In 1915, the most important body of water in the world was less than a mile wide.
World War One had stalled. Russia was being strangled — the Arctic frozen, the Baltic blocked, the only remaining supply route running through one strait. The Dardanelles. And the Ottoman Empire had shut it.
Winston Churchill made a bet. Force the strait, take Constantinople, knock Turkey out of the war. The naval assault failed — three battleships sunk by mines. So they sent men. British, ANZAC, and French troops landed at Gallipoli. They were pinned to narrow beaches under Ottoman guns for eight months. Over 100,000 dead on both sides. The Allies never took the strait. Russia never got its supplies. Two years later, the Russian army collapsed and revolution followed.
Seventy years later, another chokepoint war. Iran and Iraq attacking each other's tankers. Iran mining the Strait of Hormuz. The US reflagged Kuwaiti tankers under the American flag — Operation Earnest Will. When the USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine, the US launched the largest surface naval battle since WWII. In a single day, Iran's navy was effectively finished.