Naval Mine Warfare: Historic, Political-Military Lessons of an Asymmetric Weapon Lieutenant Colonel Michael F. Trevett, USA (Ret.) August 2013 Proceedings Vol. 139/8/1,326 2013 Naval Mine Warfare Essay Contest Third Prize Winner “We have lost control of the seas to a nation without a navy, using pre-World War I weapons, laid by vessels that were utilized at the time of the birth of Christ.” RADM Allan E. Smith, Korea-1950 World War I: From March 1915 to January 1916, 46,000 ANZAC[1] and British soldiers died in the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli, which resulted in a total of 265,000 casualties. [2] The battle was fought primarily through insane frontal assaults against the well-entrenched Turkish Army, occupying superior positions in the mountainous Gallipoli peninsula. Consequently, the Turks, in their defilade positions, slaughtered the ANZAC and British troops for months, until the British finally accepted the obvious fact that their operation and objective failed miserably. The classic movie, Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson, portrays this well but does not explain why the ANZACs ended up in a vertical trench warfare situation. The reason for the Battle of Gallipoli escapes many naval and military oƯicers and even many historians. Incited significantly by the vociferous arguments of Winston Churchill, then at age 39 serving as the youngest Lord of the Admiralty, the British desired to open additional fronts against Germany. Particularly aimed at weaker German allies, the strategy included Turkey. The initial intent was to force a naval action through the Dardanelles Straits, the 35-mile long waterway connecting the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, which led to Constantinople and the Black Sea, with the Gallipoli Peninsula forming the northern land boundary. A combined naval task force of British and French ships began shore bombardment on 19 February 1915 and soon after commenced minesweeping operations. “Bad weather, Allied ineƯiciency and a newly laid minefield disrupted these plans. An attempt to force the Straits on 18 March was a disaster: three