Dominic Sandbrook

Fisher is more and more enraged.

He goes to see Lloyd George's secretary stroke mistress, Frances Stevenson.

And he says, we are trying, people at the Admiralty are trying to argue with Churchill.

And I quote, but he simply overrides them and talks them down.

If he continues his domineering course, they fear there may be a catastrophe.

But Fisher's not good at the internal politics and Churchill is.

So when they have meetings, Churchill's very excited and ebullient and tells everybody about his scheme.

Fisher sits there sulking, staring out of the window, you know, irritable, difficult.

So people don't listen to him.

They listen to Churchill instead.

So anyway, they sign off on the scheme.

On the 19th of February, Admiral Carden's fleet, combined British and French fleet, launches the first stage of the operation.

So the French have joined as well?

The French are involved as well, exactly.

In much smaller numbers, nobody ever talks about the French at Gallipoli, but there are French ships and there will in due course be French troops.

Yeah, exactly.

So they're in the Mediterranean too.

So they start by shelling these outer forts at the entrance to the straits.

And they're horrified when they get there to find out that

The Ottomans, who they've assumed will be completely useless, have spent the winter laying minefields, preparing kind of howitzers, reinforcing their artillery batteries and whatnot.