The forced resignation of German-born Prince Louis of Battenburg as head of the Royal Navy at the end of 1914 left Britain's sea arm under divided leadership in the early months of a world war.

Lord Fisher was a venerable retired admiral whose service stretched back 60 years to the Crimean War. Fisher shared responsibility with Winston Churchill, an intelligent but brash young political appointee whose only military experience was as a cavalry officer.

With the ground war in Europe a stalemate, Churchill advocated a strike at Germany's Turkish ally through the Straits of the Dardanelles, which linked the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Fisher knew the Dardanelles well from his Crimean experience, and proposed instead joint British and Russian naval operations against Germany's northern ports in the Baltic. Churchill's plan was the one accepted, but it led to the disastrous operation at Gallipoli. Both Fisher and Churchill resigned from the naval leadership, Fisher to a permanent retirement and, Churchill to a brief period of obscurity before resuming a prominent place in British affairs.