The Dandarnelles Disaster

by Dan Van der Vat

  As frantic work went on round the clock to save the Goeben, more than 250 Allied air sorties failed to cause significant damage with their little bombs, even by rare direct hits. More Allied planes came over from Salonica; seaplanes from the carrier Ark Royal tried the new tactic of dropping torpedoes in the water. The beached ship was thus constantly surrounded by columns of water, explosions, smoke from bombs and anti-aircraft fire from Turkish batteries at the biplanes growling overhead as other ships tried to free her. On 26 January, as the German sailors lightened ship and a strong wind grounded Allied aircraft, Turkish warships assembled for an almighty towing effort, freeing the Goeben in the afternoon. She sailed slowly under her own power to Constantinople, which she reached on the morning of the 27th, saved by the strength and construction of her hull. But for her at last the war was over. On the same day Hayes-Sadler decided after days of dithering that one of his three submarines on hand might usefully pass up the strait to administer a coup de grâce by torpedo to the crippled battlecruiser. E14 got as far as Nagara Point, where the Goeben had lain for the best part of a week, at dawn on 28 January, but of course found nothing. A British aircraft came over at about the same time and reported that the bird had hopped away. On her way out E14 was detected and sunk by shore batteries and destroyers. Nine men survived and were taken prisoner. The Goeben had once again eluded the Royal Navy in acutely embarrassing circumstances. The new First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss (formerly in command at Mudros), was no less furious and sacked Hayes-Sadler, the third British admiral after Milne and Troubridge to be removed from seagoing command for missing the Goeben:

  The Goeben getting away is perfectly damnable and has considerably upset me, since we at the Admiralty were under the happy delusion that there were sufficient brains and sufficient means out there to prevent it: of the latter there were; of the former apparently not.

  He could just as well have been talking in August 1914.

  The anti-climactic battle of Imbros cost the British 200 men, two monitors, one submarine, two aircraft and a steamer; the Germans and Turks lost some 400 men along with SMS Breslau, together with SMS Emden, the most successful light cruiser in the history of the Imperial German Navy. Since the war was going badly for the Turks on all remaining fronts, the Goeben was given only running repairs because her heavy guns might be needed at any time to defend Constantinople.

  On 1 May she sailed out of the Bosporus bound for Sevastopol, where she had helped with her guns to force Russia into the war in 1914, to keep an eye on the naval base which she reached the next day. The victorious German Army had marched into the city and a Russian admiral had led two battleships, ten destroyers and other ships out of harbour to Novorossiysk, in breach of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Kaiser’s ensign was hoisted on the four remaining battleships and German troops took possession of them. On 6 June the Goeben started a week in a naval dry dock, for the first time since well before the war started. The three holes from the Imbros mines were left with temporary plugs for want of time and labour. After various local tasks the Goeben arrived back in Constantinople on 12 July for serious repairs. The first hole was closed by the middle of October.

  Immediately after the Allied armistice with Turkey, Paschwitz formally handed over the Yavuz to the Turkish Navy. The Turks let the German crew go home despite Allied demands for their surrender. They went to Odessa by steamer and got back eventually by train. The Turks refused to hand over the battered ship, which was moored in a little bay on the Asian shore not far from Constantinople. There she rotted until 1927, when a reviving Turkey called in French salvage and repair experts.

  In 1930 the gleaming Yavuz re-emerged as the imposing flagship of the Turkish Navy and showed the flag in the Mediterranean on many occasions, visiting still-British Malta in 1936. In 1938 she had the honour of conveying the body of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk across the water from Istanbul to the railhead from which he was carried to Ankara for burial. She was transferred to the reserve in 1950 and decommissioned in 1954, when she became a floating museum. In 1973 she was sold for scrap, a process, completed in 1976, which marked the disappearance of the last ship of the Kaiser’s navy to survive afloat. The Turkish Naval Museum in Istanbul retains one of her secondary 15-cm guns, her emergency bridge and the fixtures and fittings of Admiral Souchon’s state cabin.

  So much for the great German ship which was the trigger of the Dardanelles campaign; what of the much more modest vessel that determined its outcome, the Turkish minelayer Nusret, with which this story began? When the war ended, the poacher turned gamekeeper: the minelayer was used to look for stray mines in the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles from 1918 to 1926, undergoing a refit in 1927. Ten years later she was renamed Yardim and put to use as a support ship for divers. Restyled Nusret in 1939, she worked with mines again until decommissioned in 1955 and laid up. In 1962 she was sold off and worked as a tramp steamer until 1966. After that she was sold off again, and then again, and gradually rusted her way through the 1980s in the south-eastern Anatolian harbour of Mersin. She was saved by harbour cranes when she turned over, but this did not stop her sinking altogether in 1990 at Mersin when under tow on her way to Magosa in northern Cyprus. She was refloated but beached and left to rot on a mud bank. In 2002 the municipality of Tarsus, a few miles east of Mersin, was given ownership rights by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and announced it would have her restored and placed in a new Gallipoli Park as centrepiece of a display.

  Meanwhile she has been cloned; a replica Nusret in gleaming warship grey can be explored as she stands proudly ensconced on a special plinth at the excellent Naval Museum at Çannakale, overlooking the Narrows which the original was so successfully deployed to defend – the most devastatingly successful minelayer in history.

  A Note on Sources

  The main source of information about the Royal Navy’s role in the Dardanelles campaign of 1914–15 is, not surprisingly, the National Archives at Kew, Richmond, Surrey. The chief sources for the Germans’ role are the Federal Archive at Koblenz and its associated Military Archives at Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Nowadays there is a mass of material, of mixed value, on the Internet. One site deserves special mention: the writings on the Dardanelles campaign of Piotr Nykiel, formerly of the Polish diplomatic service, who was stationed in Ankara from 2000 to 2004 and joined the department of Turkish studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He provides a neutral and unusual viewpoint and his papers can be reached via www.navyingallipoli@yahoo.com.

  At Kew, various files in the huge but not very navigable Admiralty collections of papers, such as ADM 137 (papers used by the official historian), yield a great deal of information, if sometimes very slowly. ADM 137/ 881, 1089 and 1090, for example, contain letters of proceedings from naval commanders, including Carden, at the Dardanelles. ADM 116/ 1432– 4 cover the Dardanelles operations of the East Mediterranean Squadron. De Robeck’s report on the troop landings is in number 1434. ADM 116/ 1437 and also 1713 and 1714 record the work of the Dardanelles Commission.

  In the Cabinet papers, CAB 2/1–3 contain Hankey’s minutes of the pre-war Committee of Imperial Defence. CAB 22 contains his minutes of the War Council from 5 August 1914 to 14 May 1915. The CAB 17/123 series is of great value, including some of Hankey’s letters as well as Churchill’s account of Dardanelles operations dated 13 May 1915 (the time he was leaving the Admiralty; also found in CAB 1/12), some of his memoranda and letters, the operational order for the Dardanelles attack, as well as telegrams between Kitchener and Hamilton. ADM 116/ 1713 and 1714 contain invaluable reports from the Dardanelles Committee (as distinct from the Commission), a group of navy, army and air-force officers who went to Turkey and examined every aspect of the double disaster for British arms at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli in enormous detail, interviewing many of the main enemy figures at length.

  The Liddell Hart Military Archive at King’s College, London, contains a very useful compilation of official papers and letters about the campaign. T
he collection of naval documents at the Archive Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge, includes the papers of Admiral de Robeck. I am grateful to both institutions for their help.

  The same goes for the Imperial War Museum’s Sound Archive, from which I garnered quotations from participants in the campaign. The references are: Marine William Jones, 004141/D/A; AB W. G. Northcott, 4187/B/B; ERA Gilbert Adshead, 660; Cdr. Norman Holbrook, VC, RN, 7142; Capt. Henry Mangles Denham, RN, 8871.

  When it comes to books (see select bibliography), Sir Julian Corbett’s Official History of the Great War – Naval Operations, Volume II, may be elderly and enormously detailed, but remains essential. Volume II of Marder’s magisterial From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow and Robert K. Massie’s Castles of Steel both provide detailed running accounts of events and background. Churchill’s The World Crisis, Volume II, is his dazzlingly readable account, best consumed with liberal pinches of salt – and best read alongside Corbett and Volume III of Martin Gilbert’s enormous biography. General Hamilton’s diary is a commendably short if slightly wistful account, well written and without self-pity. For highly readable general accounts focused on the Gallipoli campaign I would recommend Robert Rhodes James, Alan Moorehead and Tim Travers.

  Select Bibliography

  Aspinall-Oglander, Brig.-Gen. C. F., Military Operations – Gallipoli, Vol. I (London, HMSO, 1929)

  Baedeker, Karl, Konstantinopel, Balkanstaaten, Kleinasien guidebook (Leipzig, Baedeker Verlag, 1914 edition)

  Beesly, Patrick, Room 40 – British Naval Intelligence 1914–18 (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1982)

  Bienaimé, Amiral Amadée, La Guerre navale 1914–1915, fautes et responsabilités (Paris, Tallandier, 1920)

  Çannakale Onsekiz Mart University, The Gallipoli Campaign – International Perspectives 85 years on (Record of symposium, Çannakale, Turkey, 2005)

  Carver, Field Marshal Lord, The Turkish Front 1914–18 (London, Pan/National Army Museum, 2003)

  Chack, Paul and Antier, Jean-Jacques, Histoire maritime de la première guerre mondiale: Tome II Méditerranée 1914–1915 (Paris, Editions France-Empire, 1969)

  Churchill, W. S., The World Crisis, Vol. II (London, Thornton Butterworth, 1923)

  Coates, Tim (ed.), Lord Kitchener and Winston Churchill – The Dardanelles Commission, Part I (London, Stationery Office, 2000)

  Colledge, J. J., revised by Warlow, Lt.-Cdr. Ben, Ships of the Royal Navy – the Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (London, Greenhill Books, 2003)

  Compton-Hall, Richard, Submarines and the War at Sea 1914–18 (London, Macmillan, 1991)

  Corbett, Sir Julian, History of the Great War – Naval Operations, Vols I and II (London, Longmans Green, 1920/1921)

  Gilbert, Martin, Winston S. Churchill 1874–1965, Vol. III 1914–1916 (London, Heinemann, 1971, with companion volume of documents)

  — — —, First World War Atlas (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1970)

  — — —, First World War (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994)

  Gray, Randal (with Argyle, Christopher), Chronicle of the First World War, Vol. I, 1914–1916 (New York/Oxford, Facts on File, 1990)

  Grove, Eric J., The Royal Navy Since 1815 (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

  Halpern, Paul G. (ed.), The Keyes Papers, Vol. I (London, Navy Records Society, 1979)

  Hamilton, General Sir Ian, Gallipoli Diary (London, Edward Arnold, 1920)

  Hill, J. R. (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy (OUP, 1995)

  Hough, Richard, The Great War at Sea 1914–1918 (OUP, 1983)

  James, Robert Rhodes, Gallipoli (London, Papermac, 1989)

  Jane’s Fighting Ships: various editions, esp. uncensored fourth edition, London, 1914

  Jouan, Capitaine R., Les Marins allemands au combat (Paris, Payot, 1930)

  Kearsey, Lt.-Col. A., Notes and Comments on the Dardanelles Campaign (Aldershot, Gale & Polden, 1934; reissued by Naval and Military Press, Uckfield, E. Sussex, 2004)

  Keyes, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger, The Fight for Gallipoli (London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1934)

  Kopp, Georg, Das Teufelschiff und seine kleine Schwester, trans. by Chambers, Arthur, as: The Flight of the Goeben and the Breslau (London, Hutchinson, 1931)

  Lewis, Geoffrey, Modern Turkey (London, Ernest Benn, 1974)

  Liddell Hart, B.H., History of the First World War (London, Cassell, 1970)

  Lorey, Rear-Admiral Hermann (ed.), Der Krieg in den türkischen Gewässern (Berlin, E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 2 vols, 1928 and 1938 – part of the official German naval history of the Great War, Der Krieg zur See)

  Lumby, E. W. R. (ed.), Policy and Operations in the Mediterranean 1912–14 (London, Navy Records Society, 1970)

  Macmillan, Margaret, Peacemakers – Six Months that Changed the World (John Murray, London, 2001)

  Mäkela, Matti E., Souchon der Goebenadmiral greift in die Weltgeschichte ein (Brunswick, Vieweg, 1936)

  — — —, Auf den Spuren des Goeben (Munich, Bernard und Graefe, 1979) Mango, Andrew, Atatürk (London, John Murray, 2004)

  Mantey, Vice-Admiral Eberhard von (ed.), Auf See Unbesiegt, includes Admiral Souchon’s own account of his campaigns (Berlin, Weller, 1927)

  Marder, Arthur J., From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, Vol. II (Oxford, 1965)

  Massie, Robert K., Castles of Steel (London, Jonathan Cape, 2003)

  McLaughlin, Redmond, The Escape of the Goeben (London, Seeley Service, 1974)

  Milton, Giles, Paradise Lost – Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance (London, Sceptre, 2008)

  Moorehead, Alan, Gallipoli (London, Macmillan, 1975)

  Pollock, John, Kitchener (London, Constable, 2001)

  Stone, Norman, World War One – a Short History (London, Allen Lane, 2007) Thomazi, Captain Auguste Antoine, La Guerre navale aux Dardanelles with preface by Vice-Admiral P. Guépratte (Paris, Payot, 1926)

  Thompson, Julian, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War at Sea 1914–1918 (London, Sidgwick & Jackson/IWM, 2005)

  Travers, Tim, Gallipoli 1915 (Stroud, Glos., Tempus Publishing, 2001)

  Tuchman, Babara, August 1914 (London, Macmillan, 1980 – US title The Guns of August)

  Van der Vat, Dan, The Ship That Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914 (revised edition, Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2000)

  — — —, Standard of Power: The Royal Navy in the 20th Century (London, Hutchinson, 2000)

  Wells, Captain John, The Royal Navy – an Illustrated Social History (Stroud, Glos., Sutton Publishing, 1994, in association with Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth)

  Wragg, David, Royal Navy Handbook 1914–1918 (Stroud, Glos., Sutton Publishing, 2006)

  Index

  Abdul Hamid II, Sultan (“the Damned”) 11–14, 23, 25

  Achi Baba 104, 109, 151, 155

  Ackermann, Captain Richard 31, 38, 60

  Admiral Graf Spee (German pocket battleship) 43, 69

  Admiralty (British) 74, 112, 134–5; Churchill presents naval assault plans 87–9; communications with Milne 36, 50–2; and Dardanelles campaign 22, 82, 85, 89–91, 101, 108, 132, 135, 169 ; and escape of Goeben and Breslau 36, 67–71; receives IGN’s main signal book 66; tries Troubridge under Naval Discipline Act 69–71

  Adrianople/Edirne 15, 28–9, 197

  Aegean operations 50–1, 56–7, 72, 83, 100, 102, 111, 113–15, 118–19, 121–3, 137, 141–3, 145–6, 148, 158–60, 169, 172, 175–7, 181

  Agamemnon, HMS (battleship) 84, 99, 101, 105, 112–13, 120, 124–6, 151, 197

  Agincourt, HMS/Sultan Osman/Rio de Janeiro (Brazilian/Turkish/British battleship) 23–4

  Albania 15, 31, 97

  Albion, HMS (battleship) 100, 105–6, 126

  Alexandria 131–2, 145

  Allenby, General Sir Edmund 185, 194 Antwerp 62, 66–7, 89, 139, 173

  Anzac Cove (Gallipoli) 151–2, 155

  ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) 90, 102–4, 110, 114, 118, 148, 151–6, 176, 184, 193
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  Arbuthnot, Charles 17, 18

  Armenians 187, 200–1

  persecution and massacre by Turks 15, 181, 186, 191

  Armstrong and Vickers 1, 23

  Asquith, Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith xii, 36, 67, 82, 136, 144, 171; forms coalition Cabinet 142–3; and Dardanelles disaster 85, 162, 178–80; and Fisher’s final resignation 143; and War Council 164–6

  Atatürk: see Kemal, Mustafa

  Audacious, HMS (battleship) 65, 66

  Australia 145, 153–4, 157 see also ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) navy 65, 158

  Austria (and Austria-Hungary) xi, 11, 12, 50–1, 56, 62; alliances 11–12; declares war on Serbia 29–30; interest in Ottoman Empire 9; navy 16, 39, 67

  Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald 176, 189

  Balfour, Arthur (later Earl) 71, 143, 164–5, 205

  Balkan Wars (1912–13) 14–15, 23, 29, 31, 87, 195

  Balkans xi, 9, 13, 22, 25, 58, 62, 158, 195; Austrian-Russian rivalry over 10, 12

  Battenberg, Admiral of the Fleet Prince Louis Alexander of 64, 67, 68, 139

  Beatty, Admiral David, 1st Earl 66, 71, 97, 193

  Belgium 61–2, 87

  Berlin, Congress of (1878) 10, 13, 19–20, 25

  Berlin-Baghdad railway 11, 12, 25, 129–30, 159

  Bieberstein, Baron Marschall von 25–6

  Birdwood, General Sir William 103–4, 110, 118, 131, 148, 154, 162, 176

  Bismarck, Otto Prince von 9, 10, 11, 25

  Black Sea xii, 57–9, 83–4; bombardments in 59, 70, 74, 96; Mediterranean Division 51–2, 57–9; Russian fleet in 21, 77, 95–6, 110, 182; Blücher, SMS (German hybrid cruiser) 98–9

  Bosporus xii, 85, 110; defences 77, 96–7; international conventions and control 19, 200

  Bouvet (French battleship) 5, 123–4, 126–7

  Braithwaite, Major-General W P 119, 122