DARDANELLES BLUNDER.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1923, Page 2

DARDANELLES BLUNDER.

A oimcAi. admihai.. tCSTRALIAN' AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION LONDON, Os-tons" 29. Churchill's book ''The World Crisis ol P..‘RV is published. It is widely reviewed. Admiral Mark Kerr, in a live column leviow iu the ‘".Morning Post,” describes it as “Air Chili-chill’s apologia for his. pan. in the Daninos.-!!es' latl-

Admiral Kerr says: ".Mr l bun-hill s gieat talents, personality ami imagination have enabled him to perform many various services for bis country, particularly in connection with ailli-siih-niai-ino warfare, but lie distributes blniiie with a lavish hand to his colleagues and .subordinates. 11l bis apologia, the leader feels lie is a man with a clever pen, who would persuade men whose experience has been gained with tile sivord to certain action against their wills. No man of any account seems to have been wluile-iieartodly witli Air Churchill in his eflorts t." conquer the Dardanelles without an adequate army on the spot. As early a- (September I. 121-1. Mr C burchill approached Greece. asking the hum Ramble way of striking at the heart o! tbs- Turkish Empire, and the number of Biitisli ships: required to supplement the G-.s-ssk .Navy. The Greek teply was tliat t’ne Bi ii.i'-l: ileet . ba-ek'-sl by "9 navies in the world, cuiinob force Hie Dardanelles, which must be a military

operation, owing to its seventeen rows of mines, torpedo tubes, and batteries. It; was no use forcing a passage, as the sbi'-s -iieiilieed would bloek am hole in the minefield that tle-y made. Admiral Kerr says: "Air Churchill and Lord Fisher were strategically eor. i■(-(..t in desiring to open a passags' for ]> ussian wheal and for munitions going, to Russia. The error, which caused the failure, was trying to bluff the "i'urk. mid thus making him build up defences on Gallipoli, which otherwise would have been left severely alone. Before the first bombardment, only lies', thousand Turks vem on Gallipoli with no guns on the northern or western side of the Eulnir lines, which were ompLv of men and guns, but after the naval disasters of .March 13. to the battleships Indexible. Ocean, and Irresistible, the Turks believed that Allah was with them. As the G locks knew, to give the Turks this warning was madness. A high official m the Ministry of .Marine in Athens. AUt ‘” be heard the news said: “That will be Hie end of the Dardanelles ox] endition. Now the Turks will make it. impregnable before troops can unive.” Kitshonor was of the opinion that 100 thousand men would lie .sufficient foi the capture of the Dardanelles. Thus, in agreement with a considered plan ol the Greek Genera! Staff, they proposed that twenty thousand men seize Alexandria Railway, thirty tlimisimd ho put in the Gulf of Adramyli to contain Smyrna- Army Corps, thirty thousand be sent to seize the Bulair lines, and sixty to eighty thousand to land at Gaba Tope, and take the Gallipoli tint.in the rear, and then to turn the guns on the Asiatic shore.' ” Admiral Kerr says this operation would not only have taken tho Ds’-’.da-nellos. hut have hold thorn. TEKKF. TET’E ATTACK. ;R«ceived this day at 0. Io a.in.) LONDON. October 39. What Sir lan Hamilton calls a providential letter, reached him Irom John Still, an ex-siflis-or of Kandy. Ceylon, who declares that he himself probably is the only person in the world, aide to explain the failure of flu- attack on Ts'kke Tcpe. during the all important offensive at. Savin Bay. Sir Tan Hamilton has sent Stills letter to the “Times." Still explains tliat lie happened to be reading Sir lan Hamilton's Gallipoli Diary and realised for the first time tliat lie could solve several mysteries. Hamilton ordered the brigade (d attack the Key position, 'lekke lepe nil the Hi It. of August. Still and a few other officers had pveonnoitred and reached the top which they found eni| tv. Tliev informed Brigade Ileadqnartei's. Still. aKo as Adjutant. ie-s-eiveJ Hamilton’s order for the atta'-k with the addition of the words that "the (oniniaiidei'-iii-Chici considers the operation essential to the sucs.-s-s of the whole cainpaign." Fiifoitiimitely only Ins haltalion received the. order and l hen sulv on the ‘.'tit. ot .August, beeause the Itrigre!" Major had got 10.-t. Tl,s- battalion reached the top of 'lekke Tepe where it nui cut (ff ."ml only a. few men survived. ’I hose, including St-ill were made prisoners and he saw Hie Turkish troops pouring ill to occupy Ts-kke Topic. Sir fan Hamilton remarks-. ‘How interested the Gallipoli Commission would have been it it bad seen. Still s letter.”