Gallipoli and the cost of mistimed integration

Fisher's Baltic ideas and the Dardanelles objective both depended on using naval power to open strategic access, in the latter case a supply route to Russia. Purpose-built inshore ships and troops available from the beginning might have offered a more coherent way to force the straits. Churchill pressed the operation before the right tools and joint plan were ready, first relying on ships alone and then landing troops after Ottoman defences had been alerted. The monitors still supported the army and helped cover its evacuation, but firepower arriving late could not reverse a strategic situation that had already hardened.