On March 18, 1915, a powerful Franco-British squadron tried to force the Dardanelles strait, after an intensive bombardment. On March 19, the French battleship Bouvet exploded and sank, followed by the British battlecruisers Ocean and Irrésistible. The allied fleet withdraws, without knowing that the casemates of the Turkish forts are empty of ammunition and that the road to Constantinople is wide open to it! The affair has serious consequences for our British allies who have committed all the prestige they have in the Middle East and the Balkans to it.
A few days before this bitter defeat, the first troops of a large Anglo-French expeditionary force began to land in the bay of Moudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos. Its objective is the peninsula of Gallipoli, which forms the western side of the straits. Two British divisions and an army corps formed by Australian and New Zealand units, the famous ANZACs, were supported by a French division under the command of General d'Amade. The overall command was held by Sir Jan Hamilton, given the preponderance of
British personnel, both land and naval.
The haste that presided over its preparation of the expedition makes its effects felt from day one. The transports were so badly loaded that the equipment necessary for the landing in force could in no case be put ashore in a suitable time.
It is therefore necessary to send the whole armada back to Alexandria where the holds will be unloaded, before replenishing them with the same supplies, but in a different order. It takes a whole month to overcome this unforeseen task and a lot of comings and goings which suit the Turkish and German intelligence services, very active in Egypt and Greece. The element of surprise, on which the attackers were counting, will now work against them.