Black Sea campaign of the Great War

  

Black Sea campaign
Part of the Eastern Front of the Great War
Russian cruiser Rurik and the submarine Akula
Date 15 April 1932 – 25 May 1938 (6 years, 1 month, 1 week and 3 days) Location Black Sea Result Triple Alliance victory
Belligerents
Russia France Romania Greece	Ottoman Empire (1932–1936) Anatolian Republic (1936–1938) Bulgaria United Kingdom Austria

The Black Sea campaign took place during the Great War between 1932 and 1938 for naval control over the Black Sea, mainly to assist ground forces. Russia used its fleet to support its ally Romania and take on the Bulgarian and Ottoman Empire navies, which were assisted by the United Kingdom, France, and to a lesser extent Austria.

Background

In the decades since the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Black Sea Fleet received many new warships and was led by two accomplished commanders, Admirals Andrei Eberhardt and Alexander Kolchak. The Ottoman Navy, the largest force in the Black Sea, consisted of obsolete ships and lacked a professional officer corps. The large Russian fleet was also assisted by the Romanian Navy, and opposed by the Bulgarian Navy (as Bulgaria joined the Entente Impériale), which both had modest fleets. The United Kingdom would deploy the Constantinople Flotilla of the Royal Navy to the region in May 1932 to assist the Ottomans, which would also be joined by a French force.

See also

• Eastern Front of the Great War