Black Sea Naval Actions

[RN7]

The narrow strait called the Bosporus and Dardanelles that links Europe with Asia, and the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea, is under the complete control of Turkey and NATO.

It is very hard to force the Bosporus/Dardanelles. The Byzantines held it for centuries until the Turks captured Constantinople (modern Istanbul) which straddles both sides of the Bosporus in the late 15th Century that led to the formation of the modern nation of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. The Russian have wanted to control the Dardanelles ever since but have never been able to capture it. The British Empire tried to capture it in the First World War. It led to the disaster known as the Gallipoli Campaign. Australia and New Zealand still shake their heads in dismay at the number of casualties it cost.

The Black Sea is also quite small in area compared with the Mediterranean. It can easily be dominated by airpower. The southern shore is under NATO control, the northern shore is under Soviet/Russian control. Any large naval force than enters the Black Sea would be quickly taken apart by land based air forces, but there could be some smaller naval actions with patrol boats and fast attack craft along the coasts of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and maybe the Ukraine, Russia and Georgia.