The first lord of the Admiralty, Winston
Churchill, was a prime architect of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign. In
this letter to the war secretary, Lord Kitchener, written just two weeks
before the unsuccessful Anglo-French naval attempt to force the Dardanelles,
he deals primarily with the logistics of forthcoming operations against
Turkey - in particular the availability of British troops for land operations
at Gallipoli. Churchill also welcomes the appointment of Sir Ian Hamilton
as the commander of the Dardanelles expedition: 'No choice could be more
agreeable to the Admiralty and the Navy.'
Catalogue reference: 30/57/72 (4 Mar 1915)
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