Gallipoli: The Original "Force the Strait" Disaster

For those who do not know the history:

In 1915, Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) proposed a naval campaign to force the Dardanelles Strait—a narrow, 61-kilometer waterway connecting the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. The objective was to capture Constantinople (Istanbul), knock the Ottoman Empire out of World War I, and open a supply route to Russia.

The plan: Send British and French battleships up the strait. Suppress the Ottoman coastal forts with naval gunfire. Clear the mines. Sail through to Constantinople.

What happened:

    The Ottomans had laid mines in the strait.
    The Allied naval bombardment failed to destroy the mobile artillery batteries.
    Several battleships struck mines and sank.
    The navy withdrew, having failed to force the strait.

So the Allies tried a ground invasion instead. They landed troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula—the rugged, hilly terrain on the northern side of the strait.

What happened then:

    The Ottoman defenders (commanded by Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk) were dug in on the high ground.
    The Allied troops landed on the wrong beaches, in the wrong order, without adequate support.
    They were pinned down on narrow beachheads for eight months.
    Tens of thousands died (44,000 Allied, 86,000 Ottoman).
    The campaign was eventually evacuated, having achieved nothing.

The strategic result: The strait remained closed. The Ottomans did not surrender. Russia did not get its supply route. The war dragged on for three more years.

By 1915 the 1907 study had been forgotten.  Even in 1915 there were Trumpers.