Naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign

Naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign
Part of the Gallipoli campaign
The final moments of the French battleship Bouvet, 18 March 1915
Date 19 February – 18 March 1915 Location Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  France  Russian Empire  Australia	Ottoman Empire  German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sackville Carden John de Robeck Roger Keyes Émile Gaépratte	Cevat Çobanlı Liman von Sanders
Strength
1 super dreadnought 3 battlecruisers 28 pre-dreadnoughts 23 cruisers 25 destroyers 13 submarines 1 seaplane carrier	Various mines and forts 2 pre-dreadnoughts Minelayers 1 coastal defence ship 1 battlecruiser 3 cruisers 2 torpedo cruisers 8 destroyers
Casualties and losses
1 battlecruiser heavily damaged 3 pre-dreadnoughts sunk 3 pre-dreadnoughts heavily damaged 1 cruiser damaged 700 killed (ship complements on 18 March)	1 minelayer 1 pre-dreadnought sunk 1 coastal defence ship sunk 1 cruiser sunk 1 torpedo cruiser damaged 40 killed wounded (on land, 18 March)

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 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 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.