TOO STRONG.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3978, 10 July 1915, Page 8

TOO STRONG.

- - I)Alt DAXELLES FORTS. ALLIED FLEET’S DIFFICULT TASK.. TURKS L\ NEED OF AMMUNITION. {'Cabling from Chanak, under date June 6—little more than four weeks ago—Granville Fortescuo, formerly military aide to President Roosevelt, states that the Dardanelles are too strong for attack by warships. Fortescue adds that, notwithstanding its terrific bombardment, tire combined fleet did little harm to the forts.] Two thousand shells per hour fell in Chanak when the British Fleet tried to force the Narrows of the Dardanelles. Such is the calculation made by a neutral army officer who was present during the bombardment. Despite this rain of gigantic projectiles, the casualties in the forts were but 26 killed and twice that number wounded. The only guns struck in the forts wfrre those in Fort Hamidieh.

Thirty-three shells, all of more than (iin calibre, struck the traverse, while 26 fell back of the gorge, yet hut one projectile struck in an embrasure, this killing six men and wounding 12, dismantling their gun. LAND. DEFENCES

This is proof enough that the problem of the ships attacking the land fortifications, even with the most powerful guns, still leaves an insmmountable advantage with the forts. Fort Nagara frowns down on the straits where Leandor swam. They are now half-blocked by a stranded hull and \ sunken transport. These- lie right in line where tlie Xerxes bridge spanned the waters from the Thracian to the Asiatic shores. CROWDED WITH GUNS. The straits are crowded with batteries from which brown-barelled gun menace every yard of the waters. We

rowed past Maidos, a collection of roofless and shattered houses, whose empty windows stared down on us like eye sockets of so many skulls. Chanak is only a shell of a city. Beyond the white house's that line the sea front there is nothing toward Kilid Bahr, from which it is separated by only a few hundred yards of water. When you actually see this narrow passage swept by more than 50 Sin guns, mounted 30ft above the water, the folly of attempting to force it by the old methods is patent. That the Allied Fleet suffered as little as it did is a miracle. Hero the channel makes a sharp turn from the north-east to the north-west, necessitating a change of course for ships navigating the Narrows. As every inch of the surface of the wafer is ! plotted on the artillery maps in the forts, it needs but a moment’s calculation to get the exact range of any ship entering the zone. CHANAK IS SUPPLY BASE. ( Ts the mainland operations are tak- i [ itig place across on Gallipoli Peuin- | suhi, Chanak is only a base for the j supply' of coast defence troops station- | ed on the Asiatic side. Besides those j there is but a comparatively small force of infantry holding Kum Kale. Along the banks of the Kodja-Chai j two battalions of Turkish infantry are camped. This section is peppered with enormous ishell-hofes from the fire of the Queen Elizabeth. Tito armour-piercing noses of these 15in of solid steel, cone-shaped, "iOin high, and Sin across the hn.se, decorate the entrances of both the German and Turkish headquarters PRINCE REUSS IN A FEZ. Admiral Melton shares with Admiral • Usedom command of the zone, and his 1 chief aide- is my friend. Prince lleuss. ! His mother .would not recognise him ! wearing a fez. 1 Ho gave me an outline ol : Die situation here from his side, but obviously I cannot write of his confidences.. Yet it would be no breach to say lS that the Germans are supremely, satis- , fied with the outlook as far as the

forts at the Narrows are concerned. The arrival of a German submarine in Saros is what the Germans are congratulating themselves on to-day. SEES FLEET IN DISTANCE. From my quarters in the House of the Whirling Dervish I can make out the entrance to the Dardanelles. A low cloud of smoke hangs over tin* water from Seddel Bahr to Kum Kale. The silhouettes of two battleships stand out against the grey seaFrom these a line of smoke arches toward .the land. This marks the mu* of flight of the shells breaking ever the forts of the coast. The regular booming of the bombardment >$ too great, to distinguish the details. A daily source of excitement :n the land operations is the duel between an English captive balloon and '- l> Turkish aeroplanes. The balloon, which directs the British gunfire, i* viewed with alarm and chagrin by tue Turks. Not onlv do they aim eve:.' available gun at it, but- immediately 6 appears an aviator is launched against the yellow sphere. When this dangei threatens the balloon returns to earth.

An unending lino of troop trails ports moves along the coast road support the Turkish position. 1 ,u ‘ supply of men seems to be withal--end. It is not the lack of that worries General Limon '° n Sanders as ho rides along tj I*' 1 *' trenches from the Dardanelles to 1 u ZEgean sea, for all Turkey D 11 n armed camp—but daily the suppb ° r ammunition diminishes.