Gallipoli
Istanbul, Bospherous, Sea of Marmara, Dardenelles - all these names conjure up such romantic visions of Arabian knights and magic carpets! Sadly this area has a pretty grim recent history. The gateway between Europe and Asia had been tolerably peaceful for the last 500 years under the reign of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire. Today we regard Turkey as a rather 'second world' country but for 500 years they were a force to be reckoned with encircling more than half of the Mediterranean at their peak. By the end of the 19th century the empire was very much on the wane after fighting 3 successive wars in the Balkans (the countries immediately to the north of Turkey in the Balkan mountains, principally Greece, Bulgari and Yugoslavia as was). Just before WW1 the Turks bought and paid up front for two British battleships. When war broke out the Brits requisitioned the ship and somewhat unreasonably refused to refund the turks. As the Germans, having managed to sail two of ...