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Page 15
By the end of January the blockading fleet, through constant
reinforcement, had become very strong, and had seized the Island of
Tenedos and taken possession of Lemnos, which nominally belonged to
Greece, as bases for naval operations. On the 19th of February began the
great attack upon the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles, which
attracted the attention of the world for nearly a year.
The expedition against the Dardanelles had been considered with the
greatest care, and approved by the naval authorities. That their
judgment was correct, however, is another question. The history of naval
warfare seems to make very plain that a ship, however powerful, is at a
tremendous disadvantage when attacking forts on land. The badly served
cannon of Alexandria fell, indeed, before a British fleet, but Gallipoli
had been fortified by German engineers, and its guns were the Krupp
cannon. The British fleet found itself opposed by unsurmountable
obstacles. Looking backward it seems possible, that if at the very start
Lord Kitchener had permitted a detachment of troops to accompany the
fleet, success might have been attained, but without the army the navy
was powerless.
The Peninsula of Gallipoli is a tongue of land about fifty miles long,
varying in width from twelve to two or three miles. It is a mass of
rocky hills so steep that in many places it is a matter of difficulty to
reach their tops. On it are a few villages, but there are no decent
roads and little cultivated land. On the southern shore of the
Dardanelles conditions are nearly the same. Here, the entrance is a flat
and marshy plain, but east of this plain are hills three thousand feet
high. The high ground overhangs the sea passage on both sides, and with
the exception of narrow bits of beach at their base, presents almost no
opportunity for landing.
A strong current continually sifts down the straits from the Sea of
Marmora.
Forts were placed at the entrance on both the north and south side, but
they were not heavily armed and were merely outposts. Fourteen miles
from the mouth the straits become quite narrow, making a sharp turn
directly north and then resuming their original direction. The channel
thus makes a sharp double bend. At the entrance to the strait, known as
the Narrows, were powerful fortresses, and the slopes were studded with
batteries. Along both sides of the channel the low ground was lined with
batteries. It was possible to attack the forts at fairly long range,
but there was no room to bring any large number of ships into action
at the same time.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA
Showing the various landing-places, with inset of the Sari-Bair Region.]
At the time of the Gallipoli adventure there were probably nearly half a
million of men available for a defense of the straits, men well armed
and well trained under German leadership. The first step was
comparatively easy. The operations against the other forts began at 8
A.M. on Friday, the 19th of February. The ships engaged were the
Inflexible, the Agamemnon, the Cornwallis, the Vengeance and the Triumph
from the British fleet, and the Bouvet, Suffren, and the Gaulois from
the French, all under the command of Vice-Admiral Sackville Carden. The
French squadron was under Rear-Admiral Gueprette. A flotilla of
destroyers accompanied the fleet, and airplanes were sent up to guide
the fire of the battleships.
At first the fleet was arranged in a semicircle some miles out to sea
from the entrance to the strait. It afforded an inspiring spectacle as
the ships came along and took up position, and the picture became most
awe-inspiring when the guns began to boom. The bombardment at first was
slow. Shells from the various ships screaming through the air at the
rate of about one every two minutes.
The Turkish batteries, however, were not to be drawn, and, seeing this,
the British Admiral sent one British ship and one French ship close in
shore toward the Sedd-el-Bahr forts. As they went in they sped right
under the guns of the shore batteries, which could no longer resist the
temptation to see what they could do. Puffs of white smoke dotted the
landscape on the far shore, and dull booms echoed over the placid water.
Around the ships fountains of water sprang up into the air. The enemy
had been drawn, but his marksmanship was obviously very bad. Not a
single shot directed against the ships went within a hundred yards of
either.
At sundown on account of the failing light Admiral Carden withdrew the
fleet. On account of the bad weather the attack was not renewed until
February 25th. It appeared that the outer forts had not been seriously
damaged on the 19th, and that what injury had been done had been
repaired. In an hour and a half the Cape Helles fort was silenced. The
Agamemnon was hit by a shell fired at a range of six miles, which killed
three men and wounded five. Early in the afternoon Sedd-el-Bahr was
attacked at close range, but not silenced till after 5 P.M. At this time
British trawlers began sweeping the entrance for mines, and during the
next day the mine field was cleared for a distance of four miles up the
straits.
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