Naval losses in the Dardanelles

[gem22]

Can anyone tell me how many ships, including type, and sailors were lost in the Dardanelles campaign? I would like to have some basic figures to hand when I give a talk to our local history society in February. The talk is based on visits I've made to Gallipoli and will concentrate on the land warfare but I would like to include a little bit about the naval involvement.

Thanks

Garth

[Sandie Hayes]

This is a good website but you would need to go through it line by line : http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/losses.htm

[michaeldr]

Garth,

In addition to the information available on the web-site recommended by Sandie,

The Gallipoli Association's web-site has recently begun adding the Navy to its Order of Battle section

see http://www.gallipoli-association.org/content/order-of-battle/order-of-battle-the-navy

and for casualties, very good information is available on the Naval-History web-site

see http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1003-Intro.htm#1914

Off hand, I cannot think of a ref. which might give you the figures which you seek in a ready-made format;

Sandie's "you would need to go through it line by line” sounds about right

Good luck with the talk

Michael

[gem22]

Sandie and Michael

Thanks for the replies. It does look as if I'll have to go through various websites 'line by line'.

I'm a bit concerned about the web site Sandie recommended because I can find reference to 5 Battleships being sunk; all are recorded as 'torpedoed' but I believe that two were sunk by mines and one by gunfire. The list shows no other losses which rather surprises me!

Anyway thankyou both.

Garth

[sadsac]

Garth, nothing to do with `losses', but may be of interest ??

Award re services in the Dardanelles - have 272 such awards ;

ROBINSON Eric N/E Lt.Cdr. RN 80E002

Europa Vice Admiral Commanding Eastern Mediterranean 16.08.15 Gazetted

Dardanelles Operations prior to 25.04.15 VC

On the 26th February, advanced alone, under heavy fire, into an enemy's gun position and destroyed a 4 inch gun, returning for another charge with which the second gun was destroyed. Took part in four attacks on the mine-fields - always under heavy fire.

Sadsac

[bob lembke]

Sandie and Michael

I'm a bit concerned about the web site Sandie recommended because I can find reference to 5 Battleships being sunk; all are recorded as 'torpedoed' but I believe that two were sunk by mines and one by gunfire. The list shows no other losses which rather surprises me!

Garth

Not an expert here on the naval war, but: I believe that the Brits and the French lost 6 battleships. Several were lost to mines during one of the initial attempt to penetrate the Narrows; the story of that is very interesting. The Turks had about 6-7 lines of mines across the waterway. Observing a previous sortee into the Narrows, Turks observed that the Allied capital ships had fallen into the habit of putting about with a turn close to the Asiatic coast. They had few mines left for deployment, but a Turkish officer (I have heard that it was left up to the commander of the small minelayer used, but I am not sure) decided to deploy a few more, and shortly before the major attack a small minelayer sailed thru the minefield and laid another row of mines (about 18?), this one parallel to the Asiatic shore where previous observation noted that the capital ships had put about. In the assault some Allied battleships look the lead, fired off a lot of their ammunition on the shore defenses, took some fire, and then put about in the identified area. Then at least of them ran into these mines, and the Allied commanders did not at first know what was happening, and may have reported that they were hit by shell-fire. I think that the Turkish defenses included a few torpedo tubes fixed at the shore, but I don't think that they ever hit anything with them.

The Turks were very short of ammunition for the shore batteries, and in fact they largely stripped the forts and batteries at the Bosporus (sp?) of heavier shells and shipped them to the Dardanelles, although there was a very real danger of a Russian naval attack at that end of the waterway, which was attempted a few times.

I think that the final losses of battleships was when a German U-boat finally arrived after a long voyage from Germany, and promptly sank two British battleships in a few days. Then the larger Allied warships were largely withdrawn from exposed duty at the landing zones, and the Queen Elizabeth was sent home to prevent its loss.

All of the above is from memory, and the sea war is not my area of particular study, so please verify any info I presented above, just wanted to supply a rough outline of the naval activity re: the loss of battleships. My father fought at Gallipoli (not sure how many Forum Pals can still claim that), as a young volunteer in the German Pionier=Kompagnie who served there, mostly in the assisting the Turks in their mining warfare efforts at ANZAC.

Every time I have been in Istanbul I have visited the wonderful Askeri Mueze in Istanbul, but the last time I was there I also visited a much smaller naval museum on the European shore of the Bosporous about 2-3 miles north of the Golden Horn. When we wen tthere it was not rush hour, and the ferries running along the European shore did not seem to be running, so we took a ferry from a stop a bit south of the Galata Bridge over to Asiatic Istanbul for $0.60, had lunch, and took a ferry from there to a ferry station right in front of the naval museum for a fare of $0.45. In the yard of the museum there is a large collection of various sorts of naval gear, mostly from WW I and before, including a lot of antique mines and torpedoes (I think that Whitehead established a torpedo factory in Istanbul in the 1880's) and I think part of a sunken U-boat.)

Bob Lembke

[gem22]

Bob

You're information tallies with the sources that I have. I know very little about the RN during the war and my sources of information come from accounts such as the OH, Hamilton's diaries, and various personal accounts and divisional histories.

The only truly naval account I have is 'Dardanelles' by HM Denham, who mentions the loss of transports but is not specific.

Anyway thanks for the reply.

Garth

[melliget]

There may not be much info, if any, on naval losses (sorry) but below is an interesting collection of old books on the Dardanelles available online at Open Library:

http://openlibrary.o...s_fulltext=true

I particularly like the book of colour sketches, another named "With the Fleet.." and the interesting plates in the German "Die Dardanellen".

regards,

Martin

[gem22]

Martin

Thanks for the link. I'll probably download some of the books to my Kindle for holiday reading.

Garth

[bob lembke]

There may not be much info, if any, on naval losses (sorry) but below is an interesting collection of old books on the Dardanelles available online at Open Library:

http://openlibrary.o...s_fulltext=true

I particularly like the book of colour sketches, another named "With the Fleet.." and the interesting plates in the German "Die Dardanellen".

regards,

Martin

Interesting. I skimmed thru the volume Die Dardanellen, which I don't think that I knew of before. Note that on pages 76 and 77 are two illustrations regarding the sinking of the British battleship Goliath by a Turkish torpedo boat, on May 13, 1915, which I had forgotten about. (I think that its CO was a German naval officer.)

Bob