Landing ships and a different Gallipoli campaign

How much difference could an ocean-going landing ship have made in the First World War?

Its greatest effect would come from the prewar amphibious doctrine and planning required to create it; the hull alone would offer much less.

A landing ship cannot be separated from the institutions needed to use it. Having an ocean-going design ready by 1914 would imply years of prewar amphibious thought, doctrine, and operational planning. A better-prepared force might avoid the failures that made the historical Gallipoli campaign so costly. The same capability would make a Baltic landing plan credible enough to encourage Germany to retain troops for coastal defence. The eventual effect would still depend on how many ships existed, what they could carry, and how commanders employed them.