100 Events of the Gallipoli Campaign
January–February 1915
3 January 1915
Winston Churchill telegraphed the commander of British naval forces in the Aegean Sea, Vice-Admiral S H Carden, asking if the Dardanelles could be forced by naval action alone. Carden replied that the straits could not be rushed but might be forced by ‘extended operations’.
4 January 1915
The Russians defeated a large Turkish army in the Caucasus at Sarikamish. The battle was fought in a temperature of 30 degrees below zero and more than 30,000 Turks froze to death. Before this, the Russians had asked the British to stage a diversion against the Turks to draw them away from Russia.
13 January 1915
The British War Council took a decision that ‘the Admiralty should prepare for a naval expedition in February to bombard and take the Gallipoli Peninsula, with Constantinople as its objective’.
15 January 1915
The French submarine Saphir sank in the Dardanelles near the town of Çannakale. His crew swam for shore but Captain Fournier, with the French flag flying, remained with his vessel as it sank under fire. Despite an attempt to rescue him, Fournier drowned.
6 February 1915
Two British Marine battalions were sent to the Aegean to provide landing parties to demolish the Turkish guns at the Dardanelles forts.
16 February 1915
Two British Marine battalions were sent to the Aegean to provide landing parties to demolish the Turkish guns at the Dardanelles forts.
19 February 1915
British warships began a naval bombardment of the outer forts of the Dardanelles but little damage was done to the forts.
26 February 1915
Between 26 February and 3 March detachments of Royal Marines were landed at Turkish forts at Kum Kale on the mainland and at Sedd-el-Bahr on Gallipoli. They put many of the Turkish guns out of action.