25 April 1915
HMA Submarine AE2 was Australia’s second submarine. Launched in June 1913, it had a crew of both Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy officers and sailors under Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker RN.
Following service elsewhere at the start of the war, AE2 met with the second convoy of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in Albany. It then sailed for Suez, via Colombo, on 31 December 1914. The following February, AE2 joined a Royal Navy squadron based on the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea. From there, it supported the unfolding Dardanelles campaign.
Prior to 25 April, AE2’s role had been minor. That was until Vice-Admiral John de Robeck, Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, approved plans by AE2’s commander, Stoker, to force entry through the Dardanelles Strait into the Sea of Marmora. If AE2 could achieve this, it would stop enemy shipping from transiting between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. It would then stop the reinforcement and resupply of Turkish troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
All previous attempts by Allied submarines to pass through the strait had failed. This was due to an effective sea denial operation mounted by the enemy. Several factors contributed to making the Dardanelles seemingly impenetrable:
- minefields
- fixed and mobile gun batteries
- searchlight surveillance
- patrolling Turkish warships
- natural navigational hazards.
AE2’s first effort, on 24 April, was abandoned when the submarine’s forward hydroplanes failed and had to be repaired.
On 25 April 1915, just hours before ANZAC troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Stoker braved the gun batteries and mines and attempted to penetrate the Dardanelles. Though pursued by surface ships and at times under fire from the shore, AE2 passed through the ‘Narrows’ late in evening. Stoker surfaced to communicate this success to his superiors aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The commanders, who had been at that moment discussing a general evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, were convinced to keep Allied forces on the peninsula. They used the news to boost morale and convince troops ashore at ANZAC Cove to dig in.
AE2 entered the Sea of Marmora on 26 April and, over the following few days, patrolled for ships and transports to sink, but was unsuccessful on several occasions. Nevertheless, Stoker proved the value of submarines. AE2’s presence tied up numerous Turkish assets.
On 30 April, AE2 was hit by a Turkish torpedo boat and sunk, and the crew was captured. Four sailors died in captivity; the rest of the crew were released in 1918.