<P> Panoramic view of the Allied fleet in the Dardanelles </P> <P> On 18 March 1915, the main attack was launched by the Allied fleet, comprising 18 battleships with a supporting array of cruisers and destroyers, against the narrowest point of the Dardanelles, where the straits are 1 mile (1.6 km) wide . Despite some damage to the Allied ships engaging the forts caused by Ottoman fire, minesweepers were ordered to proceed along the straits . According to an account by the Ottoman General Staff, by 2: 00 p.m. "all telephone wires were cut, all communications with the forts were interrupted, some of the guns had been knocked out...in consequence the artillery fire of the defence had slackened considerably". The French battleship Bouvet was sunk by a mine, causing it to capsize with her crew of over 600 still aboard . Minesweepers manned by civilians, retreated under the constant fire of Ottoman guns, leaving the minefields largely intact . HMS Irresistible and HMS Inflexible were critically damaged by mines and sunk, although there was confusion during the battle about the cause of the damage--some blamed torpedoes . HMS Ocean, sent to rescue the Irresistible, was also damaged by an explosion and eventually sank . </P> <P> The French battleships Suffren and Gaulois were also damaged; the ships had sailed through a new line of mines placed secretly by the Ottoman minelayer Nusret ten days before . The losses forced de Robeck to sound the "general recall" to protect what remained of his force . During the planning of the campaign, naval losses had been anticipated and so it was mainly obsolete battleships, which were unfit to face the German fleet, that had been sent . Some of the senior naval officers, such as the commander of Queen Elizabeth, Commodore Roger Keyes, felt that they had come close to victory, believing that the Ottoman guns had almost run out of ammunition but the views of de Robeck, the First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher and others prevailed . This ended Allied attempts to force the straits using naval power, due to unacceptable losses and bad weather . Planning to capture the Turkish defences by land began and two Allied submarines tried to traverse the Dardanelles but were lost to mines and the strong currents . </P> <P> After the failure of the naval attacks, troops were assembled to eliminate the Ottoman mobile artillery, which was preventing the Allied minesweepers from clearing the way for the larger vessels . Kitchener appointed General Sir Ian Hamilton to command the 78,000 men of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF). Soldiers from the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) were encamped in Egypt, undergoing training prior to being sent to France . The Australian and New Zealand troops were formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC Corps, Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood), comprising the volunteer 1st Australian Division and the New Zealand and Australian Division . The ANZAC troops were joined by the regular 29th Division and the Royal Naval Division . The French Corps expéditionnaire d'Orient (Orient Expeditionary Corps), consisting of metropolitan and colonial troops, was subsequently placed under Hamilton's command . </P>

Who was the overall british commander of the gallipoli campaign