Chapter 33 – Roger

Lieutenant Charles Brodie, assistant to Commodore Roger Keyes, writes of the submariner’s conference on 14 April 1915 in his book Forlorn Hope 1915 – The Submarine Passage of the Dardanelles . Brodie includes the following details:

As Keyes’ assistant, he ran through the known facts and Stoker’s plan in Stoker’s absence. Those present included Somerville, Pownall, Boyle and Charles’s twin brother Theodore Brodie. All present answered “no” to Keyes’ question of “Do you think an E boat can make it?”, except Lieutenant Theodore Brodie, commander of E15 . Charles Brodie states that at this response, “Keyes jumped to his feet and said, ‘Well, it’s got to be tried, and you shall do it.’” (pp. 26-32).

Evidence of a favourable undercurrent at depth that might assist the mission consisted of a rumour of an assassinated member of the sultan’s household that returned days after being dropped in the Bosphorus Strait (p.25, 31) and a memorandum by the German company Krupps who had provided calculations in a submarine sale proposal to the Greeks in December 1913. (pp. 23-24).

Dacre Stoker was the first to propose a submarine attempt to make the Dardanelles, and he provided a written plan addressed to the “C-in-C” [Commander-in-Chief] on 7 March 1915. The proposal concluded: “given skilful navigation the passage is feasible”. Soon after Stoker’s proposal, AE2 crashed onto rocks in Mudros harbour at night, and the plan was shelved as AE2 went to Malta for repairs (pp. 12-15, 88).

Roger Keyes, Chief of Staff to the naval Mediterranean Commander in Chief (Admiral de Robeck), “had just left the post of Commodore of Submarines, knew a lot more about his submarine captains than about their batteries, and believed them capable of impossibilities.” (pp.2-3)

Brodie believes it was Keyes who sent for three E-class submarines from England after receiving Stoker’s proposal (p.25).

On 14 April, Submarines E14 and E15 were in Mudros, while AE2 and E11 remained at Malta for repairs (p. 18).

Kipling’s poem “If” was above Keyes’ washbasin in his cabin, and he told Charles Brodie that he read it every morning (p. 9).

In his autobiography, Straws in the Wind , captain of Australian submarine AE2 , Lieutenant-Commander Dacre Stoker describes the difficulties of attempting to make the Dardanelles in a submarine (pp. 89-91). Stoker describes how he wrote up a plan to overcome the difficulties and submitted it to “a friend on the Admiral’s staff” (pp. 92-93) [This friend was likely Lieutenant Charles Brodie, a former fellow submarine commander]. Stoker describes how AE2 crashed in Mudros Harbour when the French had removed a warning light, then went to Malta for repairs and returned to Mudros on 21 April 1915 (pp. 93-99).

In the first volume of his memoirs, The Narrow Seas to the Dardanelles 1910-1915 , Roger Keyes gives a brief account of his meeting with the Brodie twins and “other officers with local experience in submarines”. He states that the Admiral then consented to E15 attempting a passage into the Marmara, (pp. 287-288). Keyes refers to Somerville and Pownall as Lieutenant-Commanders (pp. 189, 281, 300).

In Forlorn Hope 1915 – The Submarine Passage of the Dardanelles , Charles Brodie describes how he joined his twin brother, Theodore, captain of Submarine E15 for the departure from Mudros, before disembarking at Tenedos (p. 36-37). He describes the message received: “From Admiral—no—personal to Lieutenant-Commander Brodie. I wish you God speed in your gallant enterprise.” This message was from Winston Churchill, but this was not known on-board the E15 . Brodie describes his twin’s response “Damn all hot air, we ought to be away”, and the loud cheer from Australians on a transport near the entrance to Mudros.