the Sea of Marmara. Preparations for the landing took a month, giving the Ottoman defenders ample time to reinforce. The British planners underestimated

26163-445: Was faced with competing claims from the French and from Hussein and the day before had sent a telegram to Cairo telling the High Commissioner to be as vague as possible in his next letter to the Sharif when discussing the northwestern, Syrian, corner of the territory Hussein claimed and left McMahon with "discretion in the matter as it is urgent and there is not time to discuss an exact formula", adding, "If something more precise than this

26334-403: Was insufficient and direct fire would need the ships to be anchored to make stable gun platforms. Ottoman casualties were reported as several men killed on the European shore and three men at Orkanie. On 25 February the Allies attacked again, the Ottomans evacuated the outer defences and the fleet entered the straits to engage the intermediate defences. Demolition parties of Royal Marines raided

26505-418: Was kept by the German U-boat UB-14 which torpedoed and sank E20 killing all but nine of the crew. Turquoise was salvaged and incorporated (but not commissioned ) into the Ottoman Navy as the Onbasi Müstecip , named after the gunner who had forced the French commander to surrender. The Allied submarine campaign in the Sea of Marmara was the one significant success of the Gallipoli campaign, forcing

26676-418: Was not a given that one more push by the fleet would have resulted in passage to Marmara Sea . Churchill had anticipated losses and considered them a necessary tactical price. In June 1915, he discussed the campaign with the war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett , who had returned to London to deliver uncensored reports. Ashmead-Bartlett was incensed at the loss of ships and lives but Churchill responded that

26847-480: Was only with the greatest of difficulty that a minimum of sufficient assistance in material could be scraped together to ensure initial success." Colonel Édouard Brémond was dispatched to Arabia in September 1916 as head of the French military mission to the Arabs. According to Cairo, Brémond was intent on containing the revolt so that the Arabs might not in any way threaten French interests in Syria. These concerns were not taken up in London, British-French cooperation

27018-420: Was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck 's plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might lead it to attempt to regain its 1871 losses stemming from the Franco-Prussian War . The alliance also served to oppose such socialist movements as the First International , which the conservative rulers found unsettling. However, the League faced great difficulty with

27189-416: Was provided by cruisers, destroyers and purpose-built monitors which were designed for coastal bombardment. Once the navy became wary of the submarine threat, losses ceased. With the exception of the continued activity of Allied submarines in the Dardanelles and Sea of Marmara, the only significant naval loss after May was the Laforey -class destroyer HMS  Louis which ran aground off Suvla during

27360-462: Was ratified by their respective governments on 9 and 16 May 1916. The agreement effectively divided the Ottoman provinces outside the Arabian Peninsula into areas of British and French control and influence. The British- and French-controlled countries were divided by the Sykes–Picot line. The agreement allocated to the UK control of what is today southern Israel and Palestine , Jordan and southern Iraq , and an additional small area that included

27531-415: Was received at the Foreign Office, McMahon's cover stating: Satisfactory as it may be to note his general acceptance for the time being of the proposed relations of France with Arabia, his reference to the future of those relations adumbrates a source of trouble which it will be wise not to ignore. I have on more than one occasion brought to the notice of His Majesty's Government the deep antipathy with which

27702-412: Was sighted and hit by the Ottoman torpedo boat Sultanhisar . Abandoning ship, the crew was taken prisoner. The second submarine through the straits had more luck than AE2 . On 27 April, HMS  E14 (Lieutenant-Commander Edward Boyle ), entered the Sea of Marmara and went on a three-week sortie that was one of the most successful actions of the Allies in the campaign. The quantity and value of

27873-410: Was suggested that liquidating the Salonica commitment, where the troops involved never managed to aid Serbia and did little fighting, could provide the reinforcements but this was vetoed by the French. Wemyss continued a campaign promoting the chances of success. He had been present when de Robeck assumed command from Carden and was more senior but had been commanding the base at Mudros whereas de Robeck

28044-424: Was tantamount to advocating its renegotiation else that it be made clear to the French that they "make good—that is to say that if they cannot make a military effort compatible with their policy they should modify their policy". After many discussions, Sykes was directed to conclude with Picot an agreement or supplement to Sykes–Picot ("Projet d'Arrangement") covering the "future status of the Hejaz and Arabia" and this

28215-427: Was thought paramount and Cairo made aware of that. (Wingate was informed in late November that "it would seem desirable to impress upon your subordinates the need for the most loyal cooperation with the French whom His Majesty's Government do not suspect of ulterior designs in the Hijaz".) As 1916 drew to a close, the Asquith government which had been under increasing pressure and criticism mainly due to its conduct of

28386-419: Was to balance the military power drops at the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I as Russian (Tsarist) forces were pulling out of the Caucasus campaign , even though they were replaced with the forces of what would be called the First Republic of Armenia . It was clear to the Italians that the area allotted to them may not be easily given up by the Turkish Empire, such that the British Prime Minister proposed

28557-450: Was to be replaced by a similar treaty with Mandatory Iraq , and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon lasted until 1946. The Anatolian parts of the agreement were assigned by the August 1920 Treaty of Sèvres ; however, these ambitions were thwarted by the 1919–23 Turkish War of Independence and the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne . The agreement is seen by many as a turning point in Western and Arab relations. It reneged upon

28728-408: Was to lead, indirectly, to the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire following Ottoman defeat in 1918. Shortly after the war, the French ceded Palestine and Mosul to the British. Mandates in the Levant and Mesopotamia were assigned at the April 1920 San Remo conference following the Sykes–Picot framework; the British Mandate for Palestine ran until 1948, the British Mandate for Mesopotamia

28899-407: Was used as an improvised landing craft for 2,000 men. In the landing at Anzac Cove , the first wave went ashore from the boats of three Formidable -class battleships, HMS  London , Prince of Wales and Queen . The second wave went ashore from seven destroyers. In support were HMS Triumph , Majestic and the cruiser HMS  Bacchante as well as the seaplane carrier Ark Royal and

29070-447: Was widely held on board the ship. The event that decided the battle took place on the night of 18 March when the Ottoman minelayer Nusret laid a line of mines in front of the Kephez minefield, across the head of Eren Köy Bay, a wide bay along the Asian shore just inside the entrance to the straits. The Ottomans had noticed the British ships turned to starboard into the bay when withdrawing. The new row of 20 mines ran parallel to

29241-441: Was with the fleet. Churchill had preferentially chosen de Robeck. On 7 December, it was decided by Cabinet to abandon the campaign. British submarine attacks had commenced in 1914, before the campaign proper had started. On 13 December, the submarine HMS  B11 ( Lieutenant-Commander Norman Holbrook ) had entered the straits, avoiding five lines of mines and torpedoed the Ottoman battleship Mesûdiye , built in 1874, which

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