num_pages: 109
description: In October 1914, the Turkish Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. This event complicated the war, for it shout off the Dardanelles-Black Sea shipping route to the Allies and virtually cut off Russia from important sources of supply. To aid the hard-pressed Russians and to bring pressure on Turkey, Winston Churchill conceived a daring plan: a combined French and British naval attack to force a passage through the Turkish-held Dardanelles Strait.The plan failed, but a second one - the momentous Gallipoli campaign - was made in the spring of 1915. Trevor Nevitt Dupuy and Grace P. Hayes skillfully sketch the heartbreak of that bloody landing on the Turkish peninsula which the British, Australian, and New Zealand troops made with such high courage. But on the Turkish fronts in the Middle East, British efforts were crowned with success. Aided by Arabs seeking independence from Turkey - and sparked by the almost legendary "Lawrence of Arabia" - the British launched a series of brilliant campaigns in Mesopotamia and Palestine, culminating in General Allenby's triumphant entry into Jerusalem in December of 1917.
language: English
title: The Military History of World War I, Volume 5: The Campaigns on the Turkish Fronts
publisher: Franklin Watts