Britain Plans Assault On Ottoman Turkey

In August 1914 when the first hostilities commenced, British First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill confiscated two Ottoman battleships under construction in the Britain. In early November, Britain declared war on Turkey and sunk a Turkish ironclad. Churchill proposes to seize the Turkish Straits, the complex of waterways, consisting of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus. The Ottoman Turks are heavily fortified in these areas but in January 1915 the British War Council approved the Dardanelles proposal.

On February 7, 1915 Two British Marine battalions arrived in the Aegean to provide landing parties to demolish the Turkish guns at the Dardanelles forts. This is part of a continuing build-up leading to a British assault on the Dardanelles.