Bay of Morto

Bay of Morto is a small bay in Turkey known for several military activities in the past.

HMS Ocean (1898)
HMS Goliath (1898)
TCG Atılay

The bay is at 40°3′4″N 26°12′28″E / 40.05111°N 26.20778°E / 40.05111; 26.20778 in the north west (European) coast of Dardanelles strait which connects the Sea of Marmara to Aegean Sea. Gallipoli Peninsula is to the north of the bay. Administratively it is a part of Çanakkale Province.[1]The width of the bay is about 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) The name of the bay is probably of Italian origin.[2]

Morto in history

On 18 March 1915 during the naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, the British battleship HMS Ocean (1898) was struck by a naval mine. It drifted to the Bay of Morto, and eventually sank.[3]

During the land battles of the Dardanelles Campaign, the Allies of World War I landed at five different beaches of Hellespont. They were called S, V,W,X and Y by the Allies. The S-beach, which is known as Eski Hisarlık in Turkish, is the east border of the bay and Sedd el Bahr, the tip of the peninsula is to the west. The V beach, the main landing point, which is known as Ertuğrul in Turkish is close to the west border of the bay. British troops landed at both beaches on 25 April 1915. However, after the French troops drew back from the Anatolian side, the British troops in Eskihsarlık was replaced by the French troops.[4] Now, the only French war cemetery in Gallipoli peninsula is to the north of Morto Bay.[5]

British battleship HMS Goliath (1898), which was situated in the Bay of Morto, was tasked to bomb Turkish positions. On the night of 12–13 May, 1915, Ottoman destroyer Muavenet-i Milliye torpedoed her. This event caused the resignation of Admiral Jıhn Fisher from his post as First Sea Lord, which was followed by the resignation of Winston Churchill from the cabinet.[6]

27 years later, on 14 July 1942, Turkish submarine TCG Atılay was struck by a World War I naval mine and sank.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Map page
  2. ↑ Çanakkale cemeteries tour page
  3. ↑ Hürriyet newspaper article (in Turkish)
  4. ↑ Turgut Özakman:Diriliş, ISBN 978-975-22-0247-4, P.261.
  5. ↑ Cemeteries in Dardanelles page (in Turkish)
  6. ↑ Muavenet'i Milliye page (in Turkish)
  7. ↑ Submarine sailors page (in Turkish)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.