World War I for Teens: An Enthralling Guide to the Conflict that Redefined Nations (Legendary Histories for Teenagers) by Wellman Billy

Author:Wellman, Billy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

The Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits

Decora, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russian_empire_sea_access_wwi.png

Souchon convinced Enver to let him sail German and Ottoman ships into the Black Sea. They torpedoed a Russian gunboat at the Black Sea port of Odessa. They also opened fire on two other Russian port cities, although they gave the civilians two hours to leave town. Because Russian ships were shadowing the German and Ottoman ships, Souchon insisted they had “opened hostilities.” He ignored the fact that the Russian ships never fired on the German and Ottoman ships.

British Admiral Winston Churchill ordered British ships to fire on Ottoman ships. They also bombed Ottoman forts at the Bosphorus Strait. The Ottoman Empire officially declared war on November 11, 1914.

Most Ottomans were Muslim, especially in Turkey and the Middle East. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V called for a “Great Jihad,” trying to make the conflict a holy war for Muslims. However, the Middle Eastern Muslims were disinterested.

The Ottoman army fought in the Balkans, the Middle East, and in northwest Asia’s Caucasus region. Its Caucasus Campaign lasted from 1914 to 1918 and targeted Russia’s territory near the Black Sea’s eastern shores. This land had once belonged to the Ottomans, and they wanted it back. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians nodded approvingly when the Ottomans focused on the Black Sea. It helped keep the Russians distracted from Europe. However, Russia fared better in the Caucasus Front than the Ottoman Empire, with half as many casualties. Ultimately, the campaign ended when Russia’s revolution forced it out of the war.

The Gallipoli Campaign (February 1915–January 1916) took the struggle back to the Dardanelles Strait. As we said, the Ottoman Empire’s capital of Istanbul (Constantinople) reigned over the straits leading to the Black Sea. This was problematic for Russia, so the Allies planned to occupy the capital and control the traffic in and out of the Black Sea. The Allies launched the campaign at the Gallipoli Peninsula, which is separated from the mainland of Turkey by the Dardanelles Strait.

In this campaign, the Allies introduced amphibious landings to modern warfare, where soldiers jumped out of landing craft to storm the beach. The landings worked well, but the campaign was an embarrassing debacle for the Allies. Bad weather battered their ships, and they suffered from poor planning, inexperienced troops, and a lack of equipment and ammunition. The huge Ottoman Empire diverted thousands more men to protect the straits.

On the Middle Eastern Front, the Ottoman Empire fought in the Sinai and Palestinian Campaign for control of Egypt and Palestine. Egypt was critical because of the Suez Canal. It is the only way for ships to go from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea (and ultimately the Indian Ocean) without having to sail the long and dangerous voyage around the bottom of Africa.

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