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As warfare ground to a halt in the static, bloody trenches of the Western Front in 1914, the Allied command sought to lever Germany's Turkish allies out of the war. Although the British had but a small standing peacetime army, she possessed the largest fleet in the world, and planned to use the awesome power of her huge naval guns to blast a passage through the Turkish defences of the strait. Constantinople would thereby be threatened and Turkey forced to sue for peace. The plan was bold, ambitious and doomed to fail. As the confident fleet steamed up through the Mediterranean, Padre Price kept a diary of his experiences and anecdotes of the Jolly Tars. However, his notes are filled with danger and bloodshed as the fleet encounter the brave and stubborn shore batteries, taking its baptism of fire. Though gallant and bloodied by the shells of the enemy, the fleet could not force the passage - a fateful failure that would lead to the landings at Gallipoli and further allied failures. Author - Price, William Harold. D. 1917 Preface - Sir Everard Fraser K.C.M.G. (1859-1922) Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, A. Melrose, ltd. 1915.