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The failed naval offensive to force a passage through the Straits of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston Churchill from office in disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a century, the Dardanelles campaign has been mired in myth and controversy. For some, it was a brilliant concept that might have dramatically shortened the First World War and saved millions of lives. For others, it was fundamentally misconceived and doomed to fail. Churchill is either the hero of the story, or the villain.
Drawing on a wide range of original documents, Christopher M. Bell shows that both perspectives are flawed. Bell provides a detailed and authoritative account of the campaigns origins and execution, explaining why the naval attack was launched, why it failed, and how it was transformed into an even more disastrous campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula. He untangles Churchills complicated relationship with Britains admirals, politicians, and senior civil servants, and uncovers the machinations behind the bitter press campaign in 1915 to drive him from power.
The book goes on to explore the origins of the myths surrounding the ill-fated campaign. It provides the first full account of Churchills tireless efforts in the decades after 1915 to refute his legion of critics and convince the public that the Dardanelles campaign had nearly succeeded. Largely by his own exertions, Churchill ensured that the legacy of the Dardanelles would not stop him becoming Prime Minister in 1940.
List of contents
- Winston Churchill and the Dardanelles: A Riddle wrapped in Myths inside a Legend
- 1: Stalemate and Frustration: The First Months of War
- 2: The Origins of the Naval Offensive
- 3: 'A Great Experiment': The Naval Plan Approved
- 4: 'I will find the men': The Plan Remade
- 5: 'Groping round without a plan'
- 6: From the Dardanelles to Gallipoli
- 7: Jacky Fisher's Crisis
- 8: The Duchy of Lancaster goes to War!
- 9: Exile
- 10: The Dardanelles Commission I: The Preliminaries
- 11: The Dardanelles Commission II: The Naval Staff under Scrutiny
- 12: The Dardanelles Commission III: An Instalment of Fair Play
- 13: The Cabinet Minister as Censor: The Official Histories
- 14: The Battle of the Memoirs
- 15: From Millstone to Myth: 'The Great Movement of Opinion'
- Conclusion: What about the Dardanelles?
- Notes
- Bibliography
About the author
Christopher M. Bell is Professor of History at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has published widely on twentieth century naval history, and is the author of The Royal Navy, Seapower and Strategy Between the Wars (2000) and co-editor of Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective(2003) and At the Crossroads Between War and Peace: The London Naval Conference of 1930 (2014). His most recent single-authored book, Churchill and Sea Power, published by Oxford University Press in 2012, was described in the American Historical Review as 'essential reading for students of both Churchill's naval career and modern British sea power.'
Summary
The story of the highly controversial First World War campaign that nearly destroyed Churchill's reputation for good and of his decades-long battle to set the record straight - a battle which ultimately helped clear the way for Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister in Britain's 'darkest hour'.
Additional text
This immaculate study of the First Lord of the Admiralty's disgrace and comeback is ... likely to become the definitive work on the campaign, and Churchill's role in it. What gives the book its edge is not merely Bell's scholarship, which is rigorous, but its highly original analysis of the aftermath ... Unlike most additions to the Churchill bibliography, it is truly valuable.
Report
A book which combines a thoroughly researched, well-written and convincing new assessment of one of the British Empires most controversial and disputed campaigns with a thoughtful and reflective survey of how the episode has come to be understood since ... one of the best additions to the scholarship on the First World War produced since 2014. David G. Morgan-Owen, English Historical Review
