Would the Entente capturing the Dardanelles in WWI have brought them any closer to knocking the Ottomans out of the war?
In WWI, the Entente (mostly the British) thought it possible to capture Constantinople via a naval invasion. They were stopped by a combination of land forts and sea mines in the Dardanelles and so launched the Gallipoli campaign. Ultimately this was a costly campaign that accomplished nothing, but lets say it was successful and after several months of fighting, the Entente is able to neutralize the norther half of the Dardanelles forts. Even if they had done this, why did they think capturing Constantinople was a possibility? To me it seems like there are several other opportunities to stop the navy from getting to the ottoman capital, so why were the British (and it's colonies) so sure that it would be a success that they sunk resources into it for almost a year?