Dominic Sandbrook

And Churchill adds the line, importance of results would justify severe loss.

In other words,

We could lose loads of ships and loads of men.

I don't care because the prize is worth it.

And so Admiral Cardon says, well, I suppose it is doable.

You know, first of all, we'd destroy what I call the outer forts, so the southern entrance to the straits.

Then in phase two, we'd go in, send some ships in.

We would destroy the inner forts.

We'd send minesweepers in to clear the straits of mines.

And then we would send our fleet in towards Constantinople.

At this stage, there is absolutely no suggestion of using ground troops at all.

They are just going to do this with naval power.

That is all that they're interested in doing.

And so on the 13th of January, 1915, Churchill goes to Britain's War Council, as it is called.

Now all the big names are there.

Lots of people we've talked about in this and other Restors History series.

Herbert Henry Asquith, the prime minister, David Lloyd George, his chancellor, Sir Edward Grey, the foreign secretary, Lord Kitchener, the secretary of state for war, Sir John French, the British commander on the Western Front.

Well, Asquith tells his girlfriend, Venetia Stanley, who is a fraction of his age, you won't often see a stranger collection of men around one table.

Anyway, they sit there, they talk about the Western Front and the stalemate, and then Churchill unveils his plan.

And as the civil servant Morris Hankey, who was there, wrote afterwards, "...the idea caught on at once, the whole atmosphere changed.