The passage of time has not slowed the production of books and articles about World War I. This volume provides a guide to the historiography and bibliography of the Dardanelles Campaign, including the Gallipoli invasion. It focuses on military history but also provides information on political histories that give significant attention to the handling of the Dardanelles Campaign. The opening section of the book provides background information about the campaign, discusses the major sources of information, and lays out the major interpretative disputes. A comprehensive annotated bibliography follows. This book nicely complements the two earlier volumes on World War I battles—The Battle of Jutland by Eugene Rasor and The Battles of the Somme by Fred R. van Hartesveldt.

This WWI history examines the Ottoman Army’s defense of the Dardanelle Strait during Winston Churchill’s failed Gallipoli Campaign. The Dardanelles Strait, separating Europe and Asia Minor, was fortified in the fifteenth century with massive bronze bombards causing any unwelcome ships to run a truly formidable gauntlet. And indeed it was on March 18th, 1915, when a powerful fleet of British and French warships attempted to clear the Strait. The attack failed at the cost of three ships sunk and three more seriously damaged. The Allied failure to take control the Strait led to its disastrous invasion of Gallipoli. Using maps, photographs, and other illustrations, this in-depth study examines the strengths of the Turkish defenses, including the Ottoman Army’s reliance on German Krupp guns. Historian Michael Forrest also assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Royal and French Navies, as well as the flaws of Winston Churchill's strategy. Damningly, Forrest's research proves that British intelligence sources had previously assessed that a naval attack alone would not succeed. Many of the fortifications on the Gallipoli peninsula and the Asian shore are still accessible. This volume helpfully identifies those that can be visited, many of which still have wrecked guns emplaced.

Following the end of the First World War the Mediterranean Fleet found itself heavily involved in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, the Black Sea and to a lesser extent, the Adriatic. Naval commanders were faced with complex problems in a situation of neither war nor peace. The collapse of the Ottoman, Russian and Habsburg empires created a vacuum of power in which different factions struggled for control or influence. In the Black Sea this involved the Royal Navy in intervention in 1919 and 1920 on the side of those Russians fighting the Bolsheviks. By 1920 the Allies were also faced with the challenge of the Turkish nationalists, culminating in the Chanak crisis of 1922. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne enabled the Mediterranean Fleet finally to return to a peacetime routine, although there was renewed threat of war over Mosul in 1925-1926. These events are the subject of the majority of the documents contained in this volume. Those that comprise the final section of the book show the Mediterranean Fleet back to preparation for a major war, applying the lessons of World War One and studying how to make use of new weapons, aircraft carriers and aircraft.

When the First World War started in 1914 the potential of the submarine as a tactical weapon was largely a matter of conjecture.