Episode 17: Setting the Scene for Gallipoli - Gallipoli Part 1

A single narrow strait helped decide the shape of World War I and it’s the reason Gallipoli becomes more than a name on a memorial. We walk through the messy lead-up that people skip: the Ottoman Empire coming off loss after loss, Enver Pasha and the Young Turks, Germany’s growing influence, and the moment Britain confiscates Ottoman battleships that were prepaid by the public. Add Russia’s desperate need for a warm-water supply route, Britain’s fear for the Suez Canal, and a Western Front that sinks into trench warfare, and suddenly a “naval-only” plan sounds irresistible.

If you want a clear, story-driven Gallipoli history recap with the political motives, military constraints, and big personalities (yes, Churchill) intact, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a history friend, and leave us a review.

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Transcript

Cold Open And Two-Part Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay. Well, I'm gonna tell you a story today, part of a story. Because this is going to be two parts. Maybe someday we'll have just like one part. Maybe. I don't I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that's likely. Uh yeah, no, we can figure it out. But it's not today. Or tomorrow. It's not today. It's not this week or next week, the week after. So I'm gonna tell you a story about Gallipoli.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hey my doodle dandies. This is Kelsey, and I'm Sarah. And we're that's no macaroni. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

No, anything about Gallipoli.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

No. It was dad says it's foolish. Shut up. Uh no, I don't. Okay. Okay. Enlighten me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Great. I'm glad. Just um because I start at the very beginning. The Gallipoli campaign was um a land campaign in World War One that went very, very poorly for the British, and it was against the Ottoman Empire. Um, it took place between February 1915 and January 1916, kinda. Um, right smack in the middle of World War I. We talked about the beginning of World War I, and I'm just going to recap that real quick.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Pretty.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

It was forever ago, yes. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, our best friend, our best friend of Austria was assassinated by Gravillo Princip, a Serbian boy, part of the Black Hand, Austria-Hungarian. The Austria-Hungarian Emperor didn't like Ferdinand, but it was reason enough to wage war and regain land in the Balkans. So he put ridiculous stipulations in place for Serbia to honor. They couldn't, so he said, fine, we shall have a war. And Germany was like, fuck yeah. And then France and Britain and Russia were like, no, and fought for Serbia's dignity, so they say. Yep. Yeah, that's what they claim. Um, that was the start of it all on July 28th, 1914. So the main players. There's two main opposing alliances during World War I, just like in World War II, which everyone seems to know more about. The Central Powers, or the quadruple alliance, that was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Then there were the Allied powers. The Allies were France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States, with the major powers here being the first three, because um that's just who was kind of like in charge of a lot of the shit going on. And they were called the Triple Entente. That was three heads. Oh, okay. Um, interesting how Japan was an ally during this war. It changed at the Treaty of Versailles, and as much as I want to, I'm not gonna talk about it anymore. But I can do a whole episode on it in case anyone wants me to. Just saying. Okay.

Ottoman Power And The Dardanelles

SPEAKER_02 3:09

While everyone is important for Gallipoli, we're only gonna elaborate on the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain because they are the two who really engaged in this conflict. So, what do you know about the Ottoman Empire?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

You know, I did for like our past episodes, I did some things on it, but I for the life of me cannot remember. I know that's where a lot of people went to like escape being found.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Like the black hand people?

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Well, yeah, that and then um what was it? Charles, Sweden. That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

He ran away over there, and then uh That's right.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

There's something Oh and then uh Hannibal also. Yes, Hannibal. I was supposed to say Hannibal also went over there because one-eyed ass just wandered over there, hid for a while. I I mean I don't think that that was the Ottomans at that point. But yeah, he went over there.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah. That's all I remember is that that's where where people would go to escape, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

They do have really lovely beaches. Oh, okay. Um, okay, so it was created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia and grew to be one of the most powerful and influential states during the 15th and 16th centuries, which are the 140 and 1500s. Um, but they were founded during the 1300s. Essentially, they had a 600-year period of power that spanned um from southeastern Europe, like the Balkans, um, the Arabian Peninsula, Asia, North Africa, as far west as Algeria. Long time, far reaching. It was a lot. Okay. Uh, part of what they controlled was an area called the Dardanelles, is a narrow strait in northwest Turkey that is uh sorry, Turkey. It has been recently requested that it is spelled and said in Turkish. Oh, okay. So it's 38 miles or 61 kilometers long, and it links the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmorra. If you don't know where the Aegean Sea is, it's the Mediterranean Sea. Okay. And then over by like Greece is the Aegean Sea. The peninsula sticks out into the Aegean Sea. The Dardanelles go around that peninsula. There's a little like looks kind of like a lake, okay, but because it's connected to other seas, it's the sea. And it's the sea of marmora, and then it goes into the Black Sea.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

I'm gonna pull up a world map.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

You know, shit, I have maps. What sea is this? The Sea of Marmora. Okay, Sarah, if you want to, I'm going to put some pictures in the um in our Google Drive. Uh, where's map one? God, it's so annoying. I love map two. I think map two is fine.

unknown 5:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Map two. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Damn it.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

No, hang on. Sorry, I need you to look at map one. Okay. Yep. So, okay. That's the Aegean Sea, which is connected to the Sea of Marmora. Um, and it has an inlet into the Black Sea. Um, it runs between the peninsula of Gallipoli in Europe and the mainland of Asia Minor. It was named after Dardanos, a mythological ancestor of the Trojans. When it belonged to Greece, it was called the Hellespont, or the Sea of Hellas, which is where King Xerces crossed to invade Greece in 480 BCE, and where Alexander the Great crossed when he visited Troy in 334 BCE. Cool. So, um, it's a popular place to go. It's a super advantageous spot uh to have control of. Uh fun fact, Constantinople was a major hub for the Silk Road routes. Three sea routes ran through the Dardanelles and into the Black Sea past Constantinople. Um, essentially, this location has always been a boon to whoever holds it. Do you want some Silk Road fun facts? Sure. Awesome. Because I wrote them down. Uh it was a network of trade routes spanning Europe and Asia operating between the 2nd century BCE to the mid-15th century CE. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

So about two 17th centuries. Wait, yeah. Nope. Yes. Okay. Pretty sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Anyways, according to various sources, the overland caravan routes covered between 6,400 and 10,000 kilometers. That seems like a lot. It is a lot. It spanned 40 modern countries, and completing the entire Silk Road would have taken an entire year, but most merchants traveled to major city hubs. Or hub cities, sorry. Cities like Constantinople and the Dardanelles. Do you like how a transition pact?

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Brought it all back together.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Good job. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Thank you. Okay.

Why The Ottomans Join Germany

SPEAKER_02 7:59

So let's look at how the Ottoman Ottomans even got involved in this war and why it might matter to Great Britain. The Minister of War, Enver Pasha, Pasha is uh a title for high-ranking officials during the Ottoman years, um, jumped in on the side of their close ally Germany and ordered a full mobilization of their forces in response to Tsar Nicholas II mobilizing HIT.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Um, on August 2nd, Enver signed a secret treaty with the German ambassador. It's simply called the Alliance of August 2nd, 1914. Just straight to the point. Yep. And it just says, I'll help you if you help me. Got it. Enver was the leader of a pro-war faction of the Young Turk government, but he was opposed by the Grand Vizier Sait Helene, uh, who wanted to stay neutral. Um, Grand Vizier is like the prime minister. Okay. You may also recognize the name Young Turks. They had inspired the Serbian nationalist group, the Black Hand, back in 1908. Before the Young Turks took power, things were not looking good for the Ottomans, their military was weak, and they were in a fiscal crisis. After the Young Turks took power, there was war after war after war in which they continuously lost territory. Uh, the same year that they took power in 1909, Bulgaria declared its independence, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Crete proclaimed its union with Greece. Okay. Um, in 1911, Italians invaded Tripoli and uh Syrenica. I hope I said that right. At the end of the war in 1912, the Ottomans had lost both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands. Okay. Um 1912, the Balkan states attacked the Ottoman provinces in the Balkans, forcing the Europe, sorry, forcing the Europe, the entire Europe, all of Europe, forcing the Empire to give up these provinces as well as the Aegean Islands. The Second Balkan War allowed the Ottomans to regain some of that territory, but they did not have time to like recover themselves fully before the onset of World War I. Okay. So why enter a war if they couldn't recover from the last one and why with Germany? Um, I found a really helpful paper written by Sevtav Dimitri called The Dardanelles Campaign and the Contending Strategies, that gives a concise list of reasons why, um, and it makes the most sense to me. First, the Ottomans tried to ally with the Triple Entente. They weren't particularly fond of the Allies' plan to partition the Empire, but an alliance was proposed anyways. Quote, if for no other reason than to get the British and the French to restrain the ambitions for Ottoman territory of their Russian ally. So they're like, what if we just be friends with you? Um, and then you leave us alone. And the Allies said, No, thank you. You seem to be falling apart, and we can take your land if that happens. So we best let it happen. Literally, they had something called the Constantinople Agreement that were like, we're totally gonna watch them fall to pieces and take it, right? And everyone's like, yeah, that's what we're gonna do. That's what, yeah. They all shook hands. So they turned to the Central Powers for help. Um, this response of the the no, thank you, we don't want to be friends, kind of made the the young Turk government a little wary of the Allies. Okay, and so the um quote promise issued by the Allies that the Ottoman territorial integrity would be protected if the Ottomans remained neutral in the war fell on deaf ears. Okay. They believed that the promise was an empty one, a diplomatic hoodwink intended to buy time and to prevent the conflict from spreading, which seems true to me. The final strike against the Allies was um the quote, unfortunate British decision to confiscate the battleships Rashadia and the and Sultan Osman, which were commissioned by the Ottoman Empire and being built in British shipyards. Um oh. Okay. So, although the author does not give an exact reason why First Lord the Admiralty Sir Winston Churchill, um, he comes back later, he decides not to give them their ships. Okay, that sounds about right. Um, but Ottoman representatives were actively in transport with crews to come get these ships. Um, even worse is the Reshidia and the Sultan Osman were prepaid completely by public subscription. So by the Ottoman people themselves, and that just made them a little bit fucking bitter. Yeah. Um, the Ottomans believed that Germany believed Germany to be strong economically, militarily, and politically. Uh they could probably win the war that was upon them. Plus, they already had a history of cooperation at this point they could feel confident in. German military advisors engaged in the modernization and reform of the Ottoman army in the pre-war period, a process seen by some foreign observers as the Prussianization of the Sultan's army. Most senior officers in the Ottoman army at the time were actually German. That's weird. Why? Because they were helping them build it up. They're um advisors, military advisors are an interesting, interesting thing. Oh god. Um because you can say, well, I'm just advising. I'm just in an advisory position. Um, but you're actually doing a lot more than that. Like you're training and you're um you're leading them, you're organizing things. Uh, so it's never really just like a hey, what if you did this? Let me give you my two cents. It's it's always seems to be, in a few cases, a little bit more than that. Um, but Germany also invested in municipal transportation, electric utilities, agriculture, and mining. Hmm, okay. So they were just getting along real well. Germany's like, we'll be your buddy. We're not gonna be like those fucking assholes. British who didn't give you the ships that you paid for.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

You paid.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

God'd be so pissed. Oh, they were. They were. Um, but Germany didn't want the Ottomans in the war yet. Not yet. They were a friendly neutral that distracted parts of the British fleet as their proximity threatened British holdings in Egypt and the Suez Canal. Uh, plus it'll be a short war. You know, best not to involve too many unnecessary people.

unknown 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

It's not gonna last long, over by Christmas. After the debacle with the ships from Britain, Germany kindly provided ship and crew to the Ottomans. And the Brits were like, no, that's now making them officially your ally. And Germany was like, this ship is now Ottoman, not German. And they were the Brits were like, Well, what about the sailors? Certainly you have to dismiss them. And Verpasta claps back, Pasha claps back with, they're Ottoman now and part of our navy. See, we sent a bunch of sailors over to Britain, do you remember? For those ships that we paid for, remember? And well gosh, they aren't back yet, and we don't have our new ships, so maybe you can just go fuck yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a reasonable reaction. Uh, I would think so. Yeah. Last note European countries had clear objectives in the war where the Ottomans didn't necessarily have like something they wanted to maintain other than just like leave me the fuck alone.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

The British quote, the British aimed to secure the road to India and the Suez Canal. The French wanted Alsace Lorraine, which is northeast France, below Belgium, and west of the Rhineland. It's a little eastern, that little, like when you picture France. Rhinelands of Rhineland once more. This is right next door to that. The little sticky outfit? Yeah. That's that. Just so you know exactly where it is. Right next to the Rhineland. Cool. The Russian ambitions were to seize the streets and Istanbul, and the Austrians desired to control Serbia and homogeny. Istanbul, fun facts. You know that 1990 song Istanbul, not Constantinople, by They Might Be Giants? Yeah. It was originally written in 1953 on the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

That seems rude.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

The city was originally a Greek colony founded around 657 BCE and called Byzantium. Okay. In 330 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great renamed it the City of Constantine or Constantinople. Okay. The Ottoman Empire then took that city in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire, and while they formally didn't change the name, locals called the city Istanbul, roughly translated to to the city. Okay. In 1930, Turkey officially requested that other countries use the Turkish names for their cities, and globally, Istanbul was adopted. Okay. It's not Constantinople now, it's Istanbul. So I guess that song isn't that rude.

unknown 17:11

No.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Okay. Alright. Um, I mean I guess that depends on who you are. If you're if you're Constantine, you might think it's a little fucking rude. Yeah. Okay. Anywho, they didn't really have anything that they wanted to. The Ottomans were like, yeah, just like maybe you leave us the fuck alone. Um,

Britain’s Stakes In Suez And Russia

SPEAKER_02 17:29

okay. So now we know about the Ottomans leading up to the war. Great Britain! Uh, we have some mention of them wanting access to the Dardanelles and the trade routes it provided to the mainland of Asia, as well as to their ally, Russia, because that was the only warm sea port. Um, was through the Black Sea. Everything else was way up north and fucking cold. Yeah. It froze over. Yeah. Kind of a pain in the ass. It is. Um, oh, a couple more things that are mildly important. They knew that the that Germany was getting real close with the Ottomans, and their geographical proximity was a little too close for comfort to their very important Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is how they quickly got to um their colonies in Hong Kong and India and over in Asia.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

So, and Australia. That way. Other side. Yes. Um, Germany had tried to get Great Britain to agree to a Neutrality Act, and they kind of wanted to do it. Um, like in the war in general. Britain was in what they called a splendid isolationism, um, according to Lord Salisbury, uh the Lord of Freezer Steaks.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

I was about to say, did he invent the steak? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

I mean, I don't really know that for sure, but I bet. I think it's not like the type of steak, it's like the sauce they use, isn't it? I wouldn't know. It's basically like a meatloaf with a fancy sauce on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I say fancy, it's not it's it's a gravy. Anywho. It is. That was Lord Salisbury favorite meal. And so now it's in every frozen food aisle. In every elementary school cafeteria. Yep. Yes. He really changed the world with his shitty steak. Yep. Anywho, so they were really taking some alone time. Um because from 1815 to 1914 is a time called Pax Britannica. Have you heard of that? No, but it sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Well, Britannica, well, isn't that a ship? The Britannica is a ship.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Okay, that's why that sounds familiar. Okay, okay. Pax Britannica is the British peace. Okay. Um so just some things that happened during this hundred-year peacetime. Um, there's the Anglo-Nepalese War. Nepalese War, yeah, from 1813 to 1816. Hey, um, make sure you pronounce things correctly.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Okay, Drew.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

I'm trying. Um the third Anglo-Maratha War from 1817 to 1818, and various campaigns during what is called the Scramble for Africa, like the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the Anglo-Bor Wars. So maybe peace is not the correct term. Oh, hang on, I'm sorry. I forgot a few things. There's also the Crimean War from 1853 to 56. I've heard of that one. Well, there's also another one in the 90s, I think it was. 80s, 90s. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyways, there's the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856. Okay. The Napoleonic Wars that ended in 1850. Oh, uh 1918, um, with the Battle of New Orleans, um, which was in 1915, which ended the War of 1812 that they were in. Oh, sorry. The Battle of New Orleans ended the War of 1812. Okay. So, um, peaceful? I think not. It never is. Some would say they're like uh Tybalt and Romeo and Juliet. That's uh that's who Drew played. Huh? That's who Drew played in high school. Really? Oh and he knows this. Peace. I hate the word. As I hate hell and all Montague's. They hated peace. Anyways. Oh my god. I forgot. So also during this time of peace, they were trying to put down women's suffrage, Irish unrest, and workers' unions. So some people might not call 1815 peaceful.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

But Britain did. Tybalt might.

unknown 21:26

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

There's comfort in it. Britain wanted to maintain a balance of power on the European continent so that their interests were protected. Historian David Reynolds sums it up pretty well by saying, quote, rather than the Pax Britannica sustaining an era of European peace, it was the peace that sustained the Pax. Indeed, Britain was almost a free rider, allowed to concentrate its resources on global expansion because of the European equilibrium. End quote.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

So um, as long as nothing changes, it's good. That would be great.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

But then Germany don't fix it.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah. It's or like if it is broke, just leave it because it's working really well for me. Okay. Um, Germany unified in 1871 and became buddies with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and that is a problem. Um so all those like little regions that we were talking about during the Great Northern Wars.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

They were like, what if we just make it really easy of Kelsey and Sarah? And we just become Germany. And they did that for us in 1871.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

They knew. They knew that we were gonna be talking about it sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

And Dobermans and all sorts of crazy stuff. So, anyways, they Germany existing is a problem because they changed things. Now they're this power as opposed to Pomeranians and Dobermans. Okay. Now they've got like they're like together now.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Um but they still didn't want to really stay out of the war until Germany invaded Belgian in August uh of 1914. Now it's Britain's problem. It was Britain's problem. They started it, probably. World War I? No. They just started a lot of problems, I feel. Just in general. They did, but they were peaceful times. Don't ask anyone else. They were peaceful. Anyway, so it really upsets the balance in Europe that uh Great Britain likes to have. So the fighting begins.

Trench Stalemate Sparks Desperate Plans

SPEAKER_02 23:27

It uh it officially begins in August 1914, and it's guaranteed to be a short war, home by Christmas, probably six months most, as all wars are. Famous last words. Extremely short. Yes. Unfortunately, that wasn't gonna be World War I. No, I can't believe it. Um the great British expeditionary force, or Beth, uh faced off against the Germans for the first time at the Battle of Mons on August 23rd, 1914. What's the Beth?

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Um I don't know. I don't know. Do you know? I don't know, sir.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

I definitely don't know. I can't help you.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

The British Expeditionary Force, or the Beth, originated in the army reform of 1908, sponsored by Richard Burden, later Viscount of Haldane. Is he a burden on society? Probably. Okay. Um, prior to this reform, it had been customary in the British Army to ship off individual units and organize them into brigades or larger units once they had reached wherever it was that they were going. Um, so they'd take all these little bitty bits and then put them together once they were already there. Okay. Um, but by the first decade of the 20th century, uh, they decided that maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea because Britain had treaty obligations to help France defend itself if Germany ever attacked. And it was um clear that they were gonna have to get their shit together. Okay. It didn't go well for the Beth. The British force was about 75,000 men and 300 guns. Guns meaning like chunka chunk of artilleries, not like pee-pee pee peews. Yeah, okay. I figured. Yeah. Just putting out there. 75 75,000 men and only 300 guns. The rest of them just ran screaming towards the front line.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

I would do that. I'm lying, I wouldn't. You're not gonna catch me anywhere near the front line. I'm gonna be back here hiding behind this tree.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Tree's blown up. Uh so am I. The Germans had 150,000 men and 600 guns. So, like, they kind of doubled their numbers. Anywho, they put up a really good fight. Uh, the Beth was well trained, their guns were extremely accurate, but numbers ended up winning this one. And the Beth and their French allies were retreated to the Marne River, and this is where things get only worse. Have you heard of the Battle of the Marne? No, Christ! Okay. I went to public school, my dude. So did I. We didn't learn any of this shit. I somehow did okay, maybe I taught myself. Alright, the first battle of the Marne. I was like, okay. The first battle of the Marne took place from the 6th to the 10th of September 1914. This marks the beginning of trench warfare that is characterized, uh, that characterizes World War I. It took all of a month uh for what was essentially a stalemate. Okay. So a Christmas at home is looking less possible. They never and they're really not happy about that. Yeah. Because they're a month in and they're just like dug into the ground, chilling the shit out of each other, and no one is moving anywhere. So they're like, fuck. Germany says we need more friends. And they initially said they didn't want the Ottomans in the war, but then they were kind of like, oh, maybe we could use our influence in both the army, like the land forces, and in the navy, because they also had their grubby little mitts in the navy, and make moves towards kind of bringing them in. And this is a sequence of events that snowball out of control that lead us eventually to Glopley.

Closing The Straits Turns Into War

SPEAKER_02 27:13

There was a British squadron of ships off of the entrance of the Dardanelles in the Aegean. Is that are those the ships that they stole from the Ottoman Empire? They're just like, look at this fancy new boat I have. Remember, scratched out your name. Yeah. They literally just exit out with red spray paint. Britain. This is Britons. Um, and they see this little Turkish torpedo boat. I don't know if it's Turkish. It's Ottoman. It's an Ottoman torpedo boat chugging along out of the straits. And the Brits go, no, no, no, far enough, old chat. Back in you go. And they turn the ship back because it was discovered that there was Germans on board. How dare they? Uh, the Germans take this opportunity to persuade the Ottomans to close the Dardanelles. How does one close the waterway? One might ask.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

One might ask.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Okay, ask me. How? How does one close the waterway? Oh, well, they extinguish lighthouses. They lay mines and put keep out signs on the cliffs. Because you're gonna read a keep out sign from a fucking cliff. Maybe it was like a billboard. Okay. Anywho. Um, binoculars.

unknown 28:23

God.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

They refuse, uh, the Ottomans refuse to let Russian merchant ships exit the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, leaving a massive amount of Russian grain to rot on ships um that could be sent sent to their allies and frequent buyers in Western Europe. Um so they say you can't send it to our enemies. So just to clarify, although the Germans have a heavy influence and control over the military and navy, it's still the Ottomans choosing to do these things. Like Enver Pasha was still like super for this. There was a lot of um other militant members of the Young Turks who were like, yeah! Not all of them, but enough. Okay. Um let's see. Regardless, quote, free passage of the Dardanelles was governed by international convention, which affected both belligerents and neutrals alike. Any interference with international shipping, therefore, was an act of war. So because they closed the Dardanelles, it was an act of war.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

Okay. Um the British just sound familiar. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

I feel like something recently has happened. Very similar. Like the Strait of Moose. Uh-huh. And I hope I say that right. I've only read it, I've never heard it said.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

I think that's right.

unknown 29:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Don't ask me. I can't pronounce for shit, so. I have not well educated myself on the nuances, so I'm not gonna comment on it.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I don't know much about it either. I was just thinking like closing off straits. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Cause that also Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Fair. Yeah. Um, okay, so quote, the British reaction initiated by first Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill was to catch and sink the ships while they were in the Marmora Sea, but he was stopped by his colleagues, the Secretary of State for War, uh Kitchener, and Prime Minister Esquith, whose priority lie in seizing Gallipoli. So their priority was to get Gallipoli. Not Churchill's, Kitchener and Asquith's. And they are the um the Secretary of State for War is Kitchener. In and this is in Britain? Yes. Oh, okay, got it. And the Prime Minister, Asquith. Okay. Um, then things get even a little bit more heated, German slash Ottoman warships, in violation of St. Halim's uh the Grand Vizier, Prime Minister of the Ottomans, um, against his orders, and under the command of a German Admiral Sushin and Minister of War and Verpasha enter the Black Sea and attack Russian ships and fortifications on October 29th, 1914. The fleet carries out surprise raids on Theodosia, Novorosik, Odessa, and Sevastopol. They sink a Russian mine layer, a gunboat, and 14 civilian ships. Oh my god. Understandably. The Allies believe that this attack was ordered from Berlin and that the Ottoman government was completely under German control. The Ottoman Grand Vizier was like, oops, sorry, that wasn't what we said should happen, and offered compensation, but the Russians said, no, fucking thank you. We've had enough of your crap attacking us in the Caucasus Mountains, blocking our boats, and now literally blowing up our spot. Get the fuck out with this we're sorry bullshit. Whose goddamn white baby is that? Whose goddamn white baby is this? In fact, I declare war on you! And on November 2nd, 1914, they were at war. Britain and France followed suit the next day. Quote, from the moment the Ottoman Empire entered the war with her naval bombardment of Odessa on the 29th of October, 1914, as an ally of Germany, the defeat of the Empire became a war aim of the Entente powers. So here's another clear goal. We're gonna take your ass down. Uh at the time I was I first started trying to write these notes, I was really big and fat and pregnant. And sitting forward to read small print articles was really hard. So I found myself a fun podcast that I wanted to share with you. It's called The History of the Great War podcast. Um he did an amazing seven-part series on the Globally campaign and had transcripts so I could read along, uh, so I wouldn't get distracted because I will get distracted. Um, the host name is Wesley uh Livesay. Um tons and tons and tons of details, so you can hop on over there and give them a listen if you want more super, super dug-in stuff about Gallipli anything really in the Great War, which is World War I. They didn't know that at the time. Okay, let's get back to it.

The Naval-Only Dardanelles Strategy

SPEAKER_02 33:06

The whole operation is supposed to be only a naval operation, no land troops. The British Navy, with some help from the French, were going to force the strait and take control of Istanbul or Constantinople by the sea. So I I okay, sorry. A few men would have to come to take Istanbul, which was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul. Not Constantinople. Thank you. Thanks for dancing along. Like I said, it would open the warm water port to their ally of Russia, and hopefully open a second front to crush Germany from um, so they were fighting on in France, and they hoped that if they took this area, A, the Ottomans would be out, B, they could then come up and attack Germany. Okay, so two sides. Um, because Russia was distracted with fighting the Ottomans. I mentioned it briefly, but the Ottoman army was harassing the Russians in the Caucasus region as well. This region is also where the Armenian genocide takes place. I would like to do a full episode on that eventually, but briefly, the Armenian genocide took place between 1915 and 1916, with an estimated 664,000 to 1.2 million Armenians killed. Oh my god. And you never hear anything about that. And it's funny that you say that. Because in Germany in World War II, when they were trying to figure out what they were gonna do, um the Nazis were kind of like, eeee, what do we do? Like, we can't just like genocide them. And Hitler said, Who remembers the Armenians?

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Yes, we can.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

That's crazy. Right. Anywho's back to before that. Jesus. Um, so even though the Alariz were interested in the Dardanelles for their own personal benefits, um, and were looking for literally any opportunity to take it, the Dardanelle campaign was not completely without legitimate reasons. There were acts of aggression perpetrated by the Ottomans. So, uh to sum up, the only ports that were currently available, like I said, were freezing. It was Arc Arcangelisk, which we talked about in the Great Northern Wars, and it froze in winter. Vladivostok, which was way over in Siberia. Which I'm guessing also froze. Which also froze. Yeah. Um, and way far away. So who the fuck wants to go over there? Um and the French and British needed another reliable way to get to Russia, and Russia needed these Ottomans off their back. So in November 1914, the British Navy tests the waters around the Dardanelles, shelling the coast. There's no response from the Ottomans, so the Brits are feeling pretty good about this plan that they've hatched to finally get the Dardanelles. With some minesweepers and a fleet of ships, the commander in the Aegean assured Churchill that pressing through the strait and bombarding Istanbul, which was Constantinople, would be doable. So Churchill's like, sick, bro, I'm gonna go tell talk to our war comp council, and I'm gonna suggest we do it. Secretary of State of War, Kitchener, approves it because it promises not to need men besides a small force to officially take the capital, like I said. So we're not gonna need to take any men away from the European front, the Western Front. We really just need a like a couple guys to go ashore. Okay. Not many. Um, there were a few people who did not support the action, but it is not supported because they thought it would fail, but because they wanted the resources used elsewhere. So the first sea lord, Sir John Fisher, which I think it's really funny that he's a sea lord, his name is Fisher. I want to be a sea lord. How do you be a sea lord? You'd be a guy in Britain and probably also have a lordship. I wonder if he could be a first sea lady. Not during that time. I want to be a sea lord. King Triton. Poseidon, help me! Ha! Okay, and then the commander of the British Grand Fleet, Admiral John Jellico. By moving parts of the British fleet to the Aegean, it would diminish their presence in the North Sea. And if that happened, it was possible that the German high seas fleet could wiggle out and break the blockade that the British put in place. Okay. And then we have the Field Marshal John French and his French counterpart, West on the Western Front, Commander in Chief, uh Joseph Joffer. Yep. French, the Englishman, and his French friend, Joffer. Yeah. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

It's not confusing. No. And literally all their first names are John.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Well.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Which is probably why they didn't like Winston Churchill.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

They're like, Your name's not John.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

And he said Winston. They're like, no. What was his middle name? Was it John? No. No. It was uh Leonard Spencer. That's an English fucking name. So no, not John. Um blame. They are hesitant because the British promised to take over more of the front line in Europe, and it was just like a meat grinder. So the sooner fresh troops could be ready would be 1915, except for the 29th Division, and boy howdy did they want them on the Western Front. The 29th Division was a combination of support troops from British colonies, and they were the last cohesive and readily trained soldiers that had yet to be committed to the fighting. So from like before the war, pre-trained, ready-to-go guys. The 29th Division is the last one. Okay. Um Jesus, I'm really glad I clarified because it's confusing. French. The Englishman, not the Frenchman, really needed those guys to go to Europe, but Lord Kitchener was more hesitant because they were the last opportunity to project any sort of British power anywhere but the Western Front. Okay. Um, it is important to note that there were other campaigns in West Asia at the time. It wasn't just the fighting going on in Europe that the British were concerned with. There's what was called the Mesopotamian campaign in Iraq from November 1914 through the end of the war in November 1918. The Sinai and Palestine campaign from January 1915 to October 1918. The Caucus campaign, as I mentioned, started in October 1914. And the last one that I'll mention is the raid on the Suez Canal by the Ottomans in January and February 1914.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

That very important little piece of land.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

They they touched it.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

This is a no-touching zone.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

No touching zone. They touched it. Can't believe they would touch it. All of this to say, there's a few places where the British forces could be handy. So the Dardanelles campaign, which quickly turns into the Gallipoli campaign, um as oats only sounds great because boots on the ground are needed all over the goddamn place, and if they take out the Ottomans, it can essentially wipe out a huge pain in the ass through West Asia and Northern Africa. So they're like, alright, you know what? Yes, we should do that. Dardanelles go. Vice Admiral Sackville Cardin of the Sackville Bagginses uh would be its leader. Bagginses?

unknown 40:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Do they have a ring? His cousin did. He's from Sackville. It's the Sackville Paginses, not the Shire Bagginses. Fine. Womp Womp. Fine. It's a Lord of the Ring reference, in case anyone is not nerdy enough to get it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

I thought we were about to go on an adventure.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Oh, we are. And it's terrible.

SPEAKER_03 40:52

With the one ring!

SPEAKER_01 40:54

No. Oh. Fine. Alright, continue, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Our motors.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Um, okay. Vice Admiral Cardin um had mostly held administrative roles during his time in the Royal Navy, so he didn't really have experience um commanding a large fleet. But now he has a whole ton of boats. He has twelve British and four French battleships, fourteen British and six French destroyers, and a handful of cruisers and thirty-five fishing trawlers. The fishing trawlers were manned by civilians too. What do they need that for? Fishing trawlers? Yeah. Well, I was just about to tell you, they're gonna be minesweepers now. Oh. Because they're little they're little boats. Yeah. So they can like go in there. Okay. And I guess they don't sit and they don't sit low enough in the water to set off the mines. Yeah. But they can clear them out. Okay. Alright, that makes sense. That answered my question.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Good, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

I thought they were just gonna use it to uh constantly have food, yeah. I mean that's not a bad idea. They just have a really long fishing line off the battleship. Yeah. Uh so a bunch of ships. And a seven-layer dip of a plan. So, layer one, destroy the outer forts with with boat guns. Yes. Layer two, destroy intermediate force forts with boat guns. Cheese. I don't know. Layer three. I've never made seven layer dips, so I have no idea if this is right. Keep going, you're doing great. I don't think it's right. I think cheese goes on top, but it's fine. I want you to I'm really appreciating this. I think as long as you have seven layers, that's really the important thing. Right. Okay, beans and cheese. Okay. Travelers enter the street first and sweep up the mines, liquidity split so that layer four can happen, and then boom, boom, boom, the way down the coast to the Sea of Marmor. So layers three and four. Pico the guy and sour cream. Oh, okay. Sour cream. Layer five. Have a nice holiday sailing through the Sea of Marmorra, taking in the sight and getting a tan. More cheese. Layer six. Arrive at and begin shelling Constantinople. No, it's Dan Bull. Salsa.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

There's a difference between Pico and Salsa. Okay, alright.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

I digress. Okay, layer seven. The Ottomans see how screwed they are and they surrender. Avocado for crazy people.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Yep. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't know how to make seven millionaire dips, so I tried. The more cheese, the better. Cheese! Cheese!

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Okay.

Mines, Howitzers, And Searchlights

SPEAKER_02 43:19

But the Ottomans had a lot of fortifications and strong points all along the coast from Cape Hilless on the European side of the strait along the inside and then back up to Kumkayel on the Asiatic side. They were hella old, like medieval old, but they had a lot. After the bombardment from the Brits on November 4th, 1914, when the Brits thought there was no response, there was a response. And that was to restore and improve the existing fortifications and lay a fuck ton more mines. Okay. I think there was like a total of 400 mines laid in the streets. That's a lot. It's a lot. Um so what I'm getting at here is that the Ottomans were like, these Motherfuckers are gonna come for us at the new year in 1915 and we gotta get ourselves ready. So they were like, we see you, and we're not gonna respond to right now because that's not gonna do well for us. We're gonna get you later. As I mentioned, the Ottomans were still recovering from the Balkans war, but they had just enough, barely enough men and artillery to man the forts. Um the artillery that they had were howitzers. And while there is a long and very interesting history of howitzers, the ones we're talking about were the gun howitzers. They had a long barrel and high muzzle velocities and could fire at high and low angles. Most importantly, they were mobile. Are they cannons? Kinda. But they're artillery, so it's like they shoot a bullet. So a cannon shoots like the big ball or like the grape shot stuff.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Um this shoots like a big bullet.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

I see. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Um they could fire at the British ships and then roll away to another location with their ability to fire at higher angles. They could go a few different places, and they could fire from behind hills, which is a place where the ships couldn't retaliate. Um, the naval guns on the British ships were working with the that the British were working with were designed to be relatively low angle of fire at this time. They're called pre-dreadnought ships. Um, in naval battles, there's not a lot of stuff to get in the way of the things you're trying to hit with your gun. Um, so they don't really need to go to high angle. And the targets at sea are bigger. The fortifications they were trying to hit on shore were like a few yards wide. So they're trying to hit the forts, which are teeny tiny compared to naval targets. Right. And then they also are up on like hills and cliffs, and the pre-dreadnought guns couldn't go up that high. Um, they pre-dreadnought guns. If you look at dread pre-dreadnought ships, they have like this these big like barrels on the side. What are they called? Pre-dreadnought battleships.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Okay, continue.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Um, they have two, like they have barrels on the side, and that's where the their guns are. They can go up a little bit, obviously, so they don't like just shoot straight across, but it's more of a side-to-side range of motion than it is an up-down range of motion. Okay. Um, dreadnought ships actually have like kind of what like what we have today would be considered dreadnoughts. Uh-huh. They have the guns that can angle up so that they can like lob projectiles, like what the British could have used right here, which is lobbing it up and over a hill to hit them. Okay. Which the howitzers were able to do. So they were able to hide behind a hill and just like chuck this shit over the hill at the ships.

unknown 46:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

I'm looking like all this up now. Oh, okay. You know what? When you were like describing the howitzer, I was thinking of like a tank.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

So, yeah. Oh. Do you want to describe a howitzer? Because I don't Do you think that's tank-like? Well, no, but I was thinking of this when you first were talking about. Oh, like the tank gun. Yeah. Yeah, kinda. Yeah. But with its own set of wheels. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Okay. So these forts are small, they're tucked down and they're like all hunkered down on the ground, um, and they're high up on a cliff. Kind of a pain in the ass. On February 19th, 1915, the British Navy starts to find out just how annoying all this is. Cardin keeps the fleet about three miles from the shore for their bombardment, softens up the defenses before coming in. Uh, while the ships fired upon the defenses, it certainly looked like it was going well. But that was just because they rolled their guns away and hunkered down while they were being shelled. Oh, okay. The Ottoman troops would roll those guns back up and return fire as soon as the ships paused their shelling. Uh, all in all, the shelling only hit about 2-3% of their targets, and the shelling stopped at sundown. Okay. And that was, sorry, that was February 19th, 1915. 1915, yes. Okay. Bad weather kept the ships away from the shore for about a week until February 25th, 1915. In that time, the Ottomans were able to fix with any damages done by the shelling and continue their improvements. When the fleet was finally able to come back and do some work, they had a new leader. Cardin got sick, and so Vice Admiral John de Robeck stepped up. At this point, De Robeck had about three years of experience leading a fleep.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

A fleep of destroyers. A fleet of destroyers. A fleep, a fleep of destroyers.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

And it was therefore more battle ready. His plan worked slightly better. With heavy shelling and a raiding party of 50 sailors and 50 marines, all of the outer defenses were down in 24 hours. But from here, everything gets harder. Another group was sent ashore. They were quickly repelled. So let's move the boats back in, right? But wait, there's a whole bunch of mines. Great. We have all those fishing travelers who are now minesweepers, so we can send them in. The travelers are facing a very strong current. So they're the current is a huge issue here. There's a strong current, so they make very little headway because they're just wee little boats. Um and the thought was to send them in at night so that they had the cover of darkness. Which would be a good idea, right? But did you know what the Ottomans had? Searchlights. I was gonna say something with lights. Uh-huh. Like a big flashlight. And they were just like, bound you, bitch. Um, so they lit them up really well, and the Ottomans start hammering these trowelers with shells. It's those damn howitzers. Um so the forts are damaged, but the guns are fine. Because they just scooched them on over. Okay. Churchill is demanding that they move in, but he can't see the situation from London, and Cardin and De Robek don't see a good way around the issues of the mines and the searchlights and the fucking howitzers.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Um, this sends Cardin into a nervous collapse, and De Robeck is officially the man in charge from here on out. Okay. Um, March 18th, 1915, De Robec decides that he's gonna force the strait open. All sixteen battleships are going in. First the British ships, then the French ships move in. Endless shelling on both sides. Dirt is flying, water is flying, the surface is airborne. They get a mile in before problems arise. The French ships are ordered to retreat to let new ships come in and keep up the shore bombardment, but in falling back, they fall into catastrophe. The ship Suffren is hit by a high trajectory shell that penetrated all the way to the magazine, which is where they keep all of their explosives. Miraculously, it did not blow to bits. Her crew is able to get it under control quickly. But then the ship Bouvet hit a mine, sinking two in two minutes, which is really fast. Yeah. And it took three sorry six hundred and thirty-nine Frenchmen with it. Only sixty-six of its crew survived. Damn. Yeah, what I I didn't write down, but one of the quotes from somebody who saw it was like, it the eeriest thing was how quiet it was. It sank so fast there was no like screaming or like cries of help. It just went. Yeah, I was like, mm, eerie. Um but what's really weird about this is that there weren't supposed to be mines in that area. The British had maps of the minefields, and this wasn't one of them. The trawlers went in and did in what they could of a job. And so they had already cleared this area. So did someone like come back in and like put it there?

SPEAKER_03 51:17

Yeah, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Oh, okay. But despite this, things aren't too bad for the British at the moment. The stationary guns on shore were knocked out, the telephone lines were dead, and although the Ottomans were still able to move around some artillery, it was getting harder to do so with incessant fire. Then they came upon a little um then they came upon the known minefields, sorry, of the 400 mines, um, that went across the narrows of the street. Once again, the little trawler minesweepers took a beating and had to retreat.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Could you imagine just like being a fish mining your own damn business?

SPEAKER_03 51:52

And then one of these Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

I would be so pissed.

unknown 51:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

I'd be like, I'm not a part of your war, motherfucker. I'm just a fish.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

Just a fish trying to get home to his family, you know? I lost my son. I'm just trying to find him.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

I'm stuck with this fucking forgetful ass bitch. I became friends with a shark. I don't know. Someone help me. These goddamn mines are killing me. Anyway, fish are friends. Dude. Okay. While the little ships were falling back, one of the shiny new British battleships, the inflexible, was damaged by a mine near where the buffet went down earlier.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Is it because it it didn't flex? Probably. Should have flexed.

SPEAKER_02 52:39

Bitch. Did he try showing them these guns? Bitch. Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

Drew? I almost slapped him.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

He like, we were waiting in line to get on the tram.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

And he was like, I got stung by a bee.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

And I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

I know where this is going on.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

I know. And then Angela was like, Sarah, don't. And I was like, are you gonna cry about it? Like, I don't know why you're telling me you got stung by a bee. He's like, Yeah, my arm got really swollen. And then he just flexed and I was like, I hate you. So much.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

I love it. It's like, get the fuck away from me. So if Drew was there, this probably would have gone better. Um probably. The inflexible was able to limp away. Um, but minutes later, the irresistible, another battleship, was damaged by a mine and had to be towed out by destroyers. Hitting mines where there weren't even supposed to be a minefield concerned de Robeck, and he made the decision to withdraw the ships temporarily. That is, until a third British ship, the ocean, struck a mine and had to be abandoned. But they weren't in a minefield. So where the hell did these mines come from? Submarines! No, they didn't have submarines yet. They did. Um De Robec didn't know then, but we do now, that on the night of March 8th, shortly after the British had cleared a bunch of mines, a little Ottoman steamer put it out and dropped a whole new line of 20 mines literally around the battleships. They had to pass the British battleships to put down these mines. Cute.

unknown 54:15

Sneaky sneaky.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

Cute little boat. But Dorobek didn't know that, and he's like, what the fuck? Uh so he's shook. He is shooketh. Um, so there's a bit of a will they try again or will they not try again? With Churchill in London being like, head in, you motherfuckers, and Dorobek being like, no, I don't think that's a good idea, dog. Like, there's mines, and I don't even know where.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

I feel like if we move, we're gonna hit one.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

By moving anywhere. I have no idea what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

We're staying right here, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Oh, I have something interactive for us. Oh god. Okay, here we go.

unknown 54:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

The telegrams back and forth go like this, I'm pretty sure. Send Churchill responses to Sarah for her to read. Okay, I'm going to start first. Hello, London. Hold on. Did you get it? Get it? Did you get it? Uh-huh. Let me open it.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Okay. I'm supposed to be Churchill.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

Yes, you're Churchill. So I'm gonna start. Du Robeck. And I'm Du Robeck in your Churchill. Hello, London. Just wanted to let you know, we lost two French and three British battleships today due to mines that I swear to God weren't there a week ago. Stop. Please don't fire me. Stop.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

My turn? Hey buddy, it's all good. You aren't fired. Stop.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

We're actually sending you four more old ass ships, and the French are sending you one too. Stop.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Oh neat. Thanks. Stop. We probably shouldn't go back in there though until we can figure this out. Stop. These are old boats.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

It's totally fine if they sink. We were gonna scrap them anyway. Stop. Send them in now. Stop.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

We won't be doing that. Stop. The ships may be old, but constantly sinking them in the middle of the strait kind of gums things up. Plus people die. Stop. Thanks. You're the best Churchill since Gary Oldman played him in Darkest Hour. I do love Gary Oldman. Got me too. Me too. I think it's Sir Gary Oldman now. Oh good. I know how exciting is that. Congratulations, Gary. Uh okay, so the dialogue is made up, but the events were not. Churchill was about to throw hands, but he was stopped by other naval theaters. You don't demand an admiral on the scene to do something you know nothing about. Fair enough.

unknown 56:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

But yeah, no, they were like, just take this old ship. It doesn't matter if it sinks. We were gonna just scrap them. And they're like, But there's like people on those boats. And also if I sink it in the middle of where I'm trying to go, that's really hard for me to get around it. Yeah. Like an idiot.

Pivot To Land Campaign Planning

SPEAKER_03 56:40

Uh Churchill.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Anyways, so this represents the turning point from a naval operation to one that requires a land force to play a leading role. Here we have George. Sorry, George. General Ian George Washington? Oh.

unknown 56:54

No.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

He's dead. And has been. Um so General Ian Hamilton, the future commander of the land operations, writes to Lord Kitchener Quote, I am being driven most reluctantly towards the conclusion that the Dardanelles are less likely to be forced by battleships than at one point seemed probable. And that if the army is to participate, its operations will not assume the subsidiary form anticipated.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

It's going to take people and it's not going to be a little bit of people, is what he says.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

So maybe they should call um oh fuck. Who is it? The Romans? They seem to just like reinvent people quite quickly.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Just spawn out of the ground. Yeah. Yeah. They should probably call them, yeah. Yeah, they were on their side in this in this war. They really should have. Um, so even though they were like, we're gonna have to use people, they didn't want to commit a crazy ton of people or energy here. They really only need to use land troops to bop along the coast and take out those forts and howitzers on the heights of the straits so that the minesweepers can do their job so that the battleships can do theirs. All the British leaders were like, Yeah, this is gonna work for sure now. Just a matter of time. So they're gonna they're gonna put people down. Uh, but you know how the Russians were like, hey allies and friends, please help us with the Ottomans? Mm-hmm. Well, now they're not happy about the whole operation becoming land-based.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Now they're pissy. The Russian foreign minister Sergei Samsonov thought that having British and French troops in the area would throw off the Russians' groove. Plus, he didn't think that the British would just hand over Constantinople, which is now Istanbul, when they captured it. Not only that, but the Greeks said that they would be willing to help. And they're one of the primary challengers to Russian dominance in the Balkans. And if the Greeks got involved, then they might get a concession from the Allies, and just about any concession would step on Russia's toes. So this just makes them foot stomp and mad.

SPEAKER_03 58:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

How dare you do that? Even though we asked you to be here. Don't do that. They're in it all out. They're fine. Greece doesn't enter the land operations because Bulgaria decided to side with the Central Powers, which threatens Greece's northern borders, so they can't commit men somewhere else. They have to protect themselves. And Sir Edward Gray, who is the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what a title.

SPEAKER_03 59:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

Uh, in Britain, he calms Sansinov's panic attack over Constantinople, which is Istanbul, and land forces are a go for good way. Okay. Like I said, General Sir Ian Hamilton is now the commander of what is called the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force or the MEF or MEF.

SPEAKER_03 59:41

I was like, did you just say MEF? MEF. I was like, I don't think they had that yet, did they? Yeah, they had MEF. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Anyways, this is the MEF.

unknown 59:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

They are a conglomeration of five different divisions. The 29th Division that we talked about, um, which was, like I said, they were made up of all these different colonial holdings. So um they had people from India, um, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada, like a whole, like they were all they were like, and now you're the 29th Division. Congratulations.

unknown 1:00:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

Um, the Royal Naval Division, the Corps Expeditionaire du Orient, and the 1st Australian uh, and the Australian and New Zealand Division. Okay. 29th we already talked about, garrisoned units. Um they had yet to see action in this war, um, and they hadn't worked together yet on a divisional level, just as those individual units that they used to be. But they're well trained, so they felt pretty confident that they would eventually figure out how to work together as a cohesive unit. Or sorry, division. Okay. The Royal Naval Division were sailors who didn't have assigned ships at the beginning of the war, and they just kind of mushed them together. Okay. The Corps Expedition, sorry, Expeditionnaire de Orient was obviously the French one. The French weren't wild about this idea of Gallipoli, but felt obligated to support their ally here. The Corps was primarily from North Africa, made up of Sengalese, Senegalese, I'm sorry, Senegalese, Zouaves from Algeria, and Foreign Legion, which was an elite French fighting force made up of literally anyone who wanted to join and fight for France.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

Uh the History of the Great War podcast calls this a flowery name, to which I ask, is it flowery or just French? Probably just French. Just French. Yeah. That's what I would think. Um and the last two are the Ansac, the Australian and New Zealand Corps, who I think gets most recognition here in this war. Um, if you have heard of Gallipoli, you might have heard of the Ansac or Ansac Cove and known that Australian, because Australians and New Zealanders um still have this as like Ansac Day.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

Um, they still like celebrate this and and keep it in in the memory. So they get a lot of like recognition for this. Okay. Um and they but they are made up uh separately of the Australians and the New Zealanders. Um and they are referred to separately because they do separate things, but they're mostly just called the Anzac. Okay. So we'll just be talking about them. Uh so since we talked so much about them, who are they? What makes these men stand out is that all of them were volunteers and all of them had training in their local militias back home. Um part of the rate of volunteering was just like the like everywhere else that he's going, so I'm gonna go. Um, but they were also like, hey, we're pretty sporty people. I bet we'd be really good at this. And they were. They were really good at this. Those thighs sh propelled them up mountains like no one's business. Couldn't be mean. And those should be shorts, shorty shorts, you know. Those crap. Those will get you in trouble.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

They will.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

You'll get especially if your nips are out at the same time. Don't worry, these men had shirts on. You'll get an incident exposure, okay? Also, comparative to their population, a ton of New Zealanders signed up. Um, I don't know how many New Zealanders there were at the time, or if we're talking only the colonizers, or if it includes the native populations, but I digress. A whole bunch of them came. Here's a fun fact. The Australians had the first light horse brigade as part of their division. None of those horses went to Globally. Only the riders. I don't know much about how a cavalry works, but it seems like horses are a pretty important part of how they organize themselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

You know what? I'm fine with those horses not going.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:33

I'm sure they were too. Yeah. But I just imagine the riders being like, well, what now? I'm part of a cavalry, not like, what the fuck do I do now? I have to walk? Ugh. That's not what I signed up for. Gross! Okay, alas, only the men went. So, the first guys committed to the campaign were the Anzacs. Stationed in Egypt at the time. Um, they were on their way to Europe and they hung out in Egypt because I think that was around the time that the Ottomans were trying to take the Suez Canal, and the Brits were like, you just hang out there for a second, because I have a feeling we're gonna need you somewhere else. Okay. And so they are training in Egypt. Okay. Um, leaving Egypt didn't go smoothly though. They left for the Greek island of Lemnos, which Greece still said you can use for your base of operations. We're busy, but you can use our island. Um they got all jumbled up somehow and were low, and they left low on artillery and munitions. It was so bad that they actually turned the fucking boats around and went back to Egypt and got everyone off the boats and were like, where the fuck are you supposed to be? How are you not prepared for that? I don't know. Like, some units were even on different ships. Like, what the hell happened? You have one job. Where's the harbor master? Weird. Anywho's it's foreboding um of how the rest of the operation's gonna go. There's a lot of prep work happening from March 18th when the failed naval mission happens to when boots hit the ground on the 25th of April, which is Anzac Day, just by the way. Um and in that time, the Ottomans were prepping for their own version of the Empire Strikes back. They use this time to improve their defenses, um, make plans for what they knew would be an inevitable landing, and practice their tactics. So we're gonna jump over to the Ottomans and then we'll go back to the British plan laying because it's just more complicated. First, the British thought that there would be around 170,000 troops defending the peninsula, and that they would but that they wouldn't be well trained. Um, why would they think that? Probably because they had this sort of colonizer ego. They couldn't possibly be well trained. And weren't they like mostly volunteers? Or was that the That were the Ansac. Okay, never mind. Um, so the Brits are like, oh, these Ottomans probably are no good. Okay. Um It was because they were part of a dying empire, but maybe it was just because of birth or racist and they're brown people. Um, we moved the latter. Who could say? Um, however, the inverse was true. There was only the Fifth Army at the time of the landings, which was 84,000 men, not 170, and they were seasoned and well practiced. General Otto Lehmann von Sanders, who is Ottoman, obviously, um, not German, was given command of the Turkish Fifth Army with which to defend the streets, and that was it. Just the Fifth Army. When I'm going to be talking about the army, I'm gonna call them like the Turkish Army, or they they're referred to a lot as the Turks. Um I'm talking about the Empire or the people, I'm going to try to refer to them as the Ottomans because Turkey was not a place yet, it wasn't a country yet. So it was part of the Ottoman Empire. So to call them Turks isn't correct. However, like we call the Ansacts, like, they're like, oh, the Australians are over there, but they're part of the British military. So if I know, I'll call them something different, and if I don't know them, I'm just gonna call them their overarching empire name.

unknown 1:07:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

Anywho, they were well seasoned. They had just recently gotten into a war. And this quote is from an artillery captain that sums up the whole situation pretty well. Um, a year earlier, we had the Balkan Wars, and we were defeated very badly. But on the other hand, we had the practice of fighting. In this war at Gallipoli, we were facing two great forces in the world, the French and the British people. They had great armies, but they were lacking practice. Okay. The Ottomans had 150 miles of coastline to defend, and Sanders had only six divisions of fellas. All they had to do to win, however, was to keep the high ground. So they already have what they need, they just have to keep it. Okay. If they could keep the high ground on either side of the Dardanelles, they could repel the ships in most seaborne landings. Sanders decides that the best way to do this was to evaluate the most likely landing areas, station smaller units there, digging strategic trenches and setting machine guns, keeping a bulk of the units inland to be called to whatever point of action they needed to be. Uh it's called like defense from the deep. Okay. So float like a butterfly, sting like a beep.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:28

Keep keep moving just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:32

That was me, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

That is one way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:35

Um so uh do do do. Oh, they also had to use whatever they could as defense, such as barbed wire from field fencing stretched out under the water and on beaches, and torpedo heads mixed in with landmines, like a violent recycled arts project. Jesus Christ, okay. Uh this would thwart the British plan of attack well as Sir or sorry, General Sir Ian Hamilton had to also pick the best areas to deposit his troops, and this was no easy task. The nice beaches would be well guarded because uh that's where you want to put your people.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:08

Mm-hmm. Um Hang on, hang on, hang on, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

Two. Okay, I have like three pages left.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Better talk fast, bitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:19

Okay. Now okay. Doo do do do do. This is the most insane part of me. The best place to land troops would be a place called Bulaire, which is right at like the neck of the peninsula. Connor, could you please pull up map one? Split screen if possible. You should have map one already pulled up. So please refer yourself to the arrows I have drawn. The beaches at Bulaire were a gentle slope and easy to launch a bunch of troops, and would cut off any defending troops left on the peninsula from the rest of their support further inland. Which arrow is this? Uh, the blue one. Okay. Um this was Sanders' biggest fear, and so it was where he concentrated most of his forces. Hamilton knew this was a great place, and he knew Sanders knew it was a great place, and Sanders knew Hamilton knew he knew it was a great place. So as you can see, the blue arrow there, close to the mainland, and I know it's a little bit small, but the topography shows a nice flat area. It's so tempting and so dangerous. Where the British were trying to go was Istanbul, which was Constantinople, which is all the way on the opposite side of the Sea of Marmora. Um, so let's see. Let me tell you what the peninsula looks like real quick. Try to describe it. So it's like this little finger that sticks out at the biggest part, so it's this little neck, and then it stretches out wider to about 12 miles across at the widest or 20 kilometers. Then it narrows down to about five kilometers or three miles at what like to me looks kind of like an ankle. And then it widens out a little bit again, and then points to Cape Hill S. It kind of that last little part looks like a pointed foot to me. So there's like the toe, which is Cape Hill S, and then there's the heel in the straights there, and then up at that little part um at the like what could be an ankle, that's where they will concentrate themselves. So there's two factors that I think Hamilton had to take into consideration, and this is me thinking. I didn't read this anywhere, I kind of made it up, um by reading. So he had to take these things into consideration when deciding not to land at Belair and to land where they did, which is where the red arrows were, at the tip of the peninsula and kind of at that inkle area. The first being most obvious, Hamilton didn't want to land 80,000 troops near where he assumed 170,000 troops could easily get the reinforcements. Right. The second being less well known as this, which is to never go against a Sicilian when death is on the Thank you. Okay. Not really. Please go to map two. Connor Placian, map two, Sarah, go to map two. Oh wait.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

God, Jesus Christ. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

Okay. The second is that the land forces were only supposed to take out the forts and artillery that were protecting the narrows of the Dardanelles, not necessarily engage in another land conflict. If that's the case, then you don't need to endanger your troops by putting them closer to the enemy. Reinforcements, you can go for just the tip. And just the tip, I promise, is how they made fun of Churchill and Hamilton for the Gallipoli campaign.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:33

Just the tip?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:34

Just the tip, I promise. I'm dead. That's funny. The plan was made to land the 29th Division at Cape Hillesse at the tip of the peninsula, like just the tip. Just the tip. Okay. And Anzac near Kabatepe, which is now known as Anzac Cove, as the main assault, and to put the French troops on the Asiatic side at Cumkayel to take care of those guns, which could fire at the beaches and ships at Cape Hillesse, and then the Royal Naval Division would go up to Polaire just to posture, like they were going to land there and hopefully distract the Turkish army. So you see how Britain's plan is so much more fucking complicated. So the objective of this whole thing was to uh gain control of the Kiladbar Plateau near the heel of the peninsula. Um, okay. So we have a landing at the toe and at the angle to take over the heel. Map two can go away now, Connor. Thank you. Neither of the landing places on Gallipoli were really great for large-scale landing, but they were the best of the available options that far out. Anzat Cove was just north of Kabatepe on the Mediterranean side of the peninsula, and it was only a narrow area that was good for landing. Um the surround surrounding the cove were like serious cliffs. So there's only one part of that cove.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:54

Is it the cliffs of insanity? I make that up later.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

Oh good, okay.

unknown 1:13:59

Oh, trust me, I get there.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

Um they are so there's like one part where it's like only a very small area that like kind of slopes upwards in like a gentle hill, which they can really quickly and easily get inland from. And then the rest of that cove is like a little strip of land in like cliffs. So um the landings at Ansec were made in the dark, early hours of the morning, because the commander of the Ansac, Lieutenant General William Birdwood, wanted to go ashore in the dark.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:31

I wear my sunglasses. I have no idea where that just came from. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:38

He was not wearing his sunglasses at night. He was awake and ready to go. The moon on the night of the 24th and 25th was a wax and gibbas moon, which is at about 80% illumination. The moon did not set, however, until 2 57 a.m. Damn. Which meant that the troop transport ships had to and so they couldn't be too close to shore or else you would see the boats, right? They had to be as far off as possible. The troop transport ships had to move in, troops had to get onto their rowboats to be towed to shore and get ashore, and then make significant progress inland between when the moon set at 2 57 a.m. and dawn at 4 a.m. Cool. Good luck with that. No problem, no problem at all. Cape Hill S had a bunch of small beaches that were overlooked by hills that the Turkish held. The British Navy was going to help, though, by shelling the shit out of them prior to the landings. Um, and there were going to be five beach landings for the 29th. Y, X, W, V, and S. In that order, north to south. It irks the fuck out of me. That's not how the alphabet works. That's not how the alphabet works. No, it's not. No, it's not rude. They were just kind of mixing things up. They're really trying to piss us OCD people off. Yeah, they're like, oh god, yeah, so and just like make everything two cajillion times more confusing. So Y beach was a few miles away from the other beaches and at the bottom of a steep ravine. It was hoped that it was such a shitty place to land that the Ottomans wouldn't see it coming, um, and it would even the playing field as the defenders had the terrain advantage. X, W, and V beaches were at the tip, and S beach was inside the Dardanelles, uh, up a little bit. Okay. While those beaches may have worked for initial landings, they were either located adjacent to ridges or in direct line of Ottoman defenses. Um the man in charge of the landing forces was General Sir Almer Hunter Weston, and he did an interesting job of things. These landings were going to be done during the daytime. Hamilton wanted to land them like they did the Ansac at Gabatepe in the dark, but some naval leaders and Hunter Weston disagreed. The Navy cited the strong currents and the confined space would be too difficult to maneuver in the dark dark of night, um, which could have been avoided by beginning the shelling earlier because it was a wax and gives moon that night and about 80% illumination, and it didn't set until about 2.30-ish. So they could have shelled a little earlier and gone in in the dark. Um, seeing as you're shelling, there is no element of surprise fucking anyways. So they could have done it when there was a little bit of moonlight, but I digress. It was harder to do. And Hamilton was like, fine. And Hunter Wesson said it would be easier to coordinate the multiple beaches and units in the light of day, especially with the difficult terrain that they were unfamiliar with. Daylight would be nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:39

I'm

Part One Wrap And How To Follow

SPEAKER_02 1:17:40

gonna stop here for episode one. Okay. Next week we'll pick up with the landings on the beaches, the struggles the British faced, um, and hopefully I get to the eventual evacuation of all the troops from the peninsula. Okay. Sounds like a plan. So we go through a bunch of battles, a bunch of shit that you just go, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:00

Okay, that's all I'm gonna say then next time. Oh my god, every two seconds. Oh my god. I'm gonna be just like, just like I'm gonna say it just like Bella did when Edward abandoned her in the forest.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:11

Edward, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I saw that movie once and I Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:25

So that's what I have for you, and uh we'll be back in a few days to finish this on it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Where do I end at? 137.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:35

Hey, good for me. Yeah, I broke it up well, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:42

Well, uh, in the meantime, um in the meantime, go find us on our social medias, please. Um follow us. What is it? Like our stuff, subscribe to our YouTube, um, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify. Was there another one?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:07

iHeartRadio. iHeartRadio. Yeah, wherever you get your podcasts, go ahead and find it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:12

Um our Instagram is that's so Mac underscore podcast. Our YouTube is that's so Mac Podcast. Our email, if you want to write us any stories, suggestions, um anything like that is Or just to say hi. Just to say hi. Hi. Um, I would love to eventually do like listener stories. Some like people's people's stories. I would love that. I mean, I have some some tales from my history classes in high school. Tales from the crypt. Yes. I look forward to it. Yeah. Um, and then oh, our in order to do that, our email is that's so macaroni podcast at gmail.com. And yeah, we would really love to hear from you guys and um hear what you think about the episodes. Say nice things, that'd be great. Um yeah, that's all I got. That's all I got. That's all I got until we go to the crapshoot of Gallipoli next time.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:16

Okay, well, thank you guys for listening. See you later. Bye. Well, it's not anything you do with my hands. Oh, that's scary. I'm okay, sorry. Okay. Are you okay? Bless you. Thank you.