The three dominating features in this southern section seemed to me to
be:
(1) Sari Bair Mountain, running up in a succession of almost
perpendicular escarpments to 970 feet. The whole mountain seemed to be
a network of ravines and covered with thick jungle.
(2) Kilid Bahr plateau, which rises, a natural fortification
artificially fortified, to a height of 700 feet to cover the forts of
the Narrows from an attack from the Aegean.
(3) Achi Babi, a hill 600 feet in height, dominating at long field-gun
range what I have described as being the toe of the peninsula.
A peculiarity to be noted as regards this last southern sector is that
from Achi Babi to Cape Helles the ground is hollowed out like a spoon,
presenting only its outer edges to direct fire from the sea. The inside
of the spoon appears to be open and undulating, but actually it is full
of spurs, nullahs, and confused under-features.
Generally speaking the coast is precipitous, and good landing-places
are few. Just south of Tekke Burnu is a small sandy bay (W), and half
a mile north of it is another small break in the cliffs (X). Two
miles farther up the coast the mouth of a stream indents these same
cliffs (Y 2), and yet another mile and a half up a scrub-covered gully
looked as if active infantry might be able to scramble up it on to
heights not altogether dissimilar to those of Abraham by Quebec (Y).
Inside Sedd-el-Bahr is a sandy beach (V), about 300 yards across,
facing a semicircle of steeply-rising ground, as the flat bottom of
a half-saucer faces the rim, a rim flanked on one side by an old
castle, on the other by a modern fort. By Eski Hissarlik, on the
east of Morto Bay (S), was another small beach, which was, however,
dominated by the big guns from Asia. Turning northwards again, there
are two good landing-places on either side of Gaba Tepe. Farther to
the north of that promontory the beach was supposed to be dangerous
and difficult. In most of these landing-places the trenches and lines
of wire entanglements were plainly visible from on board ship. What
seemed to be gun emplacements and infantry redoubts could also be made
out through a telescope, but of the full extent of these defences and
of the forces available to man them there was no possibility of judging
except by practical test.
Altogether the result of this and subsequent reconnaissances was to
convince me that nothing but a thorough and systematic scheme for
flinging the whole of the troops under my command very rapidly ashore
could be expected to meet with success; whereas, on the other hand, a
tentative or piecemeal programme was bound to lead to disaster. The
landing of an army upon the theatre of operations I have described--a
theatre strongly garrisoned throughout, and prepared for any such
attempt--involved difficulties for which no precedent was forthcoming
in military history except possibly in the sinister legends of Xerxes.
The beaches were either so well defended by works and guns or else
so restricted by nature that it did not seem possible, even by two or
three simultaneous landings, to pass the troops ashore quickly enough
to enable them to maintain themselves against the rapid concentration
and counter-attack which the enemy was bound in such case to attempt.
It became necessary, therefore, not only to land simultaneously at as
many points as possible, but to threaten to land at other points as
well. The first of these necessities involved another unavoidable if
awkward contingency, the separation by considerable intervals of the
force.
The weather was also bound to play a vital part in my landing. Had it
been British weather there would have been no alternative but instantly
to give up the adventure. To land two or three thousand men, and then
to have to break off and leave them exposed for a week to the attacks
of 34,000 regular troops, with a hundred guns at their back, was not an
eventuality to be lightly envisaged. Whatever happened the weather must
always remain an incalculable factor, but at least by delay till the
end of April we had a fair chance of several days of consecutive calm.