![]() ![]() He was handed a note from Lieutenant-General William Birdwood, the Anzac Corps commander. He recalled that 'a cold hand clutched my heart as I scanned their faces'. Hamilton followed Braithwaite to the battleship's dining saloon where he found a group of Royal Navy officers and others. At midnight, Hamilton was shaken awake by his Chief-of-Staff, Major-General Walter Braithwaite, who told him that an important message had arrived from the force ashore at Anzac. On board was General Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF), who had retired to bed. On the night of 25 April 1915, the UK's greatest dreadnought battleship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, cruised up the western coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula, near where the Australians had landed earlier that day. They were all taken as prisoners of war, but four died in captivity.Ĭharles Bryant, AE2 in the Sea of Marmora, April 1915 (1925, oil on canvas, 122.6 x 183 cm, AWM ART09016) A message of success from the AE2 For the next 4 days, AE2 attacked Ottoman shipping bound for the Gallipoli Peninsula.Īs AE2 surfaced on 30 April, the Ottoman torpedo boat Sultanhisar opened fire and fatally damaged the submarine. ![]() Then it navigated a perilous path through the minefields and treacherous currents, up through the Narrows, pursued by enemy vessels on the surface.ĭespite running aground twice, AE2 became the first submarine to enter the Sea of Marmara. On board was the Royal Navy's Captain Henry Stoker and his mostly Australian crew.ĪE2 damaged the Ottoman gunboat Peyk-i-Şevket. The Dardanelles are 59km in length and only 0.8km wide at the Narrows of Çanakkale. On 25 April 1915, the day of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, AE2 was ordered to penetrate the Dardanelles. ![]() It joined the British 2nd Submarine Squadron to prepare for naval operations as part of the Dardanelles Strategy. Then it was part of the 2nd convoy to escort Australian troops from Australia to Egypt, departing on 31 December 1914.ĪE2 left the 2nd convoy at Port Said on 28 January 1915. Previously, the HMA Submarine AE2 had participated in operations at New Guinea. AWM H10720 First submarine to breach the NarrowsĪn Australian submarine was the first to breach the narrow Straits of the Dardanelles, in present-day Türkiye. ![]() A combination of technical difficulties and action by Turkish forces sank the AE2 in April 1915. ![]()
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