A Strait Comparison: Lessons Learned from the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign in the Context of a Strait of Hormuz Closure Event

By December 1914, opposing European forces were largely deadlocked along the Western Front of World War I, as the German march towards Paris had been halted and massive armies stood trench-to-trench, each side daring the other to attempt a charge in the face of withering machine gun fire. By this time, Britain and France had lost more than a million men, casualties that seem unfathomable by today’s standards, but were hardly the final toll of the War. Amongst this carnage, and in part due to revulsion of it, came an idea by the British to make a bold, strategic move in the East: namely, “an attempt, first by sea and then by land, to pierce and break down the barriers separating Russia from her allies and in so doing possibly to shorten the war”. These efforts, known sequentially as the Dardanelles and Gallipoli Campaigns, would become military disasters of the highest magnitude and, as such, the topic of much subsequent study.

In this paper we focus on the Dardanelles Campaign (the navy portion), and compare it to a modern-day naval scenario—potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH). Although such comparisons are not new, arguments have been made that greater attention should be paid to the Dardanelles as a learning tool for littoral warfare. In addition, the literature appears to lack a detailed analysis of the similarities and differences of the two scenarios, along with what might be learned in juxtaposing lessons from the Dardanelles Campaign to a Strait of Hormuz closure.  First, we examine the Dardanelles and the Allied Campaign there and identify operational and strategic lessons learned. We then examine the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s intent and capabilities to close it and, by juxtaposing the lessons learned from the Dardanelles through the lens of such an event, distill a number of recommendations for the United States and its Coalition partners relevant to their response. The remainder of this paper presents these steps in order, with general conclusions at the close.