The Dardanelles

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 278, 3 May 1915, Page 8

The Dardanelles

CDJ:4QBATM!-ATORY . MESACKNOW.LE!);;;KD Bi" NEW. ZEALAND Wellington, The Governor has forwarded tie lollowing teJegrajn t.o .the .Sec-etary ol State for the Colonies: —"t desire on hehalf of .my .Government and the people of New Zealand to thank his Majesty'*. Government for their kind congratulations contained in .your telegram of April 2S. This toV/rarn juas.been published in the newspapers, .and .also the one sant by his Majesty tile King on- April 29. In view of the fact that these.telegrams have been made public, i would be. grateful if you could send iuc further particulars, as a great juaaiy anxious inquiries have been made for details. —Liverpool." The Prime Minister has been advised by his Excellency that up to tlio present he has not received any .further'details. Hw Execllenc-.v also sent t'ae following te'egram to the Governor-General of Australia: "I desire on behalf of New Zealand, to convey to you the pride which this Dominion feels in being so closely associated with the force; of the Commonwealth of Australia in the present 4jreat undertaking in the Dardanelles, and rejoice that the two forces have so signally distinguished LliemseVes. —Liv(erpo,o]." T ; ,e Governor has receive;! the following cablegram on behalf of the Board of Admiralty : :-~- I desire to express our heartfelt .congratulations for the brilliant and .memorable achievement of the Australian and New Zealand troops in the Dardanelles. The Admiralty telegraphs that the fleet -is filled with intense, admiration at the feat of arms accomplished 'by the army.— Churchill. His Excellency replied: "On behalf of myself, the Government and the of New Zealand, I desire to thank you and the Board of Admiralty for the very kind message of congratulation which you have sent. It is a source of great gratfication to everyone in this Dominion to feel that their troops have bean so closely connected in these arduous operations with the officers and men of the royal navy, to whom the Empire owes so much."—(Signed) Liverpool.

NEW ZEALAND CASUALTIES.

TWO OFFICERS DANGEROUSLY WOUNDED. Wellington, May 1. The Defence aut'-iorities to-day received a cubic message from Colonel A. H. Russell, commander of the Mounted Kifles Brigade of the New Zealand expeditionary force, reporting the following casualties; —- Captain Alfred Ernest McDonald, lGth (Waiknto) Company, Auckland Infantry 'battalion dangerously wounded in tile shoulder and chest. Major W. IVV. Alderman, an Australian officer on loan to the New Zealand expeditionary force, severely wounded, right arm compound fracture. Col. Kussell advised that both casualties occurred on the hired transport Lutzow on April -2fith, but did not mention the locality. They presumably occurred while the Butzow was landing troops under fire at the Dardanelles. Captain McDonald's next-of-kin is his wife, Mrs. Miocbe McDonald, who resides at Frankton.

These are the only casualties to the New Zealand expeditionary force of which the authorities have been advised up to the present. Information as to further casualties will be immediately announced when received.

TWO NEW ZEALANDERS KILLED. LIEUT. FRATER, OF AUCKLAND. PRIVATE KNIGHT, WAIPORI. Dunedin, May 2. The Hon. J. Allen has received a cablegram from the Defence headquarters at Melbourne stating that Private W. B. Knight, son of F. VV. Knight, Waipori, but who was with the Ist Australian infantry battalion, died between April 27 and 2!) from wounds received in action in the Dardanelles. Mr. Allen has -received a cablegram from Alexandria that Lieut. Frater, of the Auckland division, died on April :!0, from wounds received on a hired transport. (Lieutenant Frater was a son of Mr. Robert Frater, of Auckland, 'lie would be about twenty-three years old, and had many friends in New Plymouth, who will be deeply grieved to hear of his death. He was a prominent tennis player in Auckland.)

EARLIER MESSAGES. THE COMPOSITION OF THE ALLIED ARMY. THE OPPOSING TURKS, 100,000. A Paris correspondent of the Toronto Globe, telegraphing on March 11, gives the following War Office communication:— "The expeditionary forces in Northern Africa are made up of troops other than native Algerians and those from France." "They have been placed under General d'Amande, Commander of the French forces in Morocco, by reason of his experience, ho having followed the British Army operations in the Transvaal. Part of this expeditionary corps is actually on the way to Levant, where it will rejoin the naval force, which is already in action, and the contingent sent from Egypt by the Allies." The correspondent adds:—" The latter force includes, no doubt, a number of Australian and New Zealand troops.'' Another correspondent, telegraphing from London on March sth, says:

"Tlio prcgrer-s of the combined fleet has been c-f such a nature tint the military authorities of France and Croat Britain deem Hie moment ripe for the commencement of land operations.- Therefore :i large force h:is been pet ashore o;i L!-,e peninsula of Galipoli, according f.o advices from jjoints iii the Near Ka=t. and the march against the nearest Turkish troops he,:-! l>ee:i started. ''The Allied Army is commanded bv General d'Amarle, (lie Frei-h officer who brought Morocco under the French flag, and has had a brilliant part in the war on the Western front. The men under hir.i are of many nationalities, French, Algerians, r.ati-, e Egyptians. New ZoaLmders, Australians. Canadians, Irish, and Scots. Many of them are believed to have been brought from Egypt, where they had been concentrated to resist an ir-ision of that country by the Turks, who have been obliged to turn back on the defence of the Ottoman stronghold, leaving the Suez Canal free. "Opposed to d'Amade's army will b" at least 100.00!) Turks who liavc been = ---tio-;«d on the Callipoli Peninsula. The Turkish commander's name is giv-n hi despatches as Isaad Pasha, but it is bc'ieved he is Fnvor Pasha, recently Ottoman commander in Transcaucasia and before that Minister of war and leader of the Young Turks. The Allied troops were brought to the region of the Straits-in a long line of transports which was recently reported as passing the island of Tcnedos, in the Aegean."

THE COMBINED ATTACK. WHERE THE TROOPS WERE LANDED. ON GALLIPOLI PENINSULA. WORKING ALONG WITH THE FLEET. No doubt many of the men, if asked where they would like to have fought, would have named France; but as it is they are fighting against the Turks in an operation which will take its place in history, not only as one of enormous importance in its relationship to the war as a whole, but as the greatest combined naval and miluary operation ever undertaken against 'coast defences (writes a military correspondent of the Wellington Post). During the first half of March, when the attack was almost purely naval, the results were so impressive that even people who had been bred into belief of the inherent safety of land defences against ships' fire were for the time hypnotised by the throught that after all modern conditions might upset their old theory. But, as one writer put it, forts which have been silenced have a marvellous faculty for resuscitating themselves in a few hours. The difference between ships and forts is that, of shots striking a warship, a large percentage are likelv to have a serious elfect upon her efficiency, even if she is not sunk; while in the case of a fo'-t the material damage- U comparatively Blight unless the gams or gun mountings are struck, or the attackers are lucky enough to explode a magazine.

SILENCING THE FORTS. Tho Allies' ships were compelled by the groat power of im-.ny of the fortress guns, which include 5.2," 0.4, 11, and 14 inch guns, to attack s,l very long range, Tho ships made marvellous practiee. Many guns were actually struck and smashed and some great explosions occurred. Fort after fort was silenced, but in most eases th.'s was due not so much to the destruction of the forts or their guns, as to the fact that the firing made them uninhabitable. In that case, of course, a spell enables the defenders to reoccupy them and repair much of the damage that has been done.

The failure of the Turks to inflict more than comparatively slight damage on the warships was probably due to the inefficiency of their gunnery and their guns. The great majority of the heavy artillery in the forts is believed to be of old types, though the 14-inch weapons have been described as very recent, and consequently extremely powerful. But at the great ranges at which the fleet fired when big guns were feared, good practice against moving ships was not possible for any but the finest of gunners.

Probably at no time did the War Office and naval authorities believe that the straits could be forced by ships alone, though they may have counted upon the moral powei of such a demonstration a3 being a very effective adjunct ty the actual military result of the bombardment, and upon the inefficiency of the Turkish gunners. But the loud knocking upon the door did not open it; and the Turks had German gunners to help them, and German officers to stiffen their courage. It was necessary to crush the forts by serious work, and for this the co-operation of an army is essential.

NATURE OF THE WORK AHEAD. The objects of the3e debarkations are clear. The troops put ashore at Holies and the opposite cape have for their work the occupation of the forts at the entrance, which have already been thoroughly subdued by the ships and partly occupied. They must be rendered useless to the enemy for the future. Then they must work along the coast as they are able and carry out the same work at the other forts along the strait, ns they are prepared by the, fleet. The army landed at Suvla and Gaba Tepe, where the Turks report meeting the Australian troops, are intended to do battle with the enemy on the peninsula; while the force landed north.of the town of GalHpoli will endeavor to establish a line, probably of a purely defensive nature, across the narrow isthmus. They will face west to bottle up the Turk's now on the peninsula, and east to prevent the arrival of vevr forces, and as they are thus exposed to attacks on two fronts, they must be a strong body. Reduced to these terms, the operations seem very simple. But it may be possible for an enemy to land considerable, reinforcements on the southern side of the peninsula, on parts of the straits beyond control of the naval guns; and this complicates the task of the landed armies. LIKE PORT ARTHUR AGAIN. In addition, the Allies' troops will not have finished their work on the peninsula Oven when they have utterly destroyed the Turkish held armies and prevented the arrival of fresh forces. The straits would still be unforced. Fal-

lowing upon the completion of the field campaign would come the siege of- the forts, especially of those guarding the Narrows; and. unless the enemy prematurely surrender,-; the passage, this is likely to be the longest stage of tiiwarfare.

The attack on the Dardanelles is the repetition, on a much larger scale, of iiie .Japanese attack on Port Arthur '.n May-December, J01)J. Like those of Port Arthur,, the fortifications are on the peninsula which can ;,e completely cut oil from the mainland; and, as at Port Arthur, the end is certain from the day the Turkish armies on Ilia open are defeated and robbed of hope of support. When the whole, peninsula except tinforts is free to the Allies, no relief can come from outside to the garrisons, and regular siege work and starvation will compel them to surrender.