Dardanelles Operation
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Taking place during the Anglo-Turkish War (1807-1809), the Dardanelles Operation was a British Royal Navy's unsuccessful attempt to impose British demands on the Ottoman Empire.
| Russo–Turkish War, 1806–1812 |
|---|
| Dardanelles – Dardanelles – Athos |
In 1806, the French envoy Sebastiani had been dispatched to Istanbul with orders to bring about Turkey's re-entry into the war. Sultan Selim III set about preparations for war with Russia after positively receiving Sebastiani. The Russian emperor, Alexander I, was alarmed by these developments as he had already deployed a significant force to Poland and East Prussia to fight the advancing French forces under Emperor Napoleon I. Alexander requested British assistance in keeping Turkey out of the war.
The British army was far too small and inadequate to impose the will of the Coalition on the Ottomans, so it naturally fell to the powerful Royal Navy to meet Russia's requests. A sizeable flotilla under Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, sailed for the Dardanelles and made preparations for the upcoming assault.
In the meantime, the British ambassador to Istanbul, Arbuthnot, demanded that the Ottoman government evict Sebastiani, and added that should the Ottomans resist the ultimatum, the Mediterranean fleet would attack.
The actual force that had been chosen by Collingwood to carry out the operation was small -- only eight ships-of-the-line (see below) supported by a number of smaller craft. In addition, four Russian ships-of-the-line under Admiral Dmitry Senyavin were sent to support the British. Admiral Duckworth, who commanded the British, was under orders to bombard Istanbul and seize the Turkish battle fleet.
However, despite the British ultimatum, on December 27 Selim issued a declaration of war on Russia. Early in the new year, 1807, the British frigate Endymion evacuated British nationals from the Ottoman capital. A formal declaration of war had not yet been sent by London and the two powers were still technically allied. On February 10, Duckworth's fleet concentrated at the mouth of the Dardanelles.
The presence of British and Russian vessels at the mouth of the Dardanelles caused Sebastiani to begin overseeing the improvement of the Turkish shore batteries. When Duckworth entered the Dardanelles on the morning of February 19, these batteries commenced firing on the British. However, the absence of significant numbers of Turkish troops, due to the end of Ramadan, meant the batteries were ineffective and the fleet quickly reached the Sea of Marmara.
Still not technically at war, the Turkish delayed Duckworth with token negotiations whilst the French engineering officers under Sebastiani completed their improvements on the defences of the shoreline. After suffering extensive damage and the loss of over a hundred men in the Action of 19 February 1807, Duckworth withdrew without ever attempting a bombardment of Istanbul, due to fears of the shore batteries.
He then demanded infantry that could be landed to seize the shore batteries, but such forces were denied to him due to the weakness of the British army. He did not make a second attempt on the Dardanelles -- a decision that has earned him much criticism, but was probably quite reasonable considering the powerful shore batteries. Any attempt to seize the Turkish fleet would have most probably failed and resulted in much higher British casualties.
The entire operation was a failure, but was not overly costly. Long after France and Russia had made peace and Senyavin defeated the Turkish fleet at Dardanelles, the Ottomans would remain at war with their northern neighbour, draining a significant portion of the Russian army, which also became involved in operations against Sweden in the Finnish War and later in the resumption of hostilities against France in 1812.
