Page 336 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

336 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

the entrance to the straits and would prove vulnerable to bombardment and raiding, the
inner defenses covered the Narrows, the narrowest point of the straits near Channakkale.
Beyond the inner defenses, the straits were virtually undefended. However, the founda-
tion of the straits defenses were a series of 10 minefields, laid across the straits near
the Narrows and containing a total of 370 mines. The event that decided the battle took
4**
place on the night of 8 March when the Ottoman minelayer Nusret Iaid a line of mines
in Erenköy (Eren Keui or Arenkioi) 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 line of between 20 and 26 mines ran parallel to
the shore, were moored at 15 ft (4.6 m) and spaced about 100 yd (91 m) apart. The clear
water meant that the mines could have been seen through the water by spotter planes.
As for the warplanes of the inventory of Turkish Armed Forces, most of them were
purchased and delivered from Germany and few from France. These warplanes which
served on the Dardanelles War are Bleriot XI (French), LVG B1, Rumbler B1, Albatros
B1, Albatros C1.
The British plan for 18 March was to silence the defenses guarding the first five
minefields; they would be cleared overnight by the minesweepers. The next day the
remaining defenses around the Narrows would be defeated and the last five minefields
would be cleared. The operation went ahead without the British or French becoming
aware of the recent additions to the Ottoman minefields.

5. Allied naval assault on march 18 , 1915
th
th
In the morning of March 18 , 1914, the weather was suitable for the naval operation.
As it was around 11 o’clock, Triumph in the front and warships namely Agamemnon,
Lord Nelson, Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible, Prince George respectively and five torpedoes
following them began to be seen in the Seddülbahir di rection. It was understood from
the reports of the reconnais sance plane that there were totally 19 warships, 15 of which
were British and 4 were French, and 3 cruisers, many torpedoes, ships of destruction and
transportation in the vicinity of Tenedos, out of the Straits.
At 11:30, 4 French ships (Suffren, Charlemagne, Galois and Bouvet) departed from
Seddülbahir and entered to the Dardanelles. Weymouth Cruiser began to bombard
Yenişehir as soon as it was seen behind Kumkale.
The British ships made a division of the firing task: Prince George to the direction of
Zenger and Baykush; Queen Elizabeth to the Anatolian Hamidiye Redoubt, Agamem-
non and Lord Nelson to the Kilitbahir Group; Inflexible to the directions of Halileli,
Erenköy and Mecidiye; Triumph to the Dardanos Redoubt.

4 Nusret (or 'Nousret') (Lt Cdr Tophaneli Hakki)- 365t, 15 knots, 40mines/2-4.7cm, launched 1912, was one of
**
a number of miscellaneous mine warfare ships. On the night of the March 8 ., 1915, under the guidance of Lt.
th
Col. Geehl, a Turkish mine expert, she laid a line of 20 mines in Eren Keui or Arenkioi Bay at the time of the
Allied naval attack on the Dardanelles defenses. Ten days later on the March18 ,, British pre-dreadnought
th
battleships 'Irresistible' and 'Ocean' and the French 'Bouvet' were all lost in this small field, and British
battlecruiser 'Inflexible' badly damaged. If any one small ship changed the course of World War I, it must be
"Nusret". An accurate reproduction of Nusret has been on the shore at Army-Navy Park, Channakkale in the
Dardanelles.