HOW WE FAILED AT THE "NARROWS."
As far back as November 3, 1914, a British and French squadron of
battleships and battle cruisers shelled the forts which guard the
entrance to the Dardanelles both on the Gallipoli and the Asiatic side.
The attack was not long sustained; each ship only fired about twenty
rounds. The forts replied, but most of the shots fell short. The sole
object of this brief bombardment was to get the range of the forts. A
spectator noticed that while the firing continued a heavy haze of smoke
hung over the Turkish positions, and columns of dust rose high into the
air, making "spotting" very difficult.
Three months elapsed before the real attack began. On February 9, 1915,
five British warships, the _Inflexible_, _Agamemnon_, _Cornwallis_,
_Vengeance_, and _Triumph_, along with the French cruisers _Bouvet_,
_Suffren_, and _Gaulois_, and a flotilla of destroyers, turned their
guns on the entrance forts once more. Behind the battle line lay the
_Ark Royal_, a mother ship for seaplanes. The aircraft which ascended
from her decks carried observers, whose duty it was to direct the
gunnery. Long-range firing began at eight in the morning, and before
long the forts seemed to be smothered in bursting shells. Hits were
frequently made both on the forts at Cape Helles and at Kum Kale, on the
opposite shore; but what happened to the low earthworks of the batteries
at Sedd-el-Bahr was difficult to ascertain. The forts did not reply, and
Admiral Carden, who was in command of the bombarding fleet, thought that
they must be out of action. Shortly before three in the afternoon he
ordered six of his ships to close in, and bring all their guns to bear
on the forts. As they did so the silent batteries awoke to life, and
shells fell fast and thick around the attacking vessels. The Turkish
fire, however, was badly aimed, and not a single ship was hit. By
sundown the Gallipoli batteries were again silent; but Kum Kale was
still firing when dusk began to fall, and Admiral Carden had to
withdraw his fleet for the night.
Next day there was bad weather, which continued for a week, and the
attack could not be resumed until the 25th. The _Queen Elizabeth_,
_Agamemnon_, _Irresistible_, and _Gaulois_ pounded the forts at such a
long range that the guns on shore could not reach them. At the end of an
hour and a half the _Queen Elizabeth_ had silenced the forts at Cape
Helles, but not before the _Agamemnon_ had been struck by a shell which
killed eight men and wounded five others. Under the protection of the
super-Dreadnought's fire, the _Vengeance_ and _Cornwallis_ now steamed
in to complete the destruction of the forts. Meanwhile the
_Irresistible_ and the _Gaulois_ had severely hammered the Kum Kale
batteries and the _Suffren_ and _Charlemagne_ were told off to put the
finishing touches to the work of their bigger sisters. By 5.15 that
evening all the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles were rubbish
heaps. The Turkish gunners had fought pluckily for seven hours against
overwhelming odds, and their defeat brought them no discredit. So far,
the naval attack had been quite successful.
When the ships ceased fire North Sea trawlers began the business of
mine-sweeping. As you know, it is dangerous and difficult work; but it
was admirably done, and by the morning of the 26th the first four miles
of the straits were clear of mines, and all was ready for an attack on
the inner forts. The _Albion_, _Vengeance_, and _Majestic_ now steamed
up the straits to the limit of the mine-swept waters, and began to
bombard Fort Dardanos, on the Asiatic side. The fort replied, as also
did certain concealed batteries at various points along the shore. Once
more the aim of the Turkish gunners was uncertain, and the ships
suffered no damage. The guns of the ships dispersed several bodies of
troops behind the forts.
Meanwhile landing-parties of Royal Marines were sent ashore to blow up
the forts which had been silenced on the previous day. Everywhere,
except at Kum Kale, this was successfully done. The parties which landed
on the Asiatic side were stubbornly resisted. They fought a hot little
fight with the Turks, and had to fall back to their boats with a few
casualties. Next day the Turks falsely announced that they had
everywhere beaten off our landing-parties with heavy loss.
The entrance to the straits was now in our hands; but its capture was
only the beginning of the task. I have already told you that the main
defences of the Dardanelles consist of the clustering forts and
batteries on both sides of the bottle neck known as the Narrows. Our
ships had now to deal not only with these forts and batteries, but with
drifting mines and hidden torpedo tubes. Their hour of trial was fast
approaching. Strong and bitterly cold northerly winds postponed the
attack until 4th March; but in the meantime the trawlers, under cover of
the destroyers, swept another five miles of the straits up to within a
mile and a half of the beginning of the Narrows.
On 4th March the ships were again in action, and another attempt was
made by the Marines to land at Kum Kale. Once more they found a strong
body of Turks awaiting them, and had to retire to their boats with a
loss of nineteen killed, twenty-five wounded, and three missing. Many of
the men were killed by snipers concealed in the ruins or in trees. A
midshipman of the _Ocean_ tells us that a sergeant of Marines was found
pierced by fourteen bullets. His comrades searched round until they
found a German concealed in a wood exactly opposite to the wounded man.
"He was put up against a tree and shot without a word."
Next day a squadron of battleships and cruisers began the bombardment of
Smyrna, the chief city of Asia Minor, and one of the greatest ports in
the Turkish Empire. Some thirty-two hits were made on the forts, which
made no reply. The attack was renewed on several of the following days,
but with no result. Probably it was never intended to be serious, and
was only made to distract the attention of the enemy.
On the morning of 6th March the forts at the Narrows were assaulted by
ships well up the straits. The attacking vessels were frequently hit by
shells, but no serious damage was done, and there was no loss of life.
The bombardment from the inside of the straits was not the main attack.
That was made by the _Queen Elizabeth_, _Agamemnon_, and _Ocean_ from
the Gulf of Saros. The ships lay off the point of Gaba Tepe, and, under
the direction of aeroplanes, hurled their shells on to the forts at
Chanak, which you will see on the Asiatic side of the Narrows, twelve
miles away. The great 15-inch guns of "Big Lizzie," as the bluejackets
dubbed the monster battleship, fired twenty-nine rounds, and played
havoc with the forts. A shell from the "Lizzie" blew up the powder
magazine of one of the batteries. You must not suppose that the ships in
the Gulf of Saros went unmolested. The Turks had concealed guns on the
heights of the peninsula, and with them they made good practice. The
"Lizzie" was hit three times.
The attack now seemed to be proceeding favourably. Every day newspaper
readers at home expected to hear that the forts at the Narrows had been
silenced, and that the guns of the fleet were within range of
Constantinople. Little real progress, however, was being made. Often
when forts ceased fire we flattered ourselves with the belief that they
had been destroyed. What had really happened was that the heavy fumes
from our shells had driven the gunners out of their casemates. As soon
as the air became clear again they returned to work their guns once
more. Even at Sedd-el-Bahr and Kum Kale our success was not complete. We
had blown up the forts, but we had not occupied the ground on both sides
of the entrance, and the Turks had strongly entrenched themselves near
at hand, and had mounted guns, which were able to continue the
resistance.
On the night of 13th March the small light cruiser _Amethyst_ performed
a very daring feat. She dashed into the Narrows, and attempted to rush
through. Concealed batteries opened fire on her, and she was hit several
times at close range. Before she could run back into safety some fifty
of her men had been knocked over. At home it was reported that she had
actually succeeded in passing the forts, and everybody hoped that the
beginning of the end was in sight. By this time an enormous number of
vessels of all sorts and sizes had been mustered. Never before had such
a fleet been seen in Eastern waters. Amongst the newcomers was the
Russian cruiser _Askold_, which our sailors called "the packet of
Woodbines," because of her five slim funnels. On 18th March Admiral
Robeck, who had succeeded Admiral Carden in command of the fleet, felt
that the time had come for a big effort.
Thursday, 18th March, broke bright and clear, with a light wind and a
calm sea. At a quarter to eleven the _Queen Elizabeth_, _Inflexible_,
_Agamemnon_, and _Lord Nelson_, supported by the _Triumph_ and
_Swiftsure_, steamed up the bright blue waters of the straits, and began
firing at long range on the batteries on both sides of the Narrows.
Forts, batteries, howitzers, and field guns replied, and after the
bombardment had lasted an hour and a half, a French squadron of four
ships, including the _Bouvet_, steamed in to attack the enemy at close
range. Ten ships were now hurling their missiles on the forts, and under
this terrific bombardment they were powerless to reply. Then a British
squadron of six ships came up to push the attack home. As this squadron
steamed towards Chanak, the French ships were withdrawn from the narrow
waters, in order to make room for the newcomers. Suddenly, while this
movement was going on, the forts began to fire again. It was now clear
that they had not been seriously injured by our heavy bombardment.
As the _Bouvet_ retired an officer on a British destroyer saw three
shells strike her. Almost at the same moment she blew up with a terrific
explosion, and was hidden in a dense cloud of smoke. In three minutes
she heeled over and disappeared. A consort rushed to her assistance,
only to find bubbles rising to the surface, and a pall of black smoke
slowly lifting. Out of her crew of 630, only 64 were saved. At first it
was thought that the enemy's shells had destroyed her, but the real
cause of the disaster was a floating mine. The Turks, seeing the narrow
waterway full of ships, had dropped mines in the channel, and the
current had swept them along on their mission of destruction.
This grave misfortune led to no slackening of the bombardment. An hour
and a half later the _Irresistible_, a British battleship, thirteen
years old, also fouled a mine. She began to list heavily, and slowly
dragged her way from the firing line towards the entrance to the
straits. At ten minutes to six she sank, but happily not until our
destroyers had taken off nearly all her ship's company. The rescue of
the _Irresistible's_ crew was a very gallant and skilful bit of work,
for the destroyers were under Turkish fire all the time. A midshipman
named Hugh Dixon did splendid service in picking up officers and men
while shells were falling round his boat. He afterwards received the
Distinguished Service Cross.
[Illustration: The Irresistible and the Ocean in Action.
(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)
This picture, taken from the deck of a British warship, shows the
_Irresistible_ and _Ocean_ shelling the Kum Kale and other forts on the
Asiatic side. Both vessels were sunk on March 18, 1915, by drifting
mines. (See page 175.)]
The tale of disaster was not yet complete. A quarter of an hour after
the _Irresistible_ went down the floating mines claimed another victim.
The _Ocean_, a British battleship, fifteen years old, suddenly sank; but
once more the destroyers were on the alert, and few lives were lost.
Nor had other ships of the fleet escaped scathless. The _Gaulois_ had
been holed in the bows, the fire-control station on the _Inflexible's_
foretop had been shot away, and several of her men had fallen. Later in
the day she received a gaping wound from a mine.
When the sun set on that disastrous day the fleet slipped out of the
Dardanelles, never again to renew its attack in force. The great attempt
had failed; three battleships had gone down, and the French and British
navies were the poorer by the loss of many gallant men. It was now clear
to all that an unsupported naval attack was powerless to force a
right-of-way through the Hellespont. Though the lost battleships had
been destroyed by mines, the wisdom of our forefathers had been fully
justified: well-armed forts are more than a match for the gun fire of
ships.
For the next month one or more vessels entered the straits each day and
opened fire in order to prevent the Turks from repairing their forts. On
28th March the Russian Black Sea Fleet bombarded the outer forts of the
Bosporus. There was, however, no sting in these attacks. The fleet had
shot its bolt. Our war lords were now preparing for a combined movement
by land and sea.
* * * * *
The Victoria Cross was awarded to Lieutenant-Commander Eric Gascoigne
Robinson for several acts of bravery during the operations described
above. On 26th February, when detailed to destroy a fort which had been
silenced by our ships, he advanced alone, under heavy fire, into the
enemy's position, and blew up a 4-inch gun. He then returned to his
party for another charge, with which he destroyed a second gun. He did
the work single-handed, because he knew that the white uniforms of his
comrades would make them a good mark for the enemy. Commander Robinson
distinguished himself not only by destroying guns, but also by taking
part in four attacks on mine-fields--in each case under heavy fire.