The Straits became especially important in the course of World War I (1914-1918) as a potential link between the Entente powers' Eastern and Western Fronts. Anglo-French naval forces failed to take control of the Dardanelles (February - March 1915), but in the secret Straits Agreement diplomacy of March-April 1915 the members of the Triple Entente agreed - in the event of victory in World War I - to cede Ottoman territory controlling and overlooking the Straits to the Russian Empire. Anglo-French troops then launched the Gallipoli campaign, an ultimately unsuccessful operation to take control of the Straits following amphibious landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula (April 1915 to January 1916).