Dardanelles Submarine Campaign

One of the world's narrowest straits open for  shipping is the Dardanelles in Turkey, which connects the Seas of Marmara and the  Mediterranean. It also allows a  passage on through into the Black Sea via the Bosporus. The Dardanelles are  38 miles long (61 kilometres) and  vary between 0.75 to 3.73 miles (1.2 to 6 kilometres) in width. It averages a depth of 180 feet (55 metres)  with a maximum depth of 338 feet (103 metres) at its narrowest point at the city of Çanakkale.

The passage through the straits was for the fragile submersibles of the First World War, brutal. The straits offered both the defenses of nature and the Turkish additions to make it difficult.   The submarines had to contend at the 10 fathom mark with a deep stratum of fresh water that often made it nearly impossible to control the boat. This was to be an unwelcome surprise to the British submariners  on their first efforts to force their  away up the Turkish dominated passage. Fighting the strong currents drained their batteries, and was to nearly bring destruction down on the  first few boats, as they passed up the Dardenelles. At the same time as battling natures defenses , the Turks were trying to kill them with shore batteries, mines, nets and patrol craft.  All these factors equated to a place submarines should not be.

Both  the Central and Allied powers quickly realized the possible sea borne supply route to Russia the Dardenelles straits offered. With the Gallipoli  campaign the sea of Marmara took on an additional strategic importance. For a brief period of time the Allied policy would developed to always maintaining two submarines in the Marmara at all times. The British Official History states that they were able to make the enemy’s supply ‘so restricted and precarious that the maintenance of the Turkish army in Gallipoli was a matter of grave concern.’ 

The history of the  British  and French submarine patrols in the Dardanelles is deeply entangled with the Gallipoli  campaign, but we going to just stay with those early and brave submarines. The Dardanelles refers for me, to the naval campaign undertaken by the Allied navies in the waters leading to or in Sea of Marmara. The submarines base was  on the Greek (a neutral country in 1915) island  of Lemnos in the port at Mudros.  The old depot ship SS Hindu Kush served the boats as their headquarters and accommodation ship. Lt-Cdr (Lt-Cdr) Pownall was  placed in overall command of the flotilla. Three French submarines were  to joined the British submariners, and both  B6 and  B7  were transfered from Gibraltar under command of Lt- Cdr Brodie.

The situation in the eastern Mediterranean was to undertake a huge change when on the 1st November 1914 Turkey joined the Central Powers. Following the 'declaration'  a conference was held on board the Hindu Kush, and present was Brodie, Warburton , Gravener and Pownall. The subject matter was the idea of sending submarines into the Dardanelles. It was mutually recognized that the  B class [1] had a too shorter range when submerged.  But which one British or maybe even a French boat was to go? The French accepted their boats were not realistically up to the job, and B11 by default of having new batteries was choose to undertake the patrol. In addition B11 had already, whilst on a patrol off the Dardanelles, chased a torpedo boat for four miles up the straits. December was to see the design and fitting of 'home made' anti mine guards of tubular steel  on to B11.

On the 13th December  1914,  B11  under the command of  Lieutenant Norman Douglas Holbrook, commenced her first patrol from Tenedos, entering the  straits at 04:15. She managed to successfully  avoid the five lines of Turkish mines and searchlights as she picked her way through the narrow waters. Once through, Holbrook took his command down to the seabed to await the arrival of dawn. Once the Turks had switched their searchlights off, B11 surfaced and headed to a position a mile off Cape Helles.  Once more Holbrook dived to 80 feet and B11 moved off at 2 knots. After half an hour it was discovered that one of the  recently fitted 'guards' had become damaged during the passage, rendering it as worse than useless. With the boat laying on the surface, the crew removed the damage port hydroplane guard, and the patrol resumed once more.

By 09:40  B11 rose to periscope  depth and Holbrook looked around Sarısığlar Bay off the Nara Point, south of Çanakkaleon. Sat close by was the Turkish pre-dreadnought Mesûdiye, (acting commander Maj. Beşiktaşlı Arif Bey). She lay at anchored and was serving as a floating fort after 'advice' from Turkeys new allies , Germany. She had been positioned there ( before the outbreak of war) on the 16th September, Most of the guns of Mesudiye had been dismantled and were being used in the coastal batteries,  but the ship  stayed where she was. Holbrook had sighted the Mesûdiye at 11:30 and fired two torpedoes from 2,460 feet into her stern.  In his memoirs Rıfat Bey wrote about the details of the event: “There was no point in continuing to fire. I had to think about the personnel, so I ordered ceasefire to be followed by an order to leave the ship. The first torpedo of the enemy submarine hit a little above the ammunition storage of Mesudiye’s stern guns. If it were only 15-20 cm below, it would be a direct hit on the ammunition storage and the ship would blow up in the instant. We had replaced the removed guns with sand and chains in order to keep the balance. If that had not been done, the ammunition storage would be elevated and that would result in a direct hit.”  As their ship sank under them, the Turkish gunners were to remain at their posts and opened fire on B11's periscope. Mesudiye capsized within the space of ten minutes, and in the process trapped most of her 673 crew within her upturned hull. Fortunately the ship and come to rest in shallow waters, and over the following  36 hours they were release through holes cut in the ships  hull. Despite the Turks valiant efforts, ten officers and twenty-seven men were to perish in the attack. The Turkish ship Bolayır was to rescue the 48 officers and 573 men from Mesudiye.  Later her 150mm and 76mm guns were to be salvaged. The 150 mm guns were installed as "Battery Mesudiye" in the Dardanelles and these guns were to go onto play a role in the sinking of the French battleship Bouvet on 18 March 1915, hitting her eight times. One of which disabled her forward turret, before she struck the mine that was to sink her with very a heavy loss of life.

With his torpedoes under way, Holbrook ordered his boat to dive,  but first officer,  Lieutenant Winn discovered their compass glass was badly fogged up.  The B class boats were by the outbreak of the war already considered obsolete, having been built between 1904 and 1906. The  compass was located on the outer casing and viewed from the control room by a series of lenses.  Direct access to the compass whilst dived was thus impossible. B11 bumped along  the seabed and was steered blind, using the periscope sparingly to calculate where they were.  The conning tower was not sealed off from the  submarine's interior  and the captain usually stood within it. Holbrook discovered the conning tower was clear of the water when day light came in through the towers porthole's. In those brief moments when the tower was exposed, it drew heavy Turkish fire. In addition to these problems the strong current's within the immediate area pushed B11 into the shallows. Following  her attack, B11 took eight hours to return back down the straits, with  Holbrook steering by the towers portholes.  Finally clear of  the straits, the submarine surfaced, but the air within her was so foul by this point it was to take half hour before the diesels could be started.

Lieutenant Holbrook was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first to be given for service in a submarine, and the first of the war for the navy. His First Lieutenant, Sydney Winn, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and every member of the crew was awarded the Distinguished Service medal. On 24 August 1915 the town of Germanton in New South Wales, Australia, was renamed "Holbrook" in his honour and a replica of B11 can be still be seen there. On 24 July 1916 a Prize court was to rule that the submarine's company were entitled to prize money for the sinking of the Mesûdiye, and an award of £3,500 was made. Holbrook received £601 10s 2d, Winn £481 4s 2d, the chief petty officers £240 12s 1d, and the seamen £120 6s 1d. This sum represented three years' pay for a seaman.

The loss of Mesudiye was both a heavy blow for Turkish pride, and a wake up call.  It encouraged them to further strengthen the defenses of the Dardanelles.  The modern Turkish minelayers Samsun and Nusrat were despatched to lay the new mines.  By the close of the year,  324 mines had been laid over nine lines  inside the Dardanelles.

Following Holbrooks success, Vice Admiral Sackville Carden requested that the more modern E class submarines be deployed within his area of command. His request could only be fulfilled to a lesser degree by the Admiralty, as the Dardenelles were deemed, at that stage of the war, to be unimportant.  Carden was also issued an order to all his submarine commanders, stating that no Allied submarine were to sail on a patrol without his express permission.

In an attempt to repeat the success of B11[1] for the 'glory of France', the French submarine Saphir (Lieutenant Henri Fournier) sailed from Mudros during the early hours of 15 January 1915. Fournier undertook an attempt  to break through to the Sea of Marmara, but without seeking  Carden’s permission. Saphir  was successful in passing under the  mine barrages, but as she dived under a minefield off Çanakkale, she struck the sea bed and  began to take on water. The flooding forced Saphir to the surface, directly under the Turkish guns, which opened fire on their surprise visitor.  With the uncontrolled flooding Fournier had little choice but to give the order to destroy Saphir′s code books and scuttle her 1,640 yards (1,500 meters) off shore. The crew tried to swim ashore but thirteen of twenty-seven enlisted men and the two officers were not to survive the swim, perishing from the cold. The fourteen survivors were eventually recovered by two Turkish Army boats and transferred, after interrogation,  to prisons, including one in Afyonkarahisar.  Some of the prisoners  were transferred on from there to prisoner-of-war camps in Asia Minor, where they were successful in managing to escape. A French citation from Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère,  Admiral of the French navy reads:
"The submarines Saphir and Curie, fallen gloriously in battle, are brought to the agenda of the Naval Army. In his affliction of having seen succumb such valiant servants of the country, the commander-in-chief reminds everyone how proud the army should be to have in its ranks officers and crews capable of heroic actions such as those that were accomplished by these valourous ships whose names will remain in maritime legends. Honour and glory to the officers and crews of the Saphir and Curie, they have truly earned it from the Fatherland".

On the 29th March 1915 HMS  Adamant became the 'Special Service Flotilla 1' new depot ship, and with the E class boats, E11 (Lt-Cdr Martin Nasmith), E14 (Lt-Cdr Courtney Boyle), E15 (Lt-Cdr Theodore. S. Brodie) was on route to the Mediterranean .  The three submarines and the Adamant moored  overnight in Gibraltar, having crossed the Bay of Biscay. The next morning E11 was found to have developed a clutch problem, and recalling his Baltic disappointment, Nasmith refused to remain in port and followed the others out to sea and onto Malta.  The harbour master at Malta refused their access into port, leaving the boats at sea,  until the next  morning. During their night at sea waiting to be allowed,  E11 out of fuel, and had to be towed into port in the morning. The three boats tied up, alongside HMS Egmont, an old wooden man of war, then serving as a depot ship. E11's clutch was by this stage so stiff, it was a two man job to operate  it. In addition the  armature of port motor had shorted. An examination found the  main shaft to be cracked,  and the nearest replacement was back in Portsmouth. The Australian submarine AE2 was also in dock at Malta, following her having hit some rocks in Mudros bay. On the 15th April Nasmith decided to take a gamble, that E11's problems could be resolved with facilities at Mudros. Having ordered  that the replacement shafts be sent onto Mudros, he sailed from Malta. Three days later Nasmith brought his command into Mudros, to find only E14 along side. E15 had been lost.

Brodie had taken E15 to sea on the 16th April 1915, and undertook an attempt to break through the Dardanelles and into the Sea of Marmara. Three Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) aeroplanes were ordered to provide cover, Brodie's twin brother being a passenger in one of the aircraft. Early on the morning of the 17th, E15 dived too deep and was to become caught in the grasp of the  strong current and near Kepez Point, ten miles into the strait, ran aground, Even more unfortunately, the submariners found themselves to be directly under the guns of Fort Dardanos.  With the appearance of E15 the  Turkish guns opened fire on  her. She was soon hit by the Turks  and disabled, Brodie was killed in the conning tower by shrapnel from the first shell striking the hull. In addition six of the crew were killed by chlorine gas which had became released when the submarine's batteries were exposed to seawater, following a second shell strike opening her seams.  The gas forced the crew out and onto the hulls casing and with no choice, given their location and the boats damage, the crew evacuated the submarine and surrendered to the Turks. They were to be incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp near Istanbul.

The stranded submarine was  spotted by the three aeroplanes of the RNAS, and they quickly reported back on the situation to the Allied submarines' HQ and depot ship. The  destruction of E15 now became of the first importance, if the Turks were to be deprived from salvaging her. The RNAS had already  driven the Turks off from one attempted towing of the beached boat. The first vessel to try in the task was HMS B6, (Lieutenant Birch), but the Turkish gunners were awaiting him. Birch fired two torpedo's but failed to hit the stranded submarine.  Later during the night of the 17th, the two destroyers HMS Grampus and Scorpion (the latter being commanded by the future Admiral Cunningham of World War II  Mediterranean Fleet) were to make an attempt to reach E15. Brodies brother again  requested permission to join the destroyers for their mission, and was on the Scorpion's bridge. As with B6's attempted, they too were to fail, being unable to locate the stranded submarine. The next morning B11 was next to try and also  failed to locate the beached E15, due this time to a thick fog. Next to fail, once the fog lifted,  were the pre-dreadnoughts Triumph and Majestic,  The Turkish shore batteries prevented them from getting closer than 12,000 yards, which was to far off to achieve their goal. In the meanwhile, RNAS seaplanes attempted to bomb the beached  E15, but were to fail. The Turks had by now  increased their number of guns in the area, in an attempt to hang onto the prize.

Finally, on the night of 18th April  two 17 metre picket boats, (one from Triumph, the other from Majestic), were both fitted with two 14 inch torpedoes mounted into dropping gear, and were to make an attempt to destroy E15. Lt-Cdr Eric Robinson, a volunteer from Vengeance was in command of  the expedition, from on-board   Triumph's boat and Lieutenant Claud Herbert Godwin commanded the boat from the  Majestic. At 22:00 the two boats departed and were to be successful  in navigating the narrow channel for a distance of seven miles, before they were detected by the Turks and illuminated by the searchlights. Their discovery brought  on a barrage of fire from both shores, but somehow both boats remained undamaged.  A Turkish searchlight briefly illuminated  the stranded submarine and Godwin seized his  opportunity. Blinded by the lights, his first torpedo missed, and the Turkish gunners were able to score their one and only hit, blowing off part of the stern and mortally wounding one seaman. But Godwin closed the stranded submarine and fired his second torpedo, which this time struck E15 just forward of the conning tower, well below the waterline. Robinson, on seeing Godwin's stricken craft, brought his boat alongside and rescued the crew. Now with double the original crew on board, the Triumph's boat made its way downstream without being sighted, the Turkish gunners concentrating their fire on the drifting and abandoned wreck of her sister ship. The next day the  RNAS were sent to check the wrecked submarine, but they could not get close enough. In the end B6 (Lieutenant MacArthur), with Brodie Brother on board, was ordered to check E15's condition. The Turks did not spot B6 as she approached at 80 feet depth. But as she came to periscope depth the  straits currents grabbed  her and push her into shallows,where she grounded 100 yds off the wreck of E11. B6's conning tower was clear of water and the Turks opened fire at the fresh target. MacAthur ordered the tanks blown to lighten boat, and the currents swept the now  lighter craft back into deeper waters. Once safely back at Mudros MacAthur reported E11 as "beam ends and wrecked".

The  Germans were impressed with the British efforts to destroy the E11. One officer in Istanbul is reported to have commented "I take my hat off to the British navy". When post war, Djevad Pasha heard of the British being buried on the beach, he ordered them to be brought to the Chanak Consular Cemetery and buried with full honours.

The destruction of E15 would no doubt have earned Robinson a Victoria Cross, but he had already been recommended for the award following earlier exploits on the Gallipoli peninsula. Instead, he was promoted to Commander by a special decree. Lieutenant Godwin was awarded the DSO, Lt. Brooke-Webb and Midshipman Woolley received the DSC, while the rest of the crews, all volunteers, received the DSM.

The Australian submarine AE2 [2] arrived on the 5th February at Tendos, having traveled as part of a troop convoy from Australia to the Red Sea. She commenced her patrols on the following day, monitoring the entrance of the Dardanelles in company with the B class B9, B10 and B11 and two French submarines.

While returning from a patrol AE2 ran aground at the entrance to Lemnos, on the 10th March at 21:45. The harbour lights used to aid navigation had been turned off and a new boom defense installed, none of which the returning  vessel had been made aware of.  A portion  of the crew were taken off by  a cutter sent from a Battleship in harbour at the time, and transferred to the River class destroyer, HMS  Chelmer. The Chelmer then passed a wire across to the stranded boat and successfully towed her off at 02:00. With a heavy swell and a dark night, the Chelmer manoeuvred AE2 safely alongside the depot ship,  SS Hind kush.

The following day (11th) at 20:00 AE2 left for Malta to undertake  repairs, and at midnight she encountered a French JBO (Joint Blockade Operation?) flotilla and were challenged. But with her identity established she was allowed on her, arriving in Malta on the 14th March.  Once there, she entered dry dock on the 16th, an inspection  of the damage was undertaken. Her tanks were found to have been severely damaged in the grounding. She was to be joined while in dock by HMS Implacable which bore a large hole under her fore part just before the bridge which had been caused by striking a mine off the Dardanelles. AE2 emerged from dry dock on the 16th April, departing for Mudros, and arriving  two days later. She then left Lemnos on the 23rd and arrived at Tenedos same day.

Up until late April AE2's  role had been minimal, but that was to change when her Captain (Lt-Cdr H.G Stoker) presented Admiral de Robeck, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C), Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, with a plan for an offensive patrol. He proposed the attempt to force a passage through the 35 mile long, heavily fortified Dardanelles Strait and enter the Sea of Marmora. If this could be managed then enemy shipping between the Bosporus and the Dardanelles could be prevented from reinforcing and re-supplying Turkish troops on the Gallipoli peninsula. The C-in-C told Stoker if he and his crew were successful there would be "no calculating the result it will cause, and it may well be that you will have done more to finish the war than any other act accomplished". On the 14th March Admiral Keyes had ordered the E class submarines to transfer to Mudros. Keyes and Stoker's  vision came to fruition on the 23rd when the latter ordered Stoker to attempt to reach the sea of Marmara.

AE2 departed from Mudros the next day (24th) to commence her attempt in forcing a passage through the narrows. The crew had yet too be officially informed by their commander of the patrols goal, but by this point the majority had already  guessed at the contents of their orders. AE2 had been told to simply go and "run-amok" in the Narrows. The boat remained on the surface until  within 2 or 3 miles of the entrance to the narrows. It was from that point that the Turkish defenses of mines and shore batteries became a significant danger. At 04:00 the Turks switched their searchlights off for the night, and  AE2 dived to pass through the minefields. For over half an hour the mooring wires holding the mines in place scraped along the side of  AE2's hull as she slowly slipped past. Each scrape of the metal cables frayed the crews nerves even thinner.  But misfortune was to strike when the foremost hydroplane shaft coupling failed, forcing  AE2  to surface and to return to Mudro for repairs. The submarine finally anchored off HMS Blenheim at 06:00 going alongside HMS Swiftsure in the evening.

The next morning, the 25th, (the  day the Gallipoli landings commenced) [4], at 02:00 AE2  slipped her moorings from the Swiftsure, and then,  having waited off the entrance until the moon had "set", proceeded once again  up the Dardanelles,  at 8 knots. The weather that night was both calm and clear and  Stoker knew that they had little possibility of making the passage unobserved. He kept his boat on the surface for as long as was possible.  At 04:00  the Turkish searchlights found the submarine and the shore batteries opened fire,  at which he point AE2 dived.  The submarine slowly picked its way through the straits at a depth varying between 70 to 90 feet. Stoker twice brought his command up to the periscope depth of 20 feet to take headings. At 6:00 Stoker informed his crew that they were through the worst part of the narrows and he ordered the boat once more up to twenty feet in order to have a look around. Keyes had ordered him, once through to hunt for any minelayers.  At 06:10 Nasmith sighted the Turkish battleships Targut Reis and Heredin Barbarossa, escorted by several destroyers. The warships  lookouts in return sighted the submarines periscope  and the two battleships hastily withdrew. As two capital ships steamed away ,  their destroyers fired on E11  periscope when ever it was briefly raised. The speed of E11 and the days light conditions had made the periscope easy to spot.  By 09:45 she was through the Straits and at 10:00 surfaced to charge her depleted batteries.
He spotted a further Turkish Battleship off Chanak and ordered the bow tube to be loaded, but the initial attack was stopped by a minelayer passing between the AE2 and her intended target. Stoker took the opportunity to quickly launch a torpedo at the intruder, as he feared she was laying mines that could endanger AE2 herself. The torpedo struck the minelayer Feihh i Shevist and sank her.

With the torpedo launched the boat dived to 90ft from where they heard the report of the explosion, but in the midst of their  celebrations, AE2 shot up from 90ft to 8ft. The conning tower was suddenly clear of the water and they lay under the guns of the fort Anatoli Medjidieh. Sighting the submarine the shore batteries opened from all sides. Stoker told his crew that the 'the sea was one mass of foam'  caused by the shells, but somehow they remained unscathed, despite the sound of shrapnel hitting the casing heard by all inside the submarine. While the Turks fired, the submarines motors were doing their best, first ahead then astern to free the boat. The screws were cutting into the ground but Stoker knew the boat had to be freed  irrespective of any damage caused to the screws.  The motors were increased to their maximum output which finally freed AE2 and a much relieved crew took her down to  90ft again.  Once at a safe depth the boat turned and made for the entrance for Gallipoli and Sea of Marmara. But the turn was not sharp enough as they were facing a 4 knot tide and consequently they ran up on the opposite bank. Once again the Turks opened fire and once again AE2 escaped unscathed. They dropped back to 90 feet and settled down onto the seabed from 07:30 until 17:00. Sunday prayers were read and then with the exception of two watchkeepers the remainder of the crew took the opportunity to get some sleep by their posts,  if their nerves would let them. Stoker was to later write;  "In connection with these two groundings, I have to report that the behaviour of the crew was exemplary. In these two highly dangerous situations it was only their cool and intelligent performance of their duties which enabled the vessel to be refloated".

As the crew rested, about every  every quarter of an hour a boat was heard passing overhead looking for them. At one point the casing  was struck by a heavy object being trailed along the bottom by one of the 'hunters' but fortunately for the  crew, it did not snag or critically damage the submarine. At about 17:30 the boat overhead finally moved away having assumably given up. Stoker ordered the boat astern and she slipped down a big incline, the diving guage showing a bent needle at 100, which meant they were deeper than that. But the craft suffered no damage from her 100ft plus depth, as she finally rose to a safer  20ft. AE2 entered Chanek Harbour and broke surface at 22:00 in a small bay, where they lay until 03:30 charging up the depleted batteries.

It was a dark night which permitted AE2 to remain on the surface charging her batteries, which had been nearly exhausted. As she lay on the surface a  strict lookout maintained on deck. The lookouts watched as boats passed up and down the channel but they remain undisturbed until they dived at 4:00 and headed towards Gallipoli where they sighted a  Turkish Battleship,  but their torpedo was to miss. The sea that day was undisturbed by any waves and was so smooth that the periscope could be easily seen when raised. Each sighting of the raised scope would bring Torpedo boats down on their location, but these were the days before the depth charge and a submerged submarine was largely safe from its hunters.

Despite her being pursued the submarine entered the  Sea of Marmara, and  Stoker felt safe enough to bring the craft back to the surface. With her White Ensign hoisted AE2 cruised around charging up her batteries. Then with the arrival of dusk the submarine headed back towards Gallipoli and while once more charging the batteries Stoker sent his first signal to the Commander-in-Chief notifying him of their successful passage through the ‘Narrows’ and the passing Nagara of Point.

As Stoker lay charging his batteries, a council of war was taking place on board the British flagship, Queen Elizabeth as it steamed off the coast of the Gallipoli peninsula. The British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Ian Hamilton, was present  with his senior staff, and theh were discussing the progress of the Allied troops ashore. Hamilton had received a message from Lieutenant General William Birdwood who had felt he should recommended an immediate evacuation of the troops under his command. The advice was based on the advice of Birdwood’s two divisional commanders ashore who had feared that given the conditions of their exhausted troops, they would be unable to withstand a fresh Turkish counter-attack the next day.

AE2's signal was sent by  22-year old (state of) Victoria Telegraphist William Wolseley Falconer. The submarine’s wireless had a range of only a  of 100 miles maximum, on a good day. A relay ship, the destroyer HMS Jed, had been stationed in the Gulf of Saros with a receiving window set between 40 and 50 minutes past every hour. Falconer tried, with no success, to get an acknowledgement that his signal had been received but after several attempts he assumed that that the wireless equipment had been damaged and that their signals went unreceived by the fleet.

Unknown to either captain or signalman, the message had been received by the Jed, pieced together and forwarded to Queen Elizabeth. It arrived at the moment when Hamilton was deliberating with his staff about a general evacuation. The meeting was interrupted when one of Hamilton’s aides handed a copy of the signal to Commodore Roger Keyes, who announced "Tell them (the troops on the shore) this. It is an omen. An Australian submarine has done the finest feat in submarine history and is going to torpedo all the ships bringing reinforcements, supplies and ammunition into Gallipoli”.

Hamilton then wrote to Birdwood "your news is indeed serious. But there is nothing for it but to dig yourselves right in and stick it out. It would take at least two days to re-embark you, as Admiral Thursby will explain to you. Meanwhile, the Australian submarine has got up through the narrows and has torpedoed a gunboat…Hunter-Weston, despite his heavy losses, will be advancing tomorrow which should divert pressure from you. Make a personal appeal to your men…to make a supreme effort to hold their ground. P.S. You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig until you are safe.”  The Australian War Memorial claims there "is no real evidence" to support this tale.

Throughout the remainder of the  25th, AE2 was to lay in 80 feet of water while enemy ships continued their search over their heads. The crew having  attributed the fresh Turkish attention to their having overheard the coded wireless transmissions. The off duty crew were ordered to rest but most found given their situation,  sleep impossible. At 21:00  Stoker blew the ballast tanks and broke the surface after having been submerged for over sixteen hours.  All signs of the Turkish vessels hunting him had vanished and AE2 could finally recharge her batteries

At approximately 23:00 AE2 lay with her crew on deck breathing the fresh night air, after 16 hours of foul air, cloud cover shaded the moon providing AE2 with an extra layer of concealment, and in the early hours of the morning it began to rain reducing visibility further. By 03:00 on the 26th the  weather began to clear as the Australian submarine and her crew continued their passage on the surface  before diving at dawn. As soon as there was sufficient visibility, Stoker noticed through his periscope, "two ships approaching, obviously men-of-war, one in front of the other". Steering both a parallel and opposite course to the enemy he approached and fired his port torpedo. Only after firing did Stoker realise he had fired in error at the smaller leading ship, a cruiser, which easily evaded his torpedo.  By then it was to late  to bring another torpedo tube to bear on the second ship, which he now judged to be a battleship of the Barbarossa class, (in fact the Barbaros Hayreddin)  and the attack was abandoned. Stoker wrote; 'I continued on course through (the) Straits, examined the Gallipoli anchorage, found no ship worthy of attack and so proceeded in the Sea of Marmora, which was entered about 9:00 am." As AE2 passed the town of Geloibolu she had became the first allied submarine to enter the sea of Marmara.

At about 09:30 AE2 sighted four ships, but by this stage the boat only had six of her original eight torpedoes remaining, leaving Stoker to decided not to fire another one, unless his target was a troop transport. To quote Stoker once more; "With this intention I dived close to the foremost ship - a tramp of about 2,000 tons. Passing about 200 yards abeam of her I could see no sign of troops or ammunition; but as I passed under her stern she ran up colours and opened rifle fire at [the] periscope. I then dived over to the next ship and attacked at 400 yards with starboard beam torpedo. The torpedo failed to hit. I was unable to get within range of the other two ships".

The remainder of that day was to be spent on the surface recharging the  batteries and undertaking any necessary repairs. After the sun had set Stoker once more, in the belief he had yet to make contact, tried to wireless the British fleet. While making the attempt a small Turkish vessel attacked the  submarine, but with no success. These attacks were to continue whenever the submarine attempted to surface during the night of 26/27 April.

At dawn on 27 April, while still submerged, Stoker sighted a transport ship escorted by two torpedo boat destroyers. He successfully evaded the two escorts and  manoeuvred into a firing position at 300 yards and was ready to fire. But this time the torpedo refused to leave the tube, possibly due to a faulty motor. But the submarine had been sighted and one of the destroyers, the Sultanhisar (Captain Ali Rıza Bey) turned in to ram, forcing AE2 into a hurried dive. Nothing else was sighted for the remainder of that day and in order to give the crew his crew some well earned rest, the night of 27 April was spent on the bottom in Artaki Bay.

The  early hours of the morning of 28 April, in dead calm weather, was to see AE2 attacked another small ship escorted by two small destroyers (One of the destroyers was the Muavenet-i-Milliy, commanded by senior lieutenant Ayasofyali Ahmed Saffed. Both ship and captain were to sink HMS Goliath the following month). Once more the torpedo missed its intended target and the Turkish counter attack ruled out a second attempt.

With the arrival of dawn on the 29th Stoker ordered a course towards Gallipoli, sighting a gunboat patrolling the head of the Strait off Eski Farnar Point. Stoker again; "Dived under gunboat down Strait, and returned up Strait showing periscope to give the impression that another submarine had come through. T.B.D.s and T.B.s [torpedo boats] came out in pursuit, and having led them all up towards Sea of Marmora, I dived back and examined Gallipoli anchorage but found nothing to attack."

AE2 now returned to the Sea of Marmora where Stoker launched another torpedo at a Turkish gunboat, narrowly missing her. In the afternoon, he rendezvoused with HMS E14 (Lt-Cdr E.C. Boyle, RN) the second Allied submarine to successfully pass through the Dardanelles. The two submarines met at 17:00 off Kara Burnu Point and following a meeting between the two captains, a second  rendezvous was arranged for 10:00  the following day. The night of 29/30  was spent with  AE2 lay on the bottom, north of Marmora Island.

As  AE2 hunted the Turkish  waters, the torpedo boat, Sultan Hisar, commanded by Captain Ali Rıza Bey, was hunting in return for her in the area between Maydos and Çanakkale. But Bey received orders to return to  Istanbul for replacement by the torpedo boat, Basra. AE2  arrived at the agreed rendezvous at 10:00 on the 30th, and Stoker sighted a torpedo boat (Sultan Hisar) approaching her at high speed. The Sultan Hisar had in return sighted AE2's  periscope. At this point, the accounts of the two Captains differ. Stoker described the last few moments of AE2 service; "Dived to avoid torpedo boat; whilst diving sighted smoke in Artaki Bay, so steered south to investigate. About 10:30 the boat's nose suddenly rose and broke surface about 1 mile from T.B. Blew water forward but could not get boat to dive. T.B. firing, got very close, and ship from Artaki bay, a gunboat also firing; flooded a forward tank and boat suddenly took big inclination down by bows and dived rapidly. AE2 was only fitted with 100 foot depth gauges. This depth was quickly reached and passed. Went full speed astern and commenced to blow main ballast. After some interval boat came back to 100 ft depth, so re-flooded and went ahead, but boat broke surface stern first......Within a few seconds the engine room was hit, and holed in three places. Owing to the great inclination down by the bow, it was impossible to see the T.B. through the periscope and I considered that any attempt to ram would be useless. I therefore blew main ballast and ordered all hands on deck. Assisted by Lieutenant Haggard, I then opened the tanks to flood and went on deck. The boat sank in a few minutes in about 55 fathoms, in approximate position 4 degrees north of Kara Burnu Point at 10:45 am. All hands were picked up by the torpedo boat and no lives lost."

Ali Rıza Sultanhisar's captain was to write that he had fired  two torpedo at AE2 but the first failed to ignite and  fell overboard. He also claims to have evaded AE2’s torpedo, a torpedo Stoker denies firing.  In the meantime, Sultan Hisar fired her two torpedoes, the first failing to ignite and falling overboard, and the second was a miss.

AE2 was by this stage damaged and unable to submerge. But  the Sultan Hisar had expended all her torpedoes and her guns were ineffective causing Ali Rıza Bey to decided to ram the submarine for the final blow, no matter how risky it was. Later the captain wrote of this decision in his memoirs: “Collision… When this crossed my mind, I looked at my ship first and then at the opposing vessel. Next to this 800 something tons vessel, mine was looking like a small boat. Could the power of 93-ton Sultanhisar’s weak body open a wound on this giant? I stopped thinking about this. I had to resort to the last option I had, at any cost. Leaving the battlefield could be another option, but this was out of question… Maybe we would not be victorious. Maybe both Sultanhisar and AE2 would be destroyed as a result of the collision and go down the blue waters of the Marmara. But we would collide anyway… This was the only option, the only option that could take us to death, but also to victory.”

Sultan Hissar began to move forward at her full speed towards the AE2, but just at the moment when she was about to hit, Ali Rıza Bey turned his vessel sharply away and aborted the attack.  By this point, AE2 was completely surfaced, with a white flag hoisted on its tower and the sailors were abandoning  their damaged submarine. Sultan Hisar picked up AE2’s crew of three officers and 29 men and soon after which the submarine slipped  to the sea bed for one last time.

Stoker Petty Officer Henry Kinder also recalled the final moments (Courtesy Peter Ryan & the Kinder Family); "It was obvious that AE2 had received her death blow so as soon as the boat got to the surface the captain gave the order to abandon ship; every man for himself. We now fully realized that AE2’s end had come and if we were lucky enough to get out we would have to take whatever was coming to us from the Turks.

AE2’s conning tower was just above water and the crew could only go out one at a time. It took some minutes for thirty–three men to go up. The wireless operator, the first to go up, didn’t seem to like the look of things as the two gun boats were still firing and shells were falling all around us.

My turn didn’t come till near the last. I spent my last few minutes looking around the boat. The clock said five minutes to twelve. A time, which made me, think of the rabbit pie in the oven. By this time pie and oven would be all mixed up with the engines. I went to my ditty box and got 16/- and a photograph of my wife. I thought the money might come in handy. I was sorry I had paid in a few pounds to the canteen the night before we left.

AE2 looked a proper wreck with everything in disorder. The captain had been collecting ship’s papers and destroying charts. The last thing I noticed was the charge of the gun cotton, which was kept handy under the diving gauges to blow the boat up. This would prevent her from falling into enemy hands. I often wonder (if the boat had remained on the bottom) whether the captain would have been game enough to have used the charge and blown the boat and crew to their final resting place. I think he would have.

At last my turn came. I had kept one eye on the depth gauge to make sure that the boat was not sinking and with one last look around, came up on deck to start a new life in an unknown country. It was like leaving home. The chief engine room artificer and the three officers were still to follow me.

When I got on deck the two gun boats were still firing and the destroyer that had hit us was quite close and blowing her siren for the other boat to cease fire. They were firing fairly wide so there wasn’t much chance of being hit. AE2’s crew had taken to the water and were scattered all over the place. Most of them were wearing life belts in the form of a padded waistcoat. These had been handy to wear in the boat to keep warm.

I stood by the conning tower to warn the captain, (who was still in the boat shutting off the air and opening up the Kingston valves) to make sure that AE2 would sink fast. He just got on deck when she took her final dive. For a few seconds I could see her moving through the water like a big, wounded fish, gradually disappearing from sight. I felt sorry to see AE2 come to such an end but she had died fighting".

AE2's  commanding officer and crew were to spend the next three-and-a-half years in a Turkish prison camp. Four ratings were to die whilst in captivity but the remainder were released following the Armistice in 1918.

AE2's achievements showed others that it was possible to pass through the straits and into the Sea of Marmara, and within months the Turkish shipping and lines of communication were to be badly disrupted, with supplies and reinforcements destined for the Turkish defence at Gallipoli forced to take the longer and underdeveloped overland routes. AE2 was the only RAN vessel to be lost as a result of enemy action during the War, and along with sister boat AE1, the total of the RAN's operational losses in the war.

Two days after AE2's successful passage through to the sea of Marmara, following a briefing on HMS Queen Elizabeth,  E14, (Lt-Cdr E.C. Boyle), was ordered to follow in Stoker's  footsteps. She departed from Mudros on the 28th, escorted  by destroyers, which parted company from her at 03:00.  E14 came under her first Turkish shore battery fire at 04:00 as she passed Suandere, forcing her to dive,  But once she was clear of Suandere, Boyle brought his boat back to the surface and ran with the conning tower awash, allowing him to make use of his diesels. Now cruising at around 15 knots the submarine sprinted past  Chanak at her full speed. The Turkish gunners responded by engaging the submarine, but failed to add sufficient deflection. Once past Chanak, Boyle returned his command to back beneath the waves but he still had to contend with his boat moving against strong Dardenelles current.

Later in the day Boyle sighted his first target, a Turkish gunboat and fired a torpedo. As he watched the track of his torpedo his periscope suddenly went dark. While watching the gunboat he had let a small Turkish fishing boat approach unnoticed. The fishermen had however noticed the periscope and pulled their boat alongside it. One of the men then wrapped his body around the periscope, as if trying to prevent the intruders escape. Boyle while laughing, ordered "down scope" and the brave but unthinking Turk lost his hold on the slippery AE2. The gunboat meanwhile had been hit by the torpedo. The next 48 hours were mostly to be spend submerged as the Turks hunted for the submarine.

At noon in the 29th Boyle was to encounter a number of torpedo boats and launched an attack on one of the boats. The sound of the detonation was clearly heard in the AE2, but having been forced to dive, Boyle was unable to confirm if his target had been sunk. The torpedo boats launched a counter offensive and in the process one E14's two periscopes was to suffer some damage. Late in the afternoon of the 29th,  another attack was made on two troopships that were under escort by three destroyers. But unfortunately the calm sea allowed her periscope to be spotted, forcing her to seek sanctuary deeper beneath the waves after launching the attack. An explosion was heard on board and when Boyle returned to periscope depth half an hour later, he watched as one transport was making its way to the shore, emitting a great deal of yellow smoke in the process.  AE2's  next victim was to be the minelayer Peik I Shevket (1014 tons) which was to be damaged in a torpedo attack on the 29th. The Peik I Shevket managed to save herself by being run aground but she was remain out of service for the next two years. 

That evening, following the attack,  E14 met up with AE2, but her Australian companion had yet to experienced any luck and in addition had only one torpedo left to her. The two captains leaning from their respective conning towers, deep within the Turkish waters shared their experiences and discoveries. On the 1st May Boyle decided to turn the tables on the enemy vessels that had been harassing his boat. He sank the small gunboat Nurel Bahr, (200 tons) and fired two torpedoes at a larger one, but they were to unfortunately miss.  With this latest attack, the Turkish patrols became more cautious, but despite that, they, in combination with the shore lookouts continued to restrict E14’s actions. The two submarines presence was having some impact, but they were unable to completely stop reinforcements crossing the Sea of Marmara.

Four days later E14 encountered a large transport that was being escorted by a destroyer. The combination of a calm sea and a well handled escort made the attack difficult, but Boyle was able to fire a torpedo from 600 yards when the destroyer was on the other side of the transport. However, the torpedo failed to explode.

The next day E14 was to encounter another transport ship, but the Turkish lookouts spotted the danger in time, and the ship turned back towards the safety of Istanbul. Boyle was to pursue several ships over the next few days, but those that he caught, he allowed to continue unharmed, as they were all carrying refugees.

At 19:00 on 10 May he sighted the transports Patmos and Gülcemal, under escort by the destroyer Gayret-i Vataniye,( Kasımpaşalı Cemil Ali Bey), as they  transported  troops from Istanbul to Çanakkale with . At 20:30  E14 fired a torpedo aimed at the Patmos but it was to miss, then a second torpedo struck the Gülcemal on the bow. The ship was transporting over 1600/4000/6000 (sources vary on the exact numbers) troops, some of who panicked and jumped over board believing their ship would sink. Rather oddly it only dawned, a source claims, on some of them, once they were in the water that they couldn't swim!  The Patmos carried on along on her intended course, leaving the escorts and stricken ship behind. The two Bosporus ferries Kalender and  Sahilbent arrived on the scene and took both the troops and her cargo, (artillery ) on board.  Gülcemal was to remain afloat and was eventually taken in tow to Istanbul [5]. E14 successfully evaded the destroyer and slipped away from the scene. While Boyle  was escaping Turkish attentions, in Mudros  E11 was tied up along side the depot ship Reliant with her hull plating removed and a new shaft being fitted. It was to be a two day job and  whilst his vessel was under repair Nasmith asked the  RNAS to fly him over the Dardenelles to enable him to can map the straits. His hope was to map Turkish 'perils'  but it was to prove impossible to spot the mine fields from the air. He could however mark the lighthouses and landmarks for his future guidance through the straits. On the 3rd May E11 was finally able to head out to sea on her trials.

E14 was now left with one torpedo, which was to be discovered to be faulty. Despite having no serviceable torpedoes  Boyle knew that by  remaining in the  Marmara for as on as was feasible, his presence alone would impede on the enemies shipping movements. But on the 17th  May he received the ordered to return to Mudros. During his passage back down the straits, he made us of an enemy gunboat and followed her through the Chanak minefields. Having passed Chanak, Boyle ordered his boat dived when the shore batteries engage E14. He was to make the majority of his run submerged, only finally surfacing when alongside an alongside French Battleship off Helles Point.

Boyle was to be awarded the Victoria Cross and  E14’s other two officers the Distinguished Service Cross. All her petty officers and ratings the Distinguished Service Medal. Boyle’s citation, quoted on naval-history.net, stated that:
The KING (is) pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Lt-Commander Edward Courtney Boyle, Royal Navy, for the conspicuous act of bravery specified below:

For most conspicuous bravery, in command of Submarine E.14, when he dived his vessel under the enemy minefields and entered the Sea of Marmora on the 27th April 1915. In spite of great navigational difficulties from strong currents, of the continual neighbourhood of hostile patrols, and of the hourly danger of attack from the enemy, he continued to operate in the narrow waters of the Straits and succeeded in sinking two Turkish gunboats and one large military transport.

The French navy were to  make a number of attempts to enter their submarines into the  Sea of Marmara. Following on from the successes of AE2 and E14, the French submarine Joule (Lt. L Aubert Dupetit-Thouars) attempted to force the passage on 1st May, but she was to strike a mine and be lost with all hands.

Admiral de Robeck hosted a 'dinner party'  on the 18th May on board HMS Lord Nelson, inviting both Nasmith and Boyle to join the gathering of the top brass who were all eager to hear a first-first-hand of Boyle's patrol.  After the meal, Boyle took the opportunity to brief Nasmith on what lay ahead of him in the mines, nets, searchlights and guns that guarded the straits. Keyes also told Nasmith that evening to" go and run amok in the Marmara". Keyes made it clear he hoped Nasmith would be able to stay in the Marmara until E14 was ready to relieve him.

Nasmith sailed  E11 from Kephola the next day (19th), with the destroyer Grasshopper acting as her escort, sailing astern of her until she was ready to dive. On board the Grasshoppers bridge that night was Boyle. But once Grasshopper returned to port, Boyle took his E14 to Malta for her post patrol maintenance. At 03:10  destroyer and submarine passed the navy's trawler patrol and four miles further up the straits Grasshopper wished Nasmith goodluck, and turned back. Forty minutes after parting company E11 was level with Achi Baba and she then dived to 80ft,  starting her  journey through the straits at 3 knots.

Nasmith brought E11 to periscope depth at 05:30, but the Turks spotted him and open fire on the periscope. As the Turkish guns opened up in him, Nasmith returned E14 back down into the depths. Gallipoli was sighted at 09:30 and by the mid afternoon, the submarine was settled on the seabed of the Marmara. The crew took the opportunity to snatch some rest, and Nasmith order an issue of rum to be made, in celebration of their achievement. He brought the boat to the surface at 21:00 to allow the batteries to be recharged. As he crept forward he was twice forced to dive his boat, due to approaching destroyers, (one occasion being between 0:30 to 0:40).  When things were quiet he attempted to wireless HMS Jed, but the signal was not to be received.  With the dawn imminent, Nasmith dived the boat at 04:00, and for the first time since sailing Nasmith took the opportuity to go off duty. Later he brought E14 back to the surface twelve miles off the town of Rodosoto, and allowed his crew to bathe, in groups of three for ten minutes each. The night remained quiet and he authorised a second session  of bathing at 06:00, while E11 remained surfaced recharging her batteries. Throughout her the patrol E11 would remaIn, when safe, surfaced at night and charging her batteries. She would in addition stay surfaced through the daylight hours, if it was considered safe to do so. No merchant ships were to be seen all of the 20th May.

The next day (21st) was a foggy one and at 11:30  E11 stopped to send a boarding party to examine a small sailing vessel. The party took four chickens from them vessel, but the prizes skipper was polite, if to scared to accept the payment. Through the remainder of the foggy day, E11 made use of the sailing vessel as a screen, and also placed a lookout at the bvessels mast head. Finally with nothing encountered Nasmith let the sailing ship go on her way unharmed at the days end.  On the next day (22nd) a number of warships were encountered but they were all to be successfully evaded by the submarine.  Nasmith made a second attempts to reach the Jed by wireless but was to unsuccessful again. The night was to be spent once again, surfaced and charging the batteries while continuing to try and reach the Jed by wireless.

The following day (23rd) at 03:00 Nasmith altered course towards the Turkish Capital, Istanbul, and at 04:50 encountered a sailing vessel. A boarding party was despatched to examine and inspect the vessel, but while this in hand a transport ship came into sight. E11 hastily really recalled her bordering party and dived to attack the new member to the gathering. But the transport had spotted her and easily made her escape.  At 05:50 Nasmith sighted the Turkish gunboat Peleng-I Derya at anchored off Istanbul. He dived E11 and approached to within 700 yards before sinking the fresh target with a torpedo. But as the gunboat listed to starboard, she struck E11's forward periscope with the second  shot from her  6 pounder gun. E11's periscope now bore a large round hole and was out of action, reducing Nasmith to one remainine periscope. The gunboat finally sank by the stern and E11 slipped out of the harbour. Once clear of Istanbul Nasmith conned her to the island of Kalolimno, where the  crew could remove the damaged Periscope and plug the hole. As the repair work was in hand the torpedo tube was reloaded at same time. Being a Sunday, and despite being deep within the Turkish back yard, Nasmith carried out a Sunday inspection and then the hands were called to prayer. The remainder of the day was spent bathing and undertaking 'Swedish drill' [6]. The world of the submarine was simpler in the early part of the war, before the peril of the aircraft made their time on the surface both more precious and rare. Nasmith resumed his attempts to wireless HMS Jed, and finally at 02:00 contact was  made, having found a fault in the submarines ariel. Nasmith asked for spare parts to be flown out to him,  a novel and original concept in 1915! But there is no record if his request was acted upon. In return Jed advised him of a U-boat now being operational within his locality. By 05:00 the echange of signals was complete.
At 10:30 on the 24th April Nasmith sighted a small steamer off Nagara, surfacing he ordered her to hove to. The steamer refused to stop and tried to escape, but on coming under rifle fire she finally stoped her engines. Her crew then broke into a panicked and made a mad dash for the ships boats. Silas Q Swing, a war correspondent of the New York Sun ( or the Chicago Daily News, depending on the source), managed to calm the situation. He in formed the submarines  boarding party that the steamer was a passenger ship bound for Chanak and was carry marines, field guns and krupp ammunition. In the way of journalists, he then asked for a story, before told by Nasmith to get into the last boat. Nasmith also dropped the 'intelligence' to Mr Swing, that the allies had eleven submaines operatimg within the sea of Marmara. The boarding party found that the ship was carrying a 6 inch gun, other gun mountings and in addition a large amount of ammunition. After taking a few 'souvenirs'  the boarding party set a demolition charge, sinking the ship, which was the 480 ton naval auxiliary Naga.

While the boarding party was on board the Naga, further smoke was spotted from E11's conning tower. It proved to be another steamer, similar to the Naga, and as Nasmith dived to commence his attack, she was spotted. The steamer turned to escape and headed for Rodasto, with E11 in pursuit on the surface. The steamer made port and having rushed to berth at Rodasto’s pier, her crew fled the ship.  E11 dived and approached the pier, but at 2000 yards off her intended target, she ran aground. Firing a torpedo, she struck the ship, the SS Hunkar Iskelesi (512 tons), which then errupted in a massive explosion. The reason for the crews desire to abandon ship was explained now, as she was carrying muntions. As was becoming routine E11's priscope came under rifle fire from onshore  and fearing the loss of his one remaing  periscope, Nasmith withdrew.

With the despatch of the SS Hunkar Iskelesi another vessel was spotted and once more E11 gave chase, but the vessel, a paddle steamer, tried to a make good an escape. The use of rifle fire encouraged the relcuctant vessel to stop, but then with a change of mine she turned to ram her attacker, having realising that the submarine did not have any guns other than rifles. The paddle steamer, with a cargo of horses, was finally ran ashore by her captain.  E11 approached, but once again was to come under rifle fire from 50 to 100 cavalrymen onshore. Nasmith fired a torpedo, but that was to miss as only the stern could be targeted and the shallow water made it impossible to close the range. Giving up at 22:30 E11 made off   once again towards Istanbul.

On the 25th May 1915 U21 was to sink the pre-dreadnought HMS Triumph off the Dardenlles, and on the same day E11 arrived off the Golden Horn, in the very heart of the Turkish capital, hoping to find the Goeben. But the battlecruiser was absent from port on the 25th. At 12:30 she announced her presence with the torpeding of two transports moored at the Tophane Arsenal Wharf. She struck the  SS Stamboul, and damaged the  SS Istanbul, (3,559 ton) which herself in shallow water. Another torpedo, aimed at SS Kismet, circled back, forcing E11 to take evasive action, before finally escaping back into the Sea of Marmara. The attack had been observed by the USS Scorpion [7], a guard ship to the US Embassy. Her log records that four Turkish torpedo boats fired on E11 as she made her way out of the Golden Horn, as the tricky currents in that area, swung E11 around forcing her  back up to  near the surface and then just as qiuck back down to the bottom. Nasmith struggled to control his boat, which then grounded off the Old Seraglio point. But with her engines  she managed to pull herself free. The  attack compelled Goeben to be shifted to a safer mooring.

The following day (26th) was allocated as a day of bathing, rest, repairing and mending clothes. That was once the chores were done and the torpedo tubes reloaded from the five remaing torpedo's. The crew also made adjustments to the five torpedos, so that the end of their run, if they hadn't detonated, they would float. Then when the coast was clear E11 could reclaim her spent torpedo and recycle it. The bathing was interupted by their discovery by a Turkish aeroplane finding them, and with the Klaxon sounding, the swimmers scambled back on board and E11 slipped beneath the waves. The three bombs dropped by the Turkish airman missed. But it was a portent of the future. Swimming days would become a distant memory as the modern world slowly restricted the submarines surface activities. Then early before dawn (01:30) on the 27 May Nasimth sighted a Turkish pre-dreadnought Babarossa and her two escorting destroyers. One of the escorts forced E11 to dive just as Nasmith was about to launch the torpedo, and all three ships escaped unscathed. A small steamer was the next target to be sighted, (17:00), but she opened fire on her would be attacker, and E11 was forced to dive by an armed yachts arrival.

The 28th May brought a fresh crop of targets when at  06:30 smoke was sighted and half an hour later a small convoy comprising of one large, four small transports, and one escorting destroyer became visible.  E11 launched her torpedo half an hour late (07:00) at the largest of the transport's. The SS Bandirma [8] (474 ton), was struck and sank with the loss of 250 troops. Having been made aware of his periscope vulnerability, Nasmith dived his boat, but then returned to periscope depth once he was safely clear of the convoy.  He watched through the periscope as the destroyer fruitlessly searched for them, and as the remaining transports continued on their course. Following this latest attack, all Turkish reinforcement were to be marched overland to the front, effectively delaying their deployment.

At noon Nasmith returned once more patrol off entrance to Istanbul at Oxis Island from where he could watch entrance to the capitals waterways. The SS Dogan (216 ton), was seen approaching E11's location and a torpedo was launched at the vessel. No explosion was to be heard, even though the target was seen to stop briefly. It was only once he had sent the torpedo on its way, that  Nasmith realized ship was infact carrying refuges,  and he breathed a sigh of relief that he had missed. With the horizon clear, E11 surfaced, and recovered the floating torpedo, once Lieutenant Robert Browne had swum over to the torpedo and removed the firing pistol. Only then  was it taken back on board. An examination revealed damage to the torpedo’s head, showing that it had indeed struck the ship, but without exploding.  The next target (16:30) was a small sailing vessel which as stopped, and boarded. She  was found not to be carrying any cargo and was allowed to continue on her way, after being relieved of various 'delicacies'.

A patrol by the RNAS lead to a report being received on board E11, via HMS Jed,  advising her of a number of targets off Gallipoli. On reciept of this news E11 headed south towards these targets. On the 29th (07:00) an attack on a 'store vessel' was to fail with E11 breaking surface. The remainder of that day was to bring her only two or three destroyers, which were best avoided. The following day was given over to clearing the foul air out of E11, cleaning her as far as was possible, plus washing and bathing by the crew.

At 08:00 on the 31st E11 sighted the German Rickmers Line  vessel SS Madeline Rickmers (3,531 ton) embarking troops at Panderma. At 09:20  E11 launched a torpedo which struck the vessel, but despite developing a heavy list to port, the combined efforts of a tug and her crew managed to beach her. But the ship was to be declared  a wreck by the Turkish authorities.

The first day of the new month was to be quiet,  but the 2nd opened with a destroyer sighting at 08:10, which E11 evaded by diving.  Returning to the surface fifty minutes later (09:00) Nasmith gave chase to a ship whose smoke had been observed just before diving. At 09:20 she once more dived and fired a torpedo 20 minutes later. The target, which was the store ship SS Tecielli, (390 ton) sank in 3 minutes and her rapid loss implied to Nasmith her cargo was in fact munitions.  At 12:30  the smoke of a small ship escorted by two destroyers was sighted and once more  E11 dived (13:15). She fired one torpedo at the merchant ship, the SS Basangic (400 tons) at 14:15, but it was to pass under the target. Once the coast was clear the torpedo was once again recovered and this time floated back in to E11 via the stern torpedo tube, but only after the firing pistol had been removed.

The 3rd June was a quiet day until smoke was sighted at 15:00 and  E11 dived to approach the vessel, which resembled a steam yacht.  Struggling to close the range, Nasmith brought the submarine back to the surface.  When the range had finally dropped down to 2,000 yards, the enemy vessel turned and steamed straight towards E11, which dived. When she once more surfaced the sea was empty. A desroyer was to force her once more to dive at 16:00  and she was to remain submerged until midnight. The next day (4th) the only ship to be sighted was a destroyer in the afternoon and evening, which was believed to be the one that had been hunting for E11 the day before.

The 5th was to be spent ventilating the boat, charging the batteries and the crew having the opportunity to bath. An inspection by the engine room crew revealed one of the main motors had developed problems and the intermediate shaft was cracked. Nasmith wirelessed Jed seeking permission to return to base as by this stage the submarine was showing signs of wear and tear from a long patrol. The next day was to be a quiet one and Sunday comprised of bathing, prayers, exercise and battery charging. A destroyer and some sailing vessels were sighted in the afternoon, but for reasons not record they were left to sail by unmolested. At 21:30 E11 turned and headed slowly on the surface, towards the north entrance to the Dardanelles.

The 7th June was to see E11 dive at 03:40 and entered into the Straits once more as she headed back to her base. At 06:30  she passed Gallipoli at a depth of 90 feet and examined all the anchorages via the periscope, but Nasmith was to find no battleships, aside from a few small vessels and sailing ships. Her next target was to a troopship anchored off Moussa Bank and at noon a torpedo was fired, striking and sinking the 3,590 ton SS Ceyhan. At 13.30 E11 passed Nagara Point, but as she passed Chanak 30 minutes later a mine became attached to the port foremost hydroplane. Nasmith finally cleared the hazard by surfacing (16:00) stern first and then heading astern at full sped. With the white ensign hoisted for recognition purposes, the tired and worn out submarine was met by the destroyer HMS Grampus and proudly escorted into Port Mudros.

On 25 June the London Gazette printed the citation for the award of the Victoria Cross to Nasmith. Lieutenant Guy D’Oyly Hughes, his second in command, and Browne both received the Distinguished Service Cross and every petty officer and rating was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Nasmith’s citation, reproduced on Naval-History.net, said that:
29206 – 25 JUNE 1915
Admiralty, 24th June, 1915.
The KING (is) pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Lieutenant-Commander Martin Eric Nasmith, Royal Navy, for the conspicuous bravery specified below:
For most conspicuous bravery in command of one of His Majesty’s Submarines while operating in the Sea of Marmora. In the face of great danger he succeeded in destroying one large Turkish gunboat, two transports, one ammunition ship and three storeships, in addition to driving one storeship ashore. When he had safely passed the most difficult of his homeward journey he returned again to torpedo a Turkish transport.
On the 8th June on board his flagship, Admiral de Robeck hosted the traditional post patrol dinner. Both Keyes and Boyle were present as  Nasmith gave a full account of patrol. At the dinner Nasmith related to Boyle his theory about the strong currents in the Dardanelles. With pencil and paper he demonstrated how from the surface down to around sixty feet, was comprised of fresh water sweeping down from the land-locked Marmora into the sea. Then he illustrated that a similar band of saltwater that ran beneath that layer, was moving upstream. His theory helped to explain the strange behaviour of the submarines when they dived within the Straits and the knowledge which Nasmith passed on undoubtedly helped Boyle on his next trip. Keyes was to write of Boyle (10th June) " I never came across anyone more completely oblivious to danger".    Boyle would be the  next to head into the straits. A few days later E11 was towed to Malta's dock yard, where a 12 pounder awaited to be fitted to her. E14 had already had been fitted with her 6 pounder Quick-Firer. In addition the Admiralty now promised to send a further two E class and four of the new and latest class H.
E14 journey through the straits was both uneventful and easier than Boyle had been fearing, but he found the Marmora to  be empty of targets. Off Panderma he finally found a large steamer off shore unloading her cargo into lighters. One torpedo was sufficient to sink it. Boyle noted in his log that he suspected it was the vessel Nasmith had driven ashore on his ealier patrol. Things had changed dramatically since the first patrols. The Turks were sending their troops over land now to Rodosto and then a three day March to the front. Supplies were not sent on the over land route, but instead were loaded into the small sailing vessels, dhows, which could hug the shoreline. On his discovery of the change to the Turkish transport plans, Boyle decide to make use of his deck gun on the tiny dhows. But he had to stop each one and send a board parth over ti inspect the cargo. Given the landlocked nature of the sea of Marmara, this again shows how different the life of a submersible was in the early stages of the war. Later in the century it becomes almost impossible to imagine a submarine remaining on the surface to inspect a number of small sailing vessels. The early war years were a unique time to the submariner, and the meeting of two types of war, 19th and 20th century.  Following the inspection, Boyle transfered the dhows crews onto his submarines deck until could transfer them onto a passing ship. Very much indicative of a different time and way of war. One of the dhow crews lept into the  water and he fished them out. Boyle''s next prizprize was a brigantine but it proved to be rough for any boatwork, so Lieutenant Lawence RNR swam across. On board he found supplies and set fire to the craft as its crew watch on from their life boat.

On the 18th June Bruce departed from Imbros with E12 to join E11 in the Marmara. He struggled with the straits current as his this was his first passage through the tricky waterway. In addition the Turks has laid a new hazard, a steel mesh net was now in place at narrowest part of the strait. On the discovery of the new barrier, he charged E12 forward at full power in an effort to 'burst' through.  But the nets bouys on the surface danced and bobbed, giving  away his position  The first (British) depth charge would not be available until January 1916, and it's reasonable to assume their appearance within the central powers would post date that. So while bobbing bouys on the surface were in convenient, they were not yet a portent of doom. Bruce next tried reversing and then forward on full power again  with no success. He was to repeat the reverse and then charge routine a number of times, until finally he E12 burst through. But all the effort had put a great deal of strain on the submarines electric motors, damaging them and now they would need watching. On the 21st the two captains (Boyle and Bruce) meet up in the Marmara. But Bruce was to spend through to the 23rd working on those damaged motors.  Boyle then sent Bruce off to the eastern end of the Marmara and he took the took west. The 25th was to see Bruce sink two steamers towing five smaller sailing vessels. He surfaced and sigmaled the steamers to hove to, which while one did the other. E12 drew alongside the first vessel with her gun and rifles prominent and the first officer, Lieutenant Fox, lead the board party, His examination revealed war-materials and he ordered that she be scuttled.  While this was in a hand a Turkish  crewmember through a bomb at the submarine. Luckily it bounced off the casing  and failed to explode, but at the same momet  a gun was unmasked, and a dhow tried to foul E12's propellers with a rope. The two vessels exchanged fire as both Fox and his boarding party dive overboard to and swim for to the submarine. Once they were safely onboard, Bruce backed his command off and once out of range turned the de k gun onto both the steamer and dhow. After 15 minutes of shelling, the steamer disapeared in a massive explosion, caused by her cargo being struck by E12's shells. Buce now gave chase to the second ship, and opened fire on her as the dhow's tow was slipped, allowing the steamer to head for the shore. As the submarine drew closer, her shelling  set the steamer ablaze and Bruce left her to burn. The pursuit had caused the troublesome engines to run hot and further problems arose with them.  Despite these problems E12  was to continue with her patrol in the Gulf of Ismid.  She forced another steamer ashore but by this stage one of her engines was struggling badly. Having  met E14 once more, E12 was ordered home, where she arrived on the  28th after an easy passage with one engine dead and other misfiring.

The next to enter the campaign was E7 and her  captain, Lt-Cdr The Honourable Sir Archibald Douglas Cochrane, K.C.M.G., K.C.S.P., D.S.O., R.N Archibald Cochrane, the great grandson of the famous 19th Century Captain Lord Cochrane. E7 pushed her way through the net to find a new danger awaited her. The Turks had installed two torpedo tubes on shore, and these were set to fire when the nets bouys dipped. Cochrane was convinced whilst at  periscope depth the two torpedos passed between E7's periscopes. But the submarines main problem was to be introduced by a member of her own crew. Dardnelles fever or dysentery was bought onboard by a crewman and given the close confinement of submarine life it spread swiftly. Soon even Cochrane  was suffering, but he retained his boat on patrol. Could there be a worse place to be plagued with dysentry than a World War One submarine on patrol in enemy waters? The boats air must have been fouled than was normal and daily life all but unbearable. But they stayed on patrol.

The first of the new month (July) found E7 meeting with  E14 off Kalolimno island. When they parted Boyle head through the strait for Kephalo while E7 made for Rodosto.  E7 surfaced off Rodosto and found both a steamer and five dhows tied to pier .The shore guns exchanged fire with the intruder, and by the end of the dual,  two dhow's were on fire and three had  fled from the scene. Lieutenant Halifax then led a boarding party onto the steamer and set the scuttling charges.  But one of the charges  was to explode prematurely, leaving both Halifax and a crewman badly burnt. Both were carried with care by their shipmates back to E7 and the steamer waa finally sunk. Both men were to remain unfit for the remainder of that patrol. Over the next ten days E7 was to destroy 2 brigantines, 2 small steamers as well as a number of dhows.
On the 10th July she slipped inside Mudania harbour and sank a  3000 ton ammo ship, which exploded with a massivem explosion. The submarines crew as well as combating themTurks, still suffered physically as dysentry still remained prevelantb on their boat.
E7 made her first exploration of the entrance to Istanbul five days later (15th) and became ensnared in the same current as her sistership, E11 had been when the submarine  became grounded on the Lysander bank. Cochrane found the submarines bows were pointing at the Imperial arsenal, and he took the opportunuty to attack the building with a torpedo?.The resulting explodion permitted him to free his boat, whilst the Turks were distracted onshore. Cochrane took his boat out of the harbour and submerged to the sea bed off the Zeitun Powder Mill to await the night.  At midnight he returned to the surface and shelled the powder mills. The resulting explosion convinced the popuLatin of Istanbul that the British battlefleet had finally passed through the straits and was shelling the city. There was a hurried evacuation by some people to the countyside.  The following day E7 sighted the German UB15 under tow from a Turkish destroyer. Due to the range, and unfortunately for later events, she let her pass unmolested.

With the scarcity of water bourne targets, Cochrane introduced a change in tactics on the 17th July. Closing into the shoreline near Kava Burnu she used her deck gun to shell the railway as it passed through a cutting. The shells struck the cuttings walls, causing a landslide and a blocked railway line. Moving onto Derinji, with plans to use the submarines gun was used once more,  but the shipyard was found to be empty of worthwhile targets. E7 then returned to to Kava where the landslide had brought a troop train to a halt. One of the submarines shells strikes a wagon loaded with ammunition, resulting in a huge explosiom. To round of the day Cochrane has a viaduct on the railway line destroyed by his guncrew. In 24 days Cochrane had overseen the  destruction of five steamers, twelve sailing craft and two trains.

E14 commenced her third patrol on the  21st July with Boyle once again taking his command through the narrow straits, with orders to meet up with Cochrane. E14 encountered the new 80 foot deep net, and dived under  it. Her passage was to be relatively trouble free. After  E14 and E7 meeting, Cochrane headed his boat for home. A mine cable in the straits defenses was to snag and spins E7 round. But after eleven  hours submerged  E7 surfaced with her batteries exhausted, and heads for port. On the 24th E7’s Captain was awarded the Distinguished service Order. The citation, from naval-history.net [the other citations below are from the same source], stated that it was awarded for: For services in a submarine in the Sea of Marmora, where he did great damage to enemy shipping, and after blocking the railway line near Kava Burnu by bombarding it from the sea, shelled a troop train and blew up three ammunition cars attached to it.

Once more the French tried to emulate their british allies and get a submarine into the sea of Marmara. The Mariotte had been transfered from Toulon to Mudros early in July  to make the attempt to penetrate the Dardanelles. Leutenant de vaisseau Auguste Farbre made a reconnaissance flight over the straits and studied the reports of the British submarines that had so far been successful. Then on the evening of the 25th July Farbre ordered his crew to cast  and were to escorted by the French destroyer Poignard to the mouth of the Dardanelles. Mariottee passed Cape Helles surfaced, but then dived to avoid being spotted by a searchlight about an thirty minutes later, as she attempted to pass underneath a minefield near Çanakkale. The boat became entangled in the nets cables and surfaced in an unsuccessful attempt to free herself. The gunners spotted the French vessel almost immediately and opened fire with their shore batteries  at close range. The Mariotte wss unable to seek safety by simply diving, as her conning tower had been struck by shells, leaving Farbre with little option but to scuttle his boat and surrender. The Turkish guns ceased fire when he signaled his intentiom and his crew were able  to destroy documents and equipment before opening the seacocks to scuttle the submarine.[9]
The E11 departed Mudros at 01:30 on another patrol on the 5th August, escorted by a destroyer to her diving point. As she passed through the straits she became caught I'm a new defensive obstruct. Surfacing she found a line of buoys with haswers attached to snag the periscope. Freeing herselfs she dived once more. As she moved forward beneath the Dardenelles, her crew could hear the mines bumping against the hull and the scraping of their morring cales. Over the months the British had been passi g through the straits, numerious mines had rubbed against the hulls, but few had exploded. The Turkish had sown the water's with Ex-German pre-war carbonite moored mines, which were  designed for use agaisnt surface ship's and had sunk several to date.  But the mines horns were all on upper edge and not down the sides. So even if a mine snagged and was pulled down on the submarines hull, the horns would not come into contact with the hull. Three submarines were to be lost in the Dardenlles to the mines, but they werein all likelyhood running on the surface at the time of their loss, or the mine had been drawn down at an angle.
After 90 minutes E11 rounded Nagara Point and could dive to 110 feet to avoid the new obstructions. Since Cochrane passed through this way,  new nets had been added to trap the unwary. E11 ran into the new net, and reversing, she then charged coward bursting through the nets meshs. At Ak Bashi liman Nasmith surfaced his boat to look around, but happily his was the only vessel in the area. At 7:00 that was to change with the sighting and torpeding of three schooner. This was followed  by a game of 'cat-&-mouse' with the turkish gunboats, and game Nasmith won. The night was spent charging E11's batteries. She was also on the first day of her patrol attacked by a patroling plane, which was to drop two bombs and to miss.

The next day (6th) Nasmith and Boyle's submarines meet up, but while the two captains were in conference onboard E14,  the gunboat Berc-i-Satvet was sighted. Both submarines gave chase, but it was to be E11 that torpedoed the intruder at 4.30. The gunboat ran herself ashore, where  E11 despatched her with a second torpedo. The next day (7th) both E11 and E14 headed for the straits, charging their batteries over night. Near Bulair, Nasmith sighted a dust cloud on the coastal road through his periscope, and the submarines surface. E11 then shelled the road convoy, and after five shells the road was seen to be empty, all the troops having taken cover. Nasmith ceased fire and dived E11, after which the troops re-emerge and resume their march. Thirty minutes later a fresh body of troops are sighted marching down the road. Nasmith brings E11 back to the surface and shells this new target. E14 joined in with the attack this time and for an hour the two commanders shell the troops. They finally cease fire, submerge and slip away when  a field gun detachment appears and returns fire.
The next day (8th) at 04:40 the two submarines were 5 miles apart, while Nasmith played a hunch. Smoke was sighted and E11 dived and through his periscope Nasmith watched as the pre-dreadnought  Barbaros Hayreddin  steamed into sight. The day before E11's encounter, the British army landed more troops at Suvla Bay, prompting the Turkish high command to order the Barbaros Hayreddin (Commodore Mustafapasali Muzaffer) to lend support to the Ottoman defenses there. In addition, she was to carry a large quantity of ammunition to resupply the Fifth Army fighting at Gallipoli. Nasmith suspected the Turks would send a capital ship to lend support to army, and he had  sailed to the northern end of the Dardenlles in case of such an event. On the 9th, while she was en route, with a single torpedo boat escorting her,  to the front, she had her encounter with Nasmiths boat off Bolayır in the Sea of Marmara. E11 struck the Barbaros Hayreddin with a single torpedo at 05:00. The ship took on a list as the Turkish gunners sight Nasmith’s periscope and open fire at it. Upturned she remained afloat for a few more minutes before she finally slipped below the waves. The ship sank with the loss of 21 officers and 237 men, the rest the . The rest of the crew (310) were resuced up by her escort and a second torpedo boat patrolling in the area. Accounts of the Hayreddin' death throws vary, some accounts stating her magazine exploded at 05:20  and others that she took fifteen minutes to capsize. Her escort varies in number and calibre from one torpedo boat to two destroyers.  But we can safely say Nasmith was the man behind the atrack that sank the 10,500 tonne pre-dreadnought. Nadmith  took the opportunity to launch a torpedo at the escort, but once again it ran to deep and passed beneath the destroyers hull. Nasmith then creapt E11 away from the scene. As with Holbrook, Nasmith too was awarded the VC and promoted to Commander for his achievements.

As Nasmith sank the  Hayreddin, E14  sighted and torpedoed the transport ship Kircaldy (5000 tonnes)  off Dohan Aslan. The ship limped towards the shore for shore, but Boyle surfaced his boat and opened fire on her. She was joined by E11 on her arrival and both subs left the scene once the Kircaldy was ablaze.

The 20th August was to witness an attempt to destroy  the railway line that ran close to the waters edge along the Gulf of İzmit, on the Asian shore of the sea. Lieutenant D'Oyly Hughes the first officer from the E11 swam ashore that night and blew up a section of the railway line. The citation for his DSO stated that he was awarded:
For his services on the 21st August, 1915, when he voluntarily swam to the shore alone from a submarine and blew up a low brickwork support to the Ismid railway line, in spite of the presence of an armed guard within 150 yards of him. After a running fight of about a mile, he dived into the sea, and was finally pulled on board the submarine utterly exhausted, having had to swim nearly a mile in his clothes.
Boyle now received E14's recalls orders and he headed back down the straits. At Nagara he managed to burst the submarine through the net in the space of 20 seconds. He also was also just missed by a shore mounted torpedo, and E14s propeller was ensnared by a mine cable. But Boyle ordered E14 full ahead and the cable was ripped free. After this series of adventures in the straits E14 arrived in Suvla Bay at 17.00 later in day and tied  up along side the to depot ship. Once the submarine was tied along side, Boyles second officer leutenant Stanley admitted to be running a tempreture of 102 to 104 degrees over the last few days.

E11 continued her patrol in the Marmara, single hand for a brief while During her shelling of the steamer Kircaldy the submarines gun threw gun layer overboard and damaged itself.  The crew, with the use of hammer and chisel removed the upper part of mounting and then remounted the gun on lower part. The repair was of questionable, quality, .but  it seem to have  worked. At San Stefano E11 fought a destroyer and sank five sailing ships. His next move was toMudania where he order the shelling of the railway station, but shore batteries forced a hasty withdraw. The next agressor was ien the form a plane, but E11 dived and stole away That night wireless contact was made   with the sloop, HMS Aster. Orders were recived for E11 to rendezvous with the E2,( Lt-Cdr Stocks).
On the 27th June HMS E2 had arrived in Gibraltar following her passage from Plymouth, after a good run, but with a cracked portmotor shaft. The admiral commanding at  Gibralter ordered her on to Malta dockyard for repairs. She left the next day under escort sailing on one engine, the starboard. She was taken under tow by her escort HMS Honeysuckle on the 28th and together they rode the rough weather that welcomed them on the 29th. At 13:00 the tow parted and E2 had to resort to her one working engine once more. The weather forced the crew to close the conning tower as the bridge became uninhabitable. The submarine crawled into Malta on the 3rd July to tie up along side a cruiser. Whilst she was under repairs, an unnamed French cruiser caught fire on the 25th and was badly damaged before it was brought under control. Finally on the 30th she under took motor and  engine trial's, followed the next day by compass adjustment and test dives.
She left Malta on Monday the 2nd August, escorted by HMS Aquarius, arriving  in Mudros without incident on thursday. During her time at Mudros her 6 pdr gun was upgraded to a 12 pdr, and on the 11th she left for Imbros arriving at 21:00. The following day, like his predecessors, Stokes carried out an are reconnaissance of the straits and what lay ahead for them. Once back onboard he took his command alongside the flagship at Imbros. E2 was there to welcome E14 back and to hear of her experiences with the  Turkish nets. In the evenings the crew watched the Allied ships pounding the Turkish short positions.
On Friday the 13th at 01:00 E2 headed out to seat under escort from a destroyer, passing Cape Hellesdon two hours later. She finally parted company from her escort and submerged to 20 fert, one mile short  of lake Dene. The forts and a destroyer at Chanel opened fire on her at 05:45 but with no results. E2 became ensnared in the Nagara nets at 06:25  when it snagged around the gun and conning tower. The jumping wire was carried away. The crew  could hear small explosions, which unbeknown to them were the Turks dropping small bombs on their postion from their boats.  The bombs would damage the net suffiently , and when Stokes ordered hard a starboard and full ahead, he tore his boat free at 6:35.   The resumed their passage at a depth of 90 feet, with the crew vowing 'never again'! At intervals the boat would be brought to 20 feet allowing bearings to be undertaken via the periscope. Each time the periscope broke the surface the turks would rain shells down on it, luckily with no result. Finally at 09:50 they arrived off Barhai Lerman at 20 feet depth, when a mine ecploded off their port quarter which brought a destroyer down on their postion. But they managed to slip away, coming up to periscope depth off Chamdak at 10:20. The only vessels in sight were small ones, no Turkish warships. 11:09 saw them off Galipolli and they dropped to the bottom of 60 feet at 12:45. E2 broke surface at 14.45 and proceed underway while charging her batteries. They were able to contact the HMS Aster at 16:45 to tell her of their successful passage.
A destroyer gave chase to the submarine (18:45) but once again the escaped undamaged, diving to 60 feet for the night, where the crew got some well deserved rest, E2 was the 13th boat to make the passage on the 13th day of the month, on the 13th month of the war, and on a Friday! Stokes surfaced the boat at 6:46 the next morning (14th) and sailed off Galipolli. At 09:00 she drew her first blood in the shape of a Turkish cruiser off  Karl Burns, using her starboard beam tube, while,submerged, at 1900 yard's. The cruiser sank a mile off shore, E2 surfaced at 09:30 and was greated by the Turkish guns. The records for the period show the Turkish destoyer Samsun (Lt Cdr Uskudarli Nezir Abdullah )was lost to a British submarine on the 14th August, but no cruiser being sunk.  Stokes didn't bother to reply to their fire and said to his meeting point with E11. On route she captured  dour, taking six prisoners and burning the boat. E2 also, while onroute for her date, torpedoed an armed steamer  off entrance to the Gulf of Artaki. The two submarines meet at 14:00,  E2 transferring a cargo of 300 rounds she'd brought for E11's deck gun. The crews bathed before the vessels parted at E2 dived for the night at 21:00.

While E2 was having her share of adventures, the 15th August was to see E11 once again visit Istanbul  and off Haldar Point she sank the Black Sea collier Isfahan as she was preparing to unload. Her loss was a significant blow with coal being the main fuel source and supplies were scarce.

After recieving her resuppy of shells and news, E11 and E2 set off together for San Stefano were they sighted a small steamer The two boats closed on target surfaced  and open fire when they were within range. E2's gun mounting had beknown to the crew been damaged during their route up through the straits and it 'collapsed' during the action but E11 contined to fire on the vessel. After t wo hits the Turkish ship shead her desiqise  and revealed herself  as a 'Q' ship. The two submarines. Unable to even consider damage to their outer casing and the ability to dive, disengaged and slipped away underwater. Later on  E11 shelled a railway viaduct that night but shore batteries responded and after E11 had fired fifteen rounds she moved off.  With the British submariners recent successes against the Turkish railway system, steps had been taken by the turks to defend them better.
E11 decided to revisit Istanbal to give the railways time to become less alert. They went via Artaki bay and stopped in the Lee of kalolimno island, on 20th to prepare for the next assault on the railway. A raft was constructed from barrels and boards. Then at  02.00 D'Oyly Hughes lowered himself into the Marmara and reached the beach making use of the raft for his missions tools. D'Oyly at first had trouble locating.thebline, but after half an hour  he discovered it to be under guard now as labourers worked to repair the shells damage. He had to settle from blowing up the  railway line and not the  viaduct as had been planned. He returned to E11 safely and was to be awarded the  DSO for his actions.
E11's next encounter (22nd) was with a small convoy comprised of dhows under tow from a number of  armed tugs, which were in turn escorted by a destroyer. The escort was stationed well to rear of the convoy, allowing  E11 to come to the  surface. The two led tugs on sighting the submarine slipped their tow to the six dhows and made off. As the destroyer responded to E11s presence, the gun crew were recalled and the boat dived. The destroyer passed over head but didn't circle, instead making off after the two tugs. By this stage one had broken down, but the other was sent back to recover the sailing craft she'd abandoned. E11 resurfaced to discover the tug and a dhow now in tow, and opened fire,on them with her deck gun. The turks returned the fire and E11 slipped,back beneath the waves to safety. The tug had in the meanwhile once more cut the dhow adrift and run. At this point the dhow decided to raise their sails and E11 surfaces and reengages with her deck gum, sinking a dhow. The crew were rescued and among them was the German bank manager from Chanak. He had decided to evacuate the banks deposits for safety, which maybe in hindsight was a mistake. After sinking the broken down tug, E11  dived and left the scene. Later that afternoon she stopped an sailing ship, carryi g fruit, and having thrown the cargo overboard to make room, transfered the prisoners to her, before sending her on her way. In the evening Nasmith received a wireless signal from Mudros informing him about a group of transports in sighted in the Dardenelles. Having spent the remainder of the night charging batteries, Nasmith set a course for the straits, and by the early morning was off of small anchorage  of Ak Bashi Linman above Nagara. She found the anchorage had a number of ships anchored, and launched a torpedo at a gunboat. The torpedo missed but an explosion was heard to the rear of the ships, but with what results want not established. In response to the attack a gunboat and a destroyer lainched their own assualt on E11, which slipped down into the depths and crept away. E11 next explored False Bay and launched a torpedo at transport in the bay.  The torpedo struck home, sinking the transport. Nasmith mow had one torpedo left and that was in the stern tube, whichnhe used sink another transport vessel.

On the 21st August E2 entered Artaki Bay and successfully  torpedged a 1500 tonne armed steamer, and on the next day she shelled the ammo magazine and the railway station at Mudania beofre going on to sink a large steamer off Mudania pier.  A few days later she to entered the straits to seek out the targets offered by Mudros's signal. She too missed the gunboat but went on to sink a large transport near Bergaz Iskalessi. The German official History records;  "The British submarine succeeded for the first time in raising losses to a point that caused anxiety. If this destruction of tonnage had been maintained at anything like that level during the next few months the resistance of the 5th army would have come to an end".
Later in August E2 visited Istanbul as so many other British submarines had, but she was to be unlucky and found nothing worth attacking.
On the 28th E2 and E11 once more operated together again, bombarding    Mudania railway station and Nasmith was to use his last shells he had on board against the viaduct encountered in the 'swim-raid'.

E11 stored her deck gun inside the submarine on the  3rd September and made her way towards the straits. Nasmith burts his boat through the  Nagara net and had a trouble free run home.  During the run south Lt Hughes had stood in the sumberged conning tower with dead lights on to get first hand details of the Nagara nets via the portholes. E11 surfaced off Helles point and was escorted home by the destroyer Bulldog   

In the early jours of the 4th September E7 under the command of Cochrane, sailed once more, escorted by a destroyer to her diving position where she decended to dived to 80 ft. The journey to Nagara was to be without incident and at 07:30 headed for the net. Unknown to Cochrsne the net had been strengthened and in addition now reached to the bottom of the straits.   At a depth of 100ft and at full,power  E7 charged the net, and as her predecessors had, burst through it.  It as she cleared it, so,E wire off the net etangled itself around E7s screws. Cochrane ordered the electric motors but the damage was already done, with the starboard motor burnt out. He ordered full ahead and to port, but the  submarine swung sideways to net. At 08:30 Turkish boat crews started to dropping bombs, using the nets bobbing bouy to mark E7s location. The first bomb caused no damage, and second bomb followed two hours later, with still no damage inflicted. In the meanwhile Cochrane tried to wriggle his boat free from the net, but equally with no success. Over the next three hours of  struggle's her batteries were slowly being drained. The Commander of UB15 Korvetten Kapitan Heino von Heimburg and his cook, learnt of E7s predicament and rowed out to the site in a small boat. Once there, they lit the fuse to a mine they had prepared and lowered it down. Following the explosion, a slick of oil came to the surface, followed soom after by E7 herself.  The crew surrendered on the casing and the last man off the boat was her captain, Cochrane, havi f scuttled his command.  Cochrane was to be held in a civilian prison in Istanbul with Lt-Cdr Stoker as his cellmate. Both were to make one failed escape attempt, but Cochrsne finally escaped back to England in 1918.

Stocks and E2 waited at an agreed meeting place for Cochrane's E7, until it became tragically obvious she wouldn't be joining them. Stocks took his boat back to the sea of Marmara and resumed his solo patrol, sinking g a few sailing few craft in the process. On the 7th she arrived off the coast  near Küçükçekmece (Thrace) and Lt Lyon swam to over to two dhows sinking them with explosives. The next day E2's First Lieutenant H. V. Lyon  swam ashore near Küçükçekmece and to blow up a railway bridge. The bridge was successfully destroyed but unfortunately  Lyon was not to seen again. E2 waited for five hours for their first officer, and remained within the area for two further days unitl Turkish field guns dove them off. She received her recall orders on the 14th, and had a trouble free passage, even torpeding a steamer off  Bergaz Iskalessi. E2's tally for her patrol  stood at 6 steamers  and 36 sailing craft.

E2’s patrol had ended in the middle of September and she was replaced by E12 commanded by Kenneth Bruce.  Her replacement had a 4 inch deck gun fitted in Malta rather than the 12 pounders (3 inch approx)fitted to her sisters submarines. She made use of her guys to shell the powder mills at Mudania, and even defeated number of shore batteries. On route into the seaof Marmara she torpedoed a large steamer, as well as fighting and driving off a badly damaged torpedo boat. Her patrol was to be hampered by bad weather, but she still manage to sink 3000 ton's of merchant shipping.  E12 and H1 (Lt Wilfed B Pirie)  were to meet on the 4th October.  H1 was the first of a new class of boats about half the size of the E class and were being constructed  in the USA. Their armament however was fitted in Canada to evade the neutrality regulations.  H1 in company with  H2, H3 and H4 had  crossed the Atlantic from St.John's, Newfoundland proceeded directly to the Mediterranean escorted by the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Calgarian.
H1 had arrived in the Marmara  on the 2nd October and was to patrol the eastern while E12 the western end of the  Marmara. In the approaches to the town of Rodosto E12 sank a small steamer and 17 dhows. In the meanwhile H1 sank a steamer at Mudania. The two boats meet up once more to cruise to San Stefano, where they shelled the powder mill together. E12  was to go onto to sink a steamer in Lampski  bay.

29.10.15 Pirie run to panderma, fired torp shot into steamer and struvk bow. Recalled 31.10 no problem on Rtn trip.
Lieutenant Wilfrid Bayley Pirie, R.N. For his services in command of a Submarine in the Sea of Marmora, where he inflicted much damage on enemy shipping, and co-operated with Lieutenant-Commander-Bruce in the chase of a Turkish gunboat.

In addition to her joint operations H1 had a significant amount of sole success. On 5th Oct Pirie in H1 destroyed three sailing vessels by gunfire and on 6th Oct he torpedoed and sank a 1,000 ton steamer. On 10th October he sank a sailing ship and on 17th October he shelled and damaged a Turkish Gunboat. A sailing ship was burned on 18th October and, on 20th October near Injeh Burnu he torpedoed and sank a 5,000 ton steamer and another of 1,500 tons. On the 27th Pirie saw a ĺarge supply ship with a gunboat escort. Her torpedo was to moss and both ships fled to Panderma and hid behind the harbour mole. A 7,000 ton ship was torpedoed and damaged on 29th October and another sailing ship was burned the following day before his return passage to Mudros on 31st October. In addition several other vessels were searched and other unsuccessful attacks were
The E12 and H1 were to be joined on the 22 September by the Turquoise, Lieutenant de Vaisseau Ravenal, the first French submarine to finally  reach the Sea of Marmara, and then on  the 23rd by E20 (Lt-Cdr Warren).  E12 was to return back down the straits on the  26th where she tried to ram the nets. A portion of the net was ripped off and it wrapped itself around the bow, sending the boat down into the depths. At 100 feet the forward tanks were blown, to no effect. At 200 feet three crewmen crew were sent forward to work on the jammed hydroplane by hand. Finally at 245 feet the hydroplanes and the submarine surfaced. But a passing Turkish patrol sighted the conning tower and opened fire on it, forcing E12 to dive once more, but with little control until the pirece of net was finally ripped free at Kilid Bahr. She was then attacked by six enemy patrol ships and received the attention of the Turkish shore batteries and two torpedoes were fired  her, but she made it home. H1's patrol was to last twenty-nine days ending on the 31st  October with a tally of 4 steamer 30 sailing vessels.
Both the captains of the E12 and H1 were awarded the DSO. Their citations read that: Lieutenant-Commander Kenneth Mervyn Bruce, R.N. For his services in command of a Submarine in the Sea of Marmora, where he made a prolonged cruise, during the course of which he inflicted much damage on enemy shipping, and engaged and put to flight by gun fire a Turkish gunboat and a destroyer, and subsequently displayed much coolness, and resource in extricating his boat from a difficult position.
The  French submarine Turquoise was forced, due to mechanical problems, to turn back and on 30 October while making her attempt to pass back through the straits,  she ran aground beneath a fort and was captured intact. The crew of twenty-five were taken prisoner and documents that detailed the planned Allied operations were discovered. The details included a scheduled rendezvous with E20 on 6 November. The planned rendezvous was kept, but by the German UB-14 (von heimburg again) which torpedoed and sank E20 killing all but nine of the crew. Turquoise was salvaged and incorporated (but not commissioned) into the Turkish Navy as the Onbasi Müstecip, named after the gunner who had forced the French commander to surrender. von heimburg described his success; ' we got a perfect shot. A tremendous explosion, a cloud of smoke on the water. when the smoke dissappeared no submarine was to be seen, only men swimming around in the water. We picked up nine britishers including the captain, a young lieutenant warren'. 
E11 under Nasmith was to returned to the Sea of Marmara on 6 November, and was by now the only Allied submarine there.  On the 15th he spotted two large steamers in Bergaz, torpeding and sinking one, but missing the second. Instead he sank two 2 dhow. At Artaki bay Nasmith made use of his deck gun to destroy one steamer,  damage another,  and by early December was shelling the railway engine and goods wagons at a stretch that skirted the  Gulf of Ismid. The Turks sent the destroyer Yar hissar to find him, but  E11 sank it. On the 4th Nasmith sank a 5000 ton steamer off panderma despite its escort, and at Gallipoli dueled with adespatch boat, leaving it beached and on fire.

E11(stocks) joined Nasmith on the 10th December  and together they shelled the railway yards at Mudania.  E11 once again entered  Istanbul and sank a large steamer in front of the Turkish  capital.,UB15 tried to ambush Nasmith but he was to fail. Nasmith finally return to Madro's on the 23rd December with a tally of  5 large 6 small steamers 1 destroyer 35 sailing and he was promoted to captain. E11 had been joined on the 10th December by the E2 (stocks) but by this stage the Gallipoli Campaign was drawing to an end. Stocks was recalled on the 2nd January 1916, and was the last British submarine commander in the Sea of Marmara.
The Royal Navy laids a claim to a tally of a battleship, an old coastal defence ship, a destroyer, five gunboats, 11 transports, 44 steamers and 148 smaller vessels were sunk by her submarines in the Dardanelles. The  losses for the allies were  of four British and four French submarines. The German official history claims a loss of  25 steamers of 26,000 tons and 3,000 tons of small craft were destroyed plus 10 steamers of 27,000 tons damaged and put out of action for the duration of the campaign. Paul Halpern proposes that the difference lay partly in some ships being beached and later repaired and refloated.The Allied submarine campaign in the Sea of Marmara was the one significant success of the Gallipoli Campaign, forcing the Turkishs to abandon it as a transport route.
NOTES
[1] Due to the lack of spare parts this group of submarines was not used after September 1915. In 1917 the Italian Navy converted B7 into to surface patrol boat S7 to serve in the Adriatic. The boat was sold on 31 October 1919 in Malta.(Wikipedia)
[2] AE2 was laid down on 10 February 1912 by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and launched on 18 June 1913. She was commissioned into the RAN at Portsmouth, England, on 28 February 1914 under the command of Lieutenant Henry H.G.D. Stoker, RN.[4] Accompanied by her sister boat, AE1, the other of the RAN's first two submarines, AE2 reached Sydney from England on 24 May 1914, manned by Royal Navy (RN) officers with a mixed crew of sailors drawn from the RN and RAN.[4] The 13,000-nautical-mile (24,000 km; 15,000 mi) journey was, at the time, "the longest submarine transit in history", and 60 of the 83 days of the voyage were spent at sea.[3][4]

Outbreak of World War I Edit
On the outbreak of World War I in September 1914, the two submarines were assigned to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as it captured German New Guinea.[5] During the capture of New Guinea, AE1 disappeared without a trace.[5] After the German surrender, AE2 spent three weeks patrolling around Fiji with the battlecruiser Australia, then returned to Sydney on 16 November for maintenance and repairs.[6][4]

As AE2 was the only submarine in the region and the German threat to Australia had disappeared, Stoker suggested that the boat be transferred to Europe.[6] Both the RAN and the British Admiralty agreed, and on 31 December, she left Albany with AIF Convoy 2 (under the tow of SS Berrima).[6] The submarine was the only warship assigned to the sixteen-ship convoy, as after the Battle of Cocos resulted in the destruction of the last active German ship in the Indian or Pacific Oceans, the Admiralty felt no need to protect shipping in the Indian Ocean.[7] AE2 arrived in Port Said, Egypt, on 28 January 1915, and was ordered to join the British 2nd Submarine Flotilla, and proceeded to take part in patrols in support of the Dardanelles Campaign.[6][8]
[3]https://web.archive.org/web/20150419024831/http://www.jefferyknaggs.webspace.virginmedia.com/diary.html
[4] The flotillas commander,Pownall,  volunteered to be beach master at the Gallipoli landings and on the first day his boat was sunk by a shell as it made its way inshore.Pownall was killed.
[5] Since Gul Djemal had not completely sunk, it was determined that she could be raised and repaired, and afterwards she continued to serve the war effort. In 1918, she carried 1,500 German troops to Dover, to the Allied control point there, where the soldiers were disarmed and sent home.
With the war finally over, Gul Djemal went to work for the Ottoman American Line, again carrying immigrants to new lives in America, making her first trip in this role on 10 October 1921. She later did duty in the Black Sea.

[6] Swedish Drill was a series of movements the students performed in response to the teacher’s vocal instructions. The movements were performed slowly and gently (for the most part), with an emphasis on balance and complete muscle control. As students grew more proficient, the instructions progressed to more complicated postures or movements.

[7] The Armed Yacht USS Scorpion served as station ship at Constantinople from 1908 through 1927.
At the end of 1910 Scorpion had been sent to a private yard in Trieste for repairs, and her condition was thought poor enough to require a special inspection by a board of survey assembled for the purpose. Upon America's entry into the First World War, Scorpion was interned at Constantinople from 15 November, 1917 until 9 November, 1918.
[8]  A replica of the Bandirma has just beenough constructed. She went into the history of Republic of Turkey, when Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who was appointed shortly before Inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate of the Ottoman Empire in eastern Anatolia, left Constantinople with SS Bandırma on 16 May 1919 for Samsun. He was sent to Anatolia by sultan's decree to oversee the process of disbanding the Ottoman Army that was ordered by the Entente powers occupying the capital and controlling the Ottoman government[citation needed
Mustafa Kemal Pasha, accompanied with 22 officers, 25 soldiers and 8 administrative staff sailed in heavy weather on the old steamer with a not functioning compass needed to navigate in the wavy Black Sea, and set foot on land in Samsun on 19 May 1919. Upon landing, Mustafa Kemal Pasha started the Turkish national movement contrary to the orders given to him by the Ottoman government in İstanbul that resulted in the declaration of Republic of Turkey after the Turkish War of Independence almost four years later. (Wikipedia).

[9] The wreck lies off Cape Nara near a Turkish naval base at a depth of 5 meters (16 ft).

Turkish Navy Warships 1914–18 By Ryan K. Noppen
The Dardanelles Disaster By Dan Van Der Vat
http://www.turkeyswar.com/navy/navalops.html
https://warandsecurity.com/2015/11/11/allied-submarines-in-the-dardanelles/
http://www.csubmarine.org/html/class/eclass.html