Beneath the Dardanelles

Book excerpt: In the Australian psyche, the Gallipoli campaign is the action on Gallipoli Peninsula. But an important addition to that land campaign was the part played by the Australian submarine HMAS AE2. The AE2 achieved a daring passage through the Dardanelles on 25 April 1915 when Anzac troops were landing on the other side at Anzac Cove. The Royal and French navies' previous attempts at passage had ended in disaster. AE2's mission to 'run amuck' ended after five days in the Sea of Marmara when it was caught by the Turkish Sultanhisar torpedo boat. After being holed, AE2's captain Stoker scuttled the submarine and its crew were saved by Sultanhisar's captain, Ali Riza. Beneath the Dardanelles tells AE2's story from both the Australian and Turkish perspectives, and features extracts from the memoirs of the two captains. Rarely in military books are both sides of a battle presented so evenly. The submarine lay undiscovered on the bottom of the sea until 1998 and awaits its destiny as the largest historical Australian relic of the Gallipoli campaign. The future of AE2 will be newsworthy for years to come and this book makes an important contribution to that story.