The first British line opened fire from Eren Köy Bay around 11:00. Shortly after noon, de Robeck ordered the French line to pass through and close on the Narrows forts. The Ottoman fire began to take its toll with
Gaulois,
Suffren,
Agamemnon and
Inflexible all suffering hits. While the naval fire had not destroyed the Ottoman batteries, it had succeeded in temporarily reducing their fire. By 13:25, the Ottoman defences were mostly silent so de Robeck decided to withdraw the French line and bring forward the second British line as well as
Swiftsure and
Majestic.
But the Allied forces had failed to properly reconnoiter the area and sweep it for mines. Aerial reconnaissance by aircraft from the
seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal had discovered a number of mines on the 16 and 17 March but failed to spot the line of mines laid by the Nusret in Eren Köy Bay.
[14] On the day of the attack civilian trawlers sweeping for mines in front of line "A" discovered and destroyed three mines in an area thought to be clear, before the civilian crews withdrew under fire. This information was not passed on to de Robeck
[15] and thus, the catastrophe began to unfold. At 13:54,
Bouvet—having made a turn to starboard into Eren Köy Bay—struck a mine, capsized and sank within a couple of minutes, killing 639 crewmen. The initial British reaction was that a shell had struck her magazine or she had been
torpedoed.
The British pressed on with the attack. Around 16:00,
Inflexible began to withdraw and struck a mine near where
Bouvet went down, killing thirty crewmen. The battlecruiser remained afloat and eventually beached on the island of
Bozcaada (
Tenedos).
Irresistible was the next to be mined. As she began to drift helplessly, the crew were taken off. De Robeck told
Ocean to take
Irresistible under tow but the water was deemed too shallow to make an approach. Finally at 18:05,
Ocean struck a mine which jammed the steering gear leaving her likewise helpless. The abandoned battleships were still floating when the British withdrew. A destroyer commanded by Commodore
Roger Keyes returned later to attempt either to tow away or sink the stricken vessels but despite searching for four hours, there was no sign of them.
